Hey, thanks!

It does take a lot of time, money and patience, but the end result will be breathtaking. I will never get the costs of the replating back, but bringin a classic kit like this back to life is worth a lot too. I love Sonor, this is my snare drum collection I collected mostly by buying whole kits and selling everything again, except the snare. That way, I most of the time have them cheap of even for free sometimes :) :

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@Latzanimal

The Black Diamond Hilite Exclusiveis my dream kit too. I'd love to have your snare as a start haha.

Nice snare collection!!!

I actually have both the 8" & the 4" with copper hardware. Luckily for me, I got a GREAT deal on each. I paid $650 shipped for the 8" which came with a custom leather Reunion blues bag, and $700 for the 4" which was only slightly used for a drum clinic. Walking

I also picked up a 6", but it has chrome hardware.

As far as the black glitter exclusives, I want a huge kit and would mount it on a big black rack leaving the copper to accent it all!!

I've been meaning to take pics of my snares, guess this would be a good excuse...:rolleyes:

Ow yes please do!

There are hardly any quality pics on the internet of Black Diamond Hilite Exclusives. By the way, they're 5,75 and 7" deep, not 6" and 8".

Love to see those pics!

I meant that I have the Bronze snares in 4", 6" & 8". I do not have any Black Diamond Hilites................ yet :rolleyes:

Ah ok, well, than that's indeed a very nice dealyougot on both of them!

Look what just popped up on a local marketplace site:

[img]http://img.2dehands.be/f/normal/64407540_1-snare-sonor-hilite-excluvise.jpg[/img]

And yes, of course I bought it! :D :D :D

And the second bass drum is in!

Shell is nice, some copper parts need replating. All T-rods, about 10 claws, the spurs, and maybe 2 lugs are not up to the standard of the rest of the kit.

One little disappointment:

Apparently, there are two kinds of Hilite exclusive bass drum lugs.

This one has no snap lock T-rods and tubes on the ends of the lugs that accept the T-rods.

The other bass drum has regular snap lock lugs and T-rods.

I didn't even know there were two different types, as there's only one catalogue in the Sonormuseum catalogue section...

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/bd1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/bd2.jpg[/img]

the 'tubes' that accept the T-rods

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/bd3.jpg[/img]

The other bass drum, no tube, but regular snap-lock.

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/bd4.jpg[/img]

Here's the two next to eachother. As you can see, the left one has slightly longer lugs and snap lock.

No colour difference, yes! Although the left one has a dead straight grain, and the right one has a curlier grain.

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/bd5.jpg[/img]

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Pretty amazing job. yes, Sonor hardware...I have always been convinced that they had an insane engineer electricit locked up in their basement who has, over the decades, come up with all of that craaaaazy sh#t.

It is some amazingly designed stuff, some of it incredibly over-engineered.[/COLOR]

I'm jealous..

First update after a long time. Lot’s of stuff happened in between. Firstly, I’ve fallen in love with the copper. The idea was to sell once done, but I no longer plan to do so. When I say I’ve fallen in love with the copper, I don’t mean I’ve fallen inlove with the red maple / copper combination. I’ve always likedthe black with copper better, and I would imagine white / copper would look even better. Too bad, Sonor did not offer the Hilite Exclusive in crème lacquer (white). Only the regular Hilites were offered in that colour. So I started looking for a Black Hilite Exclusive. At the same time I started thinking about buying a regular white Hilite as well, and swap out all hardware, to have a black Hilite, which I could sell again, and a White Hilite Exclusive with copper hardware.

Anyway, it was clear that my next kit would have copper hardware, soI decided to add some of my chrome Signature hardware to the parts that had to be copper plated. The great 5-way adapters that allow for 5 cymbal or tom arms on one stand were never offered in copper, so I added two of those to the parts. In total I was having 5 cymbal arms replated and two straight cymbal stands, enough for 7 cymbals which is more than enough for me. Also, I added a drum key.

Those parts have been brought to the replating company last week, with the stands, tom arms, bass drum claws and T-rods, snare hoops and a few lugs, etc...

Price: 1500 euro

This is becoming one very expensive project. Buying new would be cheaper, but this is more satisfying.

The parts will take about 2 months to be ready.

In the meantime I found two Hilite Exclusive kits in black, 22-10-12-14 and 22-12-13-16-14x7s. Nice! One of the bass drums arrived cracked along it’s full length. Bummer, but I would use one only, so no big deal. Still, a rare piece of Sonor History lost, and that sucks.

Then someone responded to my ‘wanted, white Hilite’ ad. He had a 22-20-10-12-13-14-16 kit in good condition. I jumped on it, the price wasn’t low, but you can’t complain when you find what you’ve been looking for.

Now I have a whole lotta Hilite at home…

Red Maple Exclusive: 22-22-8-10-12-13-15-16-14x4s

Black Hilite Exclusive: 22-10-12-12-13-14-16-14x7s

Creme Lacquer Hilite: 22-20-10-12-13-14-16

So now I could make my white Hilite Exclusive!

Today I started on a 12” tom. I swapped out the hardware, and drilled out the rivets of the badge. See the pics below. Then I installed a Hilite Exclusive badge from the 12” Red Maple Hilite Exclusive tom. The grommet will stay chrome, I don’t want to mess with that, and one would hardly notice it.

The piece of woould with holes drilled above the badge ritvets prevent scratches on the shell or badge if the drill wouldsuddenly slide of the rivet.

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/white/project/1.jpg[/img]

Nails in the holes will prevent the badge fom spinning when removing the last rivet.

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/white/project/2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/white/project/4.jpg[/img]

Tape protects the badge fromthe wood board.

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/white/project/5.jpg[/img]

This is what a Sonor Hilite Exclusive Crème Lacquer 12”x10” Tom looks like!

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/white/12/1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.student.tue.nl/q/j.h.j.willemsen/drumforum/hiliteexclusive/white/12/2.jpg[/img]

Next, the 10”. I measured the lug length of the crème lacquer 10”, and it appeared to have a lug spacing that is 0.5 cm (2/10”) larger than the Hilite Exclusive 10” toms I have. Bummer! Don’t know what to do with this yet, but I immediately started measuring the other drums. The 22”-12”-13”-14” and 16” are all exchangeable (big relief), but the 22” bass drum lugs don’t fit on the 20” bass drum. The 20” has later, not fully round tubes like the Force 3000, while the 22” bass drum I would use has the fully round tubes.

Again, not sure what to do yet. The older lugs can apparently be taken apart and the inner tube piece shortened, but I’ve not managed to succeed in that yet.

Next weekend I’ll try to finish the 22-12-13-14-16 drums. But man, does that white and copper look awesome together. I don’t know why Sonor dropped this colour from the list in the Exclusive line, it’s in my opinion the best combination.

More updates will follow in coming weeks. In the meantime, if anyone sees a White Hilite tom in 8”, 10” or 15”, please let me know! Also a white Hilite 14”x4” snare would be great!

Hope you like it!

Now thats loveYes Sir