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Restoration Projects, Rare or Common Parts & ResourcesThis is a separate topic for do it yourselfers, repair shops & custom builders to share resources & information. All drums are an assembling of constructed parts. The care & maintenance of these elements is the total performance & appearance of a drum as an instrument & as a utilitarian tool of the trade as well as being work of art in its own right. I suggest our photos represent before after restoration w/ descriptive comment, pro& cons etc. The more parts & designs I can examine , determines the out come of a custom project or restoration of a classic, or a hybrid item. I have seen many great projects in various topics, lets create this topic dedicated to these topics & related shop talk ? ! ?

Vintage Leedy,Slingerland,Rogers timbale /tom tom / bass drum tuning system parts used in my Hybrid timbales to match future timbalitos & toms to created a retro Latin drum set that represents several classic drum companies. My favorite parts to acquire are Rogers,Leedy & Slingerland. I find that Slingerland & leedy share hole locations on lug mountings but differ in hole size, but make the brands interchangeable with the lugs in many cases. Some times, re plating or powder coating parts is needed for exterior finishing & preservation of parts but in some cases, unplated parts allow future welding & other metal working. These parts are easily protected w/ wax. Auto wax or metal sculpture artist wax. These are the kind or parts that are best when done in Stainless Steel. Many parts could be custom fabricated by basic metal & wood shops or home garage shops. Some replacement parts are available via mail order or direct communication with discovered resources that we can share here. For instance, a forum menber has listed many sources for quality raw hides & flat calf or goat skins for heads of drums. Some trade magazines offer resources & all topics re: retorations of drums, but there are none dedicated to Afro / Latin / Brazilian drums & percussion hard wares. We can create our own in this topic .

Afro Timbales ( before restoration ) The brass shells were well made, almost identical to Pearl timbales which are a continuation of what began as Afro brand. The Afro shells had ribs that faced out ward & the Pearl models changed to an inward rib design.. These tuning lugs do not bolt to the shell but extend to grab the bottom of the shell. Since these is no lugs or backing plates on the shells, the bright drum tone had lots of metal shell overing on drum head tone & cascara. Too much over ring ! My retrofit included using 1960's Leedy / Slingerland tuning lug castings w/ WFL eagle claws that had the nickle plating removed to expose the brass. I replaced the typical Lp style rims w/ custom made rims that my mounting system was added directly to the rim ( not shell mounted ).