I spent the last hour standing at my buffing station trying to save the snare drum hoops. I succeeded! I have the snare side hoop done and it came out great, (even if I do say so myself.)

Here's a side by side photo, bottom and top hoop respectively. The hoop I did at the buffing station looks terrific - the other dull one was what I was able to accomplish by hand. It's going to the buffer next so it can match its partner. I am so happy that I was able to save these nickel over brass die-cast hoops. see below

If the previous owner, Gus joins us, he's really going to enjoy watching the transformation. He doesn't know me, he's never seen any of my restoration work. I hope he'll be in for a big surprise. His dad gave him these drums and there is a lot of sentimental value attached to them. I want to put a big smile on Gus's face when he sees his childhood drum kit brought back to life again piece by piece.

John

Holy smokes!! That hoop really came out great. I knew going in those would be tough to restore. Good call on the buffing wheel~!

Hombre...we're all jealous! Fantastic score on an ultra-cool, super rare and top notch drum set! I'm enjoying all the pics and progress. Will be following this one for sure.

I had no choice. The gunk/corrosion was so stuck on there that the only way to get it off was to knock it off mechanically. 'By hand' wasn't getting it. I have a 6" super-fine wire wheel on the left of the machine and a 6" buffing wheel on the right. I had to use a very light touch with the wire wheel, or it's real easy to blow through the nickel down to the copper layer. I used just enough pressure against the wheel to knock the crud off. The buffing wheel took care of the rest. I used a light rouge on the buffing wheel. The results speak for themselves. Took near an hour per hoop, but well worth the time invested. They look freakin' new! :p

El - Oye Papi Chulo (LOL) glad you found the thread! Good to have you looking over my shoulder while I work on this one. Do you know anything about W&A drums???? I don't know squat, I'm trying to learn more. :D

Can't wait for the new heads to arrive! I really want to hear this snare drum. Next drum up for the treatment is the whopper! The 28" bass drum. Stay tuned.

John

I may have missed it and if I did, I apologize. but what heads are you going with on this kit?

mike

Tough choice. Calf, or modern. I'd like to play these drums so I'm going with a REMO coated head on top and I ordered an Evans Hazy 300 for the snare side. The calf heads on the bass drum are in tip-top condition, so I'm going to clean them up and re-use them. I ordered some calf rounds for the bottom of the tacked toms and I'm going with coated REMO's on top. Like I said, I want to play them, when I tune them up I'd like them to stay that way. Calf is cool, but it's a pain in the keester to keep in tune. REMO's for now, maybe all calf later. Who knows?

I'm looking around for a cool graphic for the front bass drum head! I'd like to customize the drums by painting a cool graphic on the reso head. Lots of ideas....

John

Oh man I've been doing that for what feels like years. I'm in more than one band so it can't be band name/logo. Count-down frame from film leader? Man in the moon? Too many choices. And so the head remains a blank coated Remo lol...

Wicked drums, very cool resto, awesome thread!

Mitch

check out the third post down..

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=27421

mike

Thanks, Mike! Good read. My snare drum has that same Rogers throw-off that leedybdp showed a photo of. I'll take a close-up shot when the snare is assembled. You guys aren't going to recognize it compared to the before photo. I almost can't believe the transformation myself and I am the one who did it!

Great info. Leedy's kits are all from the 50's forward so it doesn't help much in this case. We're still not anywhere close to identifying 'when' these drums were built. Leedy's kits all look modern, my kit looks like something out of the 20's/30's both in sizes and in style. I'd really like to nail a year of manufacture. Where's the W&A guy that joined the forum recently????? I'd really like to hear what he knows about them, if anything. I'd also love to hear from leedyBDP. He seems to have some knowledge about the company.

Thanks for the link, Mike... useful info.

DTF - The hunt goes on! If I find any really cool graphics, I'll pm you so you can check them out.

John

Mendozart, Mike, Jeff....thank you for the kind words. You guys ALL help everyone here out too. As many others do. I just try to follow your leads. And learn by example. :)