If you really want to spruce up that snare drum you could add a Dunnett snare strainer. They're made to measure and work great. I keep the original P83 strainer, butt end and Ludwig snare wires safe and just go with the Dunnett strainer. Not 100% original, but most vintage drums have modern accessories, heads etc. so don't see it as sacrilegious.

Purdie, can I ask what it ran you to get the shell polished?

I scored a 60's Acro shell for a song and tried to polish it up myself with wet sanding. Looks better but still not a mirror shine. I love the way it sounds but I think I'm going to give up and take it to one of my local playing shops. Just wondering what I can expect to pay.

King Louis - All the info you're asking about is in post #7 in this thread. I won't repeat it here and save some bandwidth. :p

John

D'oh :o! I suppose there is something to be said for reading the post first. Sorry about that, I get excitable when I see shiny vintage stuff.

To keep some integrity on the Supraphonic I'm curious if its possible to strip it while leaving the badge intact.

I have a '76 Supra that has developed the heartbreak of psoriasis. Can't complain much, as I was Craig's List hunting for an Acrolite and saw this pitted Supraphonic for $80.

Been pondering what to do; the pitting is actually rather uniform, kind of looks like a crackle finish. Problem is, I don't like it, and I am rather fond of just about every other kind of finish one can do on aluminum.

Anodizing, powder coating, bead blasting, polishing, they all look great EXCEPT for chrome plating, which has that nasty tendency to flake.

Purdie Shuffle's Supra has me thinking that maybe polishing is the way to go, but I don't know. Have to see how it looks after it's back from the plating stripper.

Love the way the anodizing looks on my Acrolite, but it's an Acrolite.

In my mind, Acrolite=utilitarian Supraphonic=glamorous

Maybe a different color of anodizing, or powder coating?

Regarding the badge, I think they can be taken off without destroying them. It will require a new vent grommet.

I don't think so. Honest, I didn't ask so I don't know for sure, but it seems to me that the shell needs to be free of any additional metals or add-ons when they strip the shell in the chem tanks.

Aluminum can be polished to a mirror-like finish. You do not need chrome to make the shell shiny. What you do need to do is make sure they add a clear coat to protect the metal and the new finish. Otherwise, it's impossible to tell the difference between highly polished aluminum and chrome plating. Ludalloy will pit when plated. It makes no sense at all to pay to repeat the same mistake Ludwig did by plating the shells in the first place. They could have saved a ton of money and grief by simply polishing and clear coating their Ludalloy shells. I could never figure out why they didn't do that from jump street with these drums.

John

I'm guessing there's a sound difference with 3 layers of what it takes to make a drum chrome. That or they just carried the process over from the brass drums without thinking about it.

The thickness of plating layers needs to be measured in microns. I don't think there's enough metal added in the plating process (copper/nickel/chrome) to affect the sound much if at all. I'm just surprised that a company who seeks to save, or cut a few corners in production costs didn't figure this out at the outset of manufacturing the drums. It's definitely a quality control issue as evidenced by all the pimple-faced supras floating around out there. They could have saved all the costs of triple plating and later flaking and pitting problems by simply -polishing and over-coating- the shells. If they had done so back then, there would be no such thing as a supra with acne today.

John

But doesn't the polishing take a super long time? And isn't it labor intensive? I've never done it so I might be totally wrong, but I thought I read that polishing the aluminum takes a whole lot of work.