Love the case! Looks like a great project. I have a couple vintage ones do to the same with. Just never have gotten started on one. Looking forward to seeing yours come together.

I will be following this, post progress please

Would be classy to complement it with a custom snare: wrapped in the same kind of leather as the suitcase and with wood hoops from the same wood that's on the suitcase. Not those modern wood hoops, but the old-timy ones. Nickelplated hardware.

Nice project! Please keep posting.

Are you making something like this?

Cool project!

I used an old snare case as a cymbql case for a while... I used a long bolt through the wall of the case with some tubing on it. It needs to be fully threaded so you can put a fender washer and lock nuts to hold it to the wall. Slide the tubing on, then stack your cymbals, I put a thin rag between each one. Felt, washer and wing nut to secure them.

For the snare I'd add padding in the suitcase and ditch the snare case. Tuck it in the corner (maybe go with a 6-1/2x13 oak from Yamaha!) and add a divider, also padded. The strap is a good idea- go to discount stores and find cheap leather belts and screw/rivet them to the case. You could probably get a 10" Tom in there too if you packed it carefully. Maybe th cymbals attach to the lid and the snare, pedal and Tom fit in the bottom?

The progress will be slow, as I work two jobs. I may be able to put some time into it this Sunday.

The exterior material is burlap, and I think the black paint is original. It cleans off of the wood trim easily.

I won't be adding a porthole or mounting a head on the front. I'll just leave it as is with the muffled thud that is inherent in using an old trunk as a bass drum. My intent is to use it in very small venues. Think, "bluegrass trio in an obscure coffee shop".

The hardware on the trunk is all steel or nickel plated steel, so I will use my 30s NOB Slingerland Professional until I can get my hands on an old piccolo. Wood hoops, nickel shell, etc.

I will post as I go.

The work has progressed. Removed paint from the wooden ribs and hardware. Added a bakelite handle, bass pedal mount, internal cymbal storage bolt, leather storage strap for snare.

Pics this weekend of all that stuff.

To do:

- install leather straps for hardware & rug

- 2 external cymbal mount (floor tom leg mount)

- refinish exterior of shell (flat black paint?)

- line interior with felt

- install feet / stabilizers

- a few other things I haven't thought of yet

It sounds flat, low. Kind of what I expected. There is a wooden spine running of the middle center, right where the bass pedal strikes. I'd like to find a lighter, smaller snare, as well as a tom of some kind.

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If you really want a nice "weathered " look, i'd rub the suitcase with some paint thinner with a rag and then fine grit sand it all over the place to give it a "shabby chic" look. Looks like a very cool project. When i was 10 years old, i used my parents huge traveling trunk as a kick drum that they had brought over from Portugal. I just put my cheapo westbury pedal up against it and wailed away on it for hours on end to albums like Chic, Diana Ross, KISS, Asia, and a whole bunch of other diverse albums i used to play on my Fisher Price "stereo". It actually sounded pretty good .. LoLoLoLoLoLoLoLo

That's coming along nicely!