Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby KING CONGA » Fri Sep 20, 2013 7:05 pm

ABAKUA wrote:Dont look at that Requena in the eye.. It will haunt your dreams for years.. Like it does mine! :lol: Never get tired of seeing it KK. Matthew did an amazing job in bringing it back to life.

LOL Don't give up ABAKUA, you just never know :D
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby Juanito Alimaña » Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:34 pm

The Requena looks really great. I can see why Abakua becomes mesmerized! I'll take your advice regarding the bands however I want to have them chrome plated. There is also the matter of one of the rings(2nd from the bottom) being badly dented (perhaps the result of drum meeting slate stairs? lol). Would you know how I would go about trying to straighten the band? There is another chrome plating business I know of here in Buffalo I can try. Any tip would be sincerely appreciated! Once I have the drum finished I'll post a pix. Thanks brother!

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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby KING CONGA » Sat Sep 21, 2013 2:14 am

Juanito, my advise would be for you just to have the bands made, I would imagine that you would more than likely end up spending the same after chroming.
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby Juanito Alimaña » Sat Sep 21, 2013 4:19 am

Great advice K.C. The bands are 3/4 width and conform to the shape of the Conga. Junior Tirado made the bands I have and I would love to keep those simply because Junior made them so if have to pay a little more to get those on the drum I think it's worth it. Your thoughts?
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby 11am » Sat Sep 21, 2013 3:20 pm

Great restoration Job! Love it. It would probably be a good idea to have the bands made, I agree. Thanks for posting the pics and contributing your resurrection of a yet another basket case! That's what I 'm talkin about! :mrgreen:
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby KING CONGA » Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:18 pm

Juanito Alimaña wrote:Great advice K.C. The bands are 3/4 width and conform to the shape of the Conga. Junior Tirado made the bands I have and I would love to keep those simply because Junior made them so if have to pay a little more to get those on the drum I think it's worth it. Your thoughts?

I totally undersand. You might be able to send them to Mathew Smith for restorarion or find a good local metal shop to try and fix them for you I cant imagine that it would be too difficult.
Good luck.
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby godskin » Mon Sep 23, 2013 12:14 pm

Thanks you 11am for making this thread. I using it as a guide to restore my vintage gon bops.
The guide is very helpful but at the moment I feel a little bit stuck.

I really need some advise here.

After the stripping, filling holes and sanding I stained the tub. That where I might have made a couple of mistakes. I added black stain to a mahogany stain. 50 ml black added to 100 ml mahogany. Now the tub is really dark and I don't want the end result to be this dark. Will it get more reddish if I apply the second stain with just mahogany ?

Also when staining I noticed the patches where I used woodfiller would not soak in the stain. so after I removed the excess I retouched the patches. In the end this has left darker areas and to me it looks like a mess now. I don't know how to continue.

Help !!

01.jpg

02.jpg
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby RitmoBoricua » Mon Sep 23, 2013 3:04 pm

What kind of stain you use? Dye or pigmented stain? Normally you may have to use
stripper on an oil based pigmented stain those are your minwax, cabot, rustoleoum
stains etc you find at home depot, lowes ,walmart etc. Now if you happen to use like
a waterbased dye stain you may have to use bleach to strip that kind of stain and
normally is a stronger kind of bleach you buy like from Woodcraft.

The wood filler is a bitch to accept stain. What you suppose to do is after you have applied
the stain and you are happy with the color or hue then you apply the wood filler to match the hue
or color of the finish as best as possible and then last but not least you apply the clear top coat.
One more thing when you are blendind stains like you did is best to test the stain on a scrap piece
of wood to see whether you like the results or not. I hope this helps.
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby Juanito Alimaña » Wed Sep 25, 2013 2:45 am

11am wrote:Great restoration Job! Love it. It would probably be a good idea to have the bands made, I agree. Thanks for posting the pics and contributing your resurrection of a yet another basket case! That's what I 'm talkin about! :mrgreen:

Thanks very much 11am. I really love the result as well. I think I'm going to take a ride over to Jay Bereck since I'm also in Upstate NY and ask if he would consider making bands for the Conga. I would hate not to have Junior's on the drum, but I confess you and K.C. are right, it's probably best to have them made. Thanks again brother!
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby 11am » Thu Sep 26, 2013 10:51 pm

Also when staining I noticed the patches where I used woodfiller would not soak in the stain. so after I removed the excess I retouched the patches. In the end this has left darker areas and to me it looks like a mess now. I don't know how to continue.[quote][/quote]
Always test before committing with stains or dyes. OK now that you taught yourself a valuable lesson, lets try to fix you up. Don't panic! Sand it out first.on the dark spots ( with the grain) by hand 120 grit to start. See if you can get down the darkest areas. The results will vary if that stain is fresh, BTW. If you can even it out using this method, wipe on some alcohol and see the actual value of what color you have. ( it will lighten substantially, and the mahogany brown will take over.) If you can live with this, and all the real dark spots are out (leaving the light filler spots) then you can salvage the finish. What I would have done with the filler spots, ( and you have to understand that nothing is perfect concerning filled gauges and holes, period, and this is an advanced technique, and i do refinishing for a living) I would have put a stop clear stop coat over the filler area, matched a corresponding oil based enamel color, and wood grained in the filler. ( that is done with an artists brush and is done only on the fill itself, not on the surrounding shell, as you attempted to do) let it dry out and top coat. Assuming your medium is oil based stain. The short story is you don't try to stain in filler, it won't take the stain, so you deal with that as a separate issue after you put on a clear sealer. if you don't like the dark stain, and if you cannot sand out the blotches, then you are going to have to use a wood bleach to lighten it . let the shell dry, and carefully sand sand first before you go to a bleach. If the stain is dry, you'll be surprised at what a re-sand will do. 120, 150. 220 320 use the 120 on the dark blotches. Sand it, and wipe it back with alcohol. Get back to me here, i'll check in Don't go running for the wood bleach just yet as it may not be necessary. 11am PS i looked closely at you problem, and I'm pretty sure that that will sand out.
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby godskin » Sun Sep 29, 2013 2:30 pm

Hi Ritmo, a aqueous, lightfast pigment stain on acrylic base.

11am thanks for all the advise but I started all over again.

Because I have 2 of these tubs to restore and want them to look identical I decided to take this stain of.
It was a lesson to be learned, always test your colors.

I used what was left of the stripper and later I sanded all of, most of the filling I made I removed also.
When I went to the shop I found they had wood putty of the same brand as the stain. So I have stain and filler now.

The tubs has 2 layer of stain, without mixing with black, I like it.
This luan wood has deep pores and when I it looks it could use a third layer of stain.
Is it a good idea to sand the tub lightly with 150/200 grain before the third stain ?

I got a another wood putty a bit darker so I can mix it with the other if needed.
Would I fill it up before and than sand and stain or do the stain first and then do the repairs ?

after the first stain.
01.jpg


second stain
02.jpg
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby 11am » Sun Sep 29, 2013 6:52 pm

put a coat of sealer on, a stop coat over the filler holes. Clear thinned shellac will do. Fill it in and sand back. Depending on the finish color, the lighter, the more the filler will show. If you're filling holes, then fill them a little proud and sand flush. The mahogany drums finish up well, sand back easily, and are pretty easy to work with. I figured they would sand back down without having to do anything drastic. You will have to except some of this filled blemishes to show, it just is what it is, nothing is perfect when it comes to holes and gouges. Acceptable, but never perfect. The shells look good at this point. They will finish up nicely from here. Also, while you have the shells at this point, give them a good pound with the palm of your fist all around the shell and listen for buzzes. Do this until you are convinced that there are none. If it buzzes, look carefully for splits and repair them now. This is the time to do it as you can always sand without a big deal. The prep is the labor of love, the clear coats are the icing on the cake. looking forward to seeing the finished tub. Good luck, and good job!
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby RitmoBoricua » Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:05 am

godskin wrote:Is it a good idea to sand the tub lightly with 150/200 grain before the third stain ?


Yes you want to sand lightly with 320 or finer grade.
Also you can buy this pads kind of brillo pads and
buy the one for in between coats and you can use
000 steel wool as well. The only thing with steel
wool is if you are using like water based products
is not recommended because steel wool may be
left behind on the surface and rust with water based
products. For the most part when you dealing with
oil and waterbased finishes you want to always sand in
between coats to create a mechanical bond. When
using and applying several coats of either shellac
or lacquer is not really required to sand in between
coats because each coat melts into the finish and form
one coat. You see varnishes, enamels, and polys are
not like that each successive coat creates a layer
on top of the last one so you have to abrade the last
coat after it dries to create a mechanical bond for the
next coat to adhere to the last coat.

The only reason you may want to use a sanding
sealer and that is "de-waxed shellac" is when you
may have compatibility issues. For example like
going from an oil based finish or enamel to a lacquer
top coat. You see normally the solvent in lacquer may
be too hot or too aggressive to put on top of oil, enamel
or varnishes specially when not fully cured, they may
take month before they cure. So the lacquer may
ruin you previous coats so the solution to this is to
use dewaxed shellac (universal sanding sealer) in
between. Just a little finish 101 that is good to
know. I hope this helps.
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby 11am » Mon Sep 30, 2013 1:29 pm

the sealer suggestion around the holes was to seal the pores in the mahogany so that the filler, if slightly different in color of the sanded shell, will prevent the pores from filling up and causing a halo. Not knowing the skill level of the finisher. As you correctly point out, the stop coat will disappear when additional top coats are applied. just a safety precaution. Keep in mind to sand the filler flush and not to leave excess filler around the repair. ie, if you are filling a hole, when it is sanded flush it should be no bigger than the hole you filled, same thing with gauges, etc. There are advanced wood graining methods that can be used in bad situations, but for the most part, the colored filler should work if it is close enough to the finished color that will be visible for comparison when the stop coat is applied. Even in a small 2" area like a filled hole. Then you can match the filler to the proper value if it is not consistent. Again there is a give and take concerning perfection and acceptance. Looking forward to the finished product, Good luck
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Re: Poor mans guide to vintage conga restoration

Postby RitmoBoricua » Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:00 pm

You have to remember that luan is not a true mahogany
so filling the pores may not be necessary unless luan is
open grained. I know on open grained woods like real
mahogany and oak if you want to achieve a smooth glossy
mirror like finish you may want to use grain filler to fill the
pores and achieve a smooth surface. Some people do not like
to fill the pores which is kool too, so is not right or wrong is
what you like . Most of the vintage oak drums I see like from
Valje and Gon Bops the pores are not filled and they look good.

http://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-g ... finishing/

http://www.rockler.com/how-to/using-wood-grain-filler/
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