I use a clear lacquer. You can use a rubbing oil, or a polyurethane, or tung oil...there are many ways. The easiest and most economical is poly or lacquer. Since the hardware is already off, you can hang them up and start.

A lot of what is the easiest or most viable way, is to consider your circumstances, and what tools or work space you have available. The work in and of itself is not that complicated, just can be messy and since they are drums, it is a bit unwieldy in some places to do it...I do it a lot, and to me, the work is easy because I now have a system down.

Could you give me a brief summary of your system? Any help would be appreciated!

....hehehe...well...I have a long wood dowel, a closet rod that is hanging in my garage. I took a few coat hangers, the heavier, thicker ones and tied them to the rod. I then hang the drums. As I coat a section, I usually paint between a set of hardware holes, where the lugs mount, as a guide, and then as needed, I simply unhook the shell from the hanger and turn it, then re-insert the hanger through the hole and move on to the next set of lug holes, using the grommet hole as my point of reference.

Not really a proper paint set up, but it certainly works for me.

Using some kind of finishing oil is very easy. Just put it on cloth and rub it in. I did mine inside and out. Mellows to a honey shade.

If you get a scuff or scratch then just rub some on.

[IMG]http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb77/nutbox/XP8/DSCN2548.jpg[/IMG]