ANOTHER ACROLITE CHALLENGE

"Do something well, and others will want you to do it for them."  -- old misplacedmtnman proverb

Because in a previous post I did such an excellent job salvaging a discarded Ludwig Acrolite snare shell and turning it into a playable drum again, a friend of mine came forward with another challenge for me.  He was also in the possession of an old throw-away shell that somebody gave him that he would like me to try and rescue.  His was also a Ludwig Acrolite, although it had been spray-painted black.  Why would someone do this?  Who knows and who really cares?  Let's get that paint off.

I would like to tell you that removing black paint from a Ludwig Acrolite shell is extremely difficult and should not be attempted except by a professional.  Unfortunately, this is not at all true.  Getting this task done is a simple process and only takes a couple of hours and a little bit of patience and determination.

Using a super-secret, specially-formulated paint remover, I am able to easily scrape the unwanted black spray paint off of the drum while not affecting the grey paint underneath that I want to remain.  How in the world do I do this?  Wouldn't you like to know?!

Luckily the person who painted this shell had sense enough not to paint over the Ludwig "blue/olive" badge, so I want to make sure I preserve this during the paint removal process by covering it up with blue painter's tape.  The paint remover will not damage the factory-applied, powder-coat paint on the shell but it will ruin the paint on the badge if I am not careful.

Here, after several applications of the paint remover, the black spray paint is almost completely gone except for in a few small, stubborn places.  These I will focus on more determinedly using a sponge and a dab of elbow grease.

After the black paint is completely removed, I then deep-clean the shell with some professional polish to remove any flecks or residue left after the paint removal process.  And here is the result of these two processes:

Now the shell looks brand new and no one would ever suspect that it had previously been vandalized with ugly black spray paint.  The only thing I need to do now is reassemble the drum with the correct replacement parts and heads.  In the photo above I have already added the strainer assembly and the butt plate (not visible on the opposite side).

TO BE CONTINUED.....WAITING ON PARTS TO ARRIVE.....

UPDATE:

Okay, the parts have arrived and I now have this drum all put back together and sounding good.  This "Black-rolite" is now officially an "Acrolite."

Mission accomplished.  Challenge completed. Project finished.