The 70's stuff seems to show up on ebay more than the older stuff...I have personally gotten pretty crazy with older parts bidding because you will see things you need to get another step done in restoration.

My advise, if you refurb, decide in your mind that it may take months to just gather the parts, that you will most likely never get the money out of the kit that you're going to put into it but you will enjoy having the kit that you brought back. In a nutshell be very very patient.

If the shells are in descent shape you can always sell individually. Take the money you made and buy a complete kit. If it was a cool wrap then I would say restore but black wrap???? Original parts are going to set you back some dough, heck, a set of original bass drum hoops is over a hundred bucks alone. With prices the way they are you can score a great kit for cheap. Check out drummaker.com and price out all that you would need just for reproduction hardware and then double the price and that would be a fairly good estimate on buying original hardware. Just my opinion.

Looking at them again this morning, they may fall into more trouble than they're worth territory anyway. The 12" and 16" look ok, but the 13" and 22" have some issues. Maybe not terminal, but I don't know a whole lot about this stuff (worked more with acrylics than wood.)

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A hyperdermic needle, some carpenters glue, some clamps, and then a router with the correct bit to true up the bearing edge.....and your done. Not a difficult job, just time consuming. I wouldn't throw them away, they can be fixed. Definately worth saving in my book.....

A good router bit to match that 30 degree bearing edge is a hundred bucks. I will buy the 12" if you are looking to sell.

Hmm...and I see someone over in "what's it worth?" has a complete set like this with snare that's getting a $500-$750 estimate. Just scanning recent eBay rates for parts might end up putting me close to at least the low end for all the things this kit needs.

I think I'm going with my first gut instinct and cobble together hardware out of the pieces parts I have and see what I can do to make these playable. I got a ton of Export style lugs which I think are kind of ugly, but they work with no drilling and they don't require any financial outlay. If I get a deal on the real stuff some time later on, I guess I can go that route then.

It doesn't sound like the chewed up edges are completely hopeless and this would give me a low pressure situation to get some practice restoring the shells. (Man, I wish my grandfather was still alive. He was a wizard with woodworking.)

Managed to get some nicer looking lugs on eBay. What I think I may do is make a mini kit, turn the 16" into a bass and maybe find a parade drum to make it 12/14 with the toms. Been wanting a "jungle" kit for a while anyway. So I guess now I have to decide if it's going to be sacrilegious to put spurs on that floor tom. If it was a cooler wrap, I'd be all about keeping everything original and restoring. But for a black 12/13/16/22 from the 70s, it just doesn't seem worth it.

Do what you want with it, just do'nt drill any holes. There's alot of ways to make that a mini/jungle kit.

Your decision is either return shells into an original it or make a cool jungle kit with new hardware. If you want original, look for a complete set, everything said by others so far is true, piecing together original parts will be very EXPENSIVE. A jungle kit though is a different direction. I built a similar kit from three old Slingerland shells I got off E Bay; 16x16 floor I made a bass drum with, 8x12 tom and a 12x15 marching snare I made into a floor tom. There is a similar marching shell on E Bay now;http://cgi.ebay.com/Slingerland-1960s-Vintage-15-Drum-Shell_W0QQitemZ150337459728QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVintgae_Drums_Percussion?hash=item150337459728&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A2%7C294%3A50, 20 bucks, a steal and it'll make a killer floor tom.

Couple of the bearing edges looked just like yours, I reglued re-rings and re-did the bearing edges. I went with repro Radio King lugs and and all new hardware. I filled holes and drilled when necessary such as for a tom mount and spurs. It wasn't a cheap project but I have a one of a kind kit that sounds incredible, those old Slingerland 3-ply shells sing!

Regards

Don