LP Matador Conga - Can I refinish it?

[KidCuba]

Currently I have a LP CLassic I Conga and LP Matador Tumba. They match pretty well, since they are both natural wood.

I would love high end drums, but the reality is - I have little ones and my budget for congas is limited. As I add drums to my collection, they will likely be more decent quality LPs.

Today I saw a LP Matador Conga, in excellent shape for $100. It is reddish brown and would not match my set, but my plan was to strip the finish down to the natual wood and then poly it.

I have done my research on here, and it seems like a doable project - but I have little, if NO wood working skills. What do ya'll think, is it a project I can handle - if I am patient?

Also, as an FYI, my plan would be to tune one conga higher and use it as a "quasi" quinto. I just have a hell of a hard time playing on a quinto in a three drum set-up - I got some large hands. And I still hold out to the dream that one day I will have the means to acquire a bad ass quinto for rumba settings.

[Mike]

Hey man, all you need is some elbow grease, refinishing is not rocket science
After disassembling all the hardware and the skin here is what you do:
I would scrape down the brown varnish with a sharp knife (hunting knife or whatever),
sand the shell roughly down to the bare wood and then apply epoxy twice and a final
layer of polyurethane lacquer. You need to sand with a fine grit in between.
An alternative to the martial blade business could be a chemical stripper, but sometimes
the glue seams might be affected, plus it is an additional exposure to wicked chemicals.

The whole refinishing will take you not much more than 2 or 3 days, including the curing time
for epoxy and lacquer.

Be careful to catch a place and moment without your little ones running around by the way

[KING CONGA]

Absolutely doable. I too had no experience but decided to try anyways, I’m so glad I did. I have a Classic set of CP's, 1992, which were red, I stripped them down and went natural on the finish. Ill be honest, just as Mike said, it take quite a bit of elbow grease.
Anyways here is a before and after for you. If you are patient I know you will do good.
Cheers.

[KidCuba]

Hey man, all you need is some elbow grease, refinishing is not rocket science
After disassembling all the hardware and the skin here is what you do:
I would scrape down the brown varnish with a sharp knife (hunting knife or whatever)

I have read the nightmares in stripping down varnish, but scraping it up with a the side of a knife makes sense.

Why the epoxy? Is it to protect the natural wood before lacquer?

KING CONGA - that is the exact natural look I am aiming for, good job.

I appreciate the words of encouragement, now I got to see if the conga is still available.

[Mike]

Why the epoxy? Is it to protect the natural wood before lacquer?

Yep, but on second thoughts: you can do without it with your Matador, because the rubber wood is not very delicate, on the contrary, it is pretty hard.
On fragile Philippine mahogany shells, for instance, the epoxy makes more sense.
FYI, I have restored a set of vintage LP congas with the knife, sanding & lacquer method mentioned above, and they are fine.
I did not use epoxy on them.
Cheers and good luck with your project, I am sure it will be rewarding in the end!

[Sakuntu]

I took a red wine matador quinto and sanded it down to the bare wood and put 8 coats of poly on it. check out the before and after....

old beat up old red...

then I painted it blue to match an old fiberglass conga

Then I wised up and refinished it to natural wood

[Derbeno]

KC,here is a great post on this subject. We have some master woodworkers amongst us. check out the advice from Buckoh

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3132

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3191

[KidCuba]

Sakuntu - I saw the posts you put up in other threads and your drums is very similar to the one I am trying to acquire. It is the same reddish brown color, and I am looking for the same final look you came up with. Great work and thanks for sharing.

Derbeno, thanks for the links. I had read through those posts earlier and it is a true gift to have so much great information on this site. Also, I love the look of your refinished Matador.

I am just contemplating if I should just scrap it, or go with a stripper. For now, I got to find the guy who was selling the conga and see if he still has it.