Damage to interior and Zolacoat of Imperialstar floor tom
I was wondering if you’ve ever come across interior damage to an Imperialstar and how you’ve handled it? Bought a Bonham sized kit last year of ‘79/‘80 Imps 15" tom, 20" floor and 26" bass drum. The 15" was shipped inside the 20" with no wrap or protection and all hardware still attached. So needless to say the inside of the 20" was gouged in several places with the Zolacoat also affected. Would you have any suggestions to repair this?? Thanks so much for your knowledge!
- Paul
Hey Paul,
Whoa…that’s a pretty kick ass kit in RARE as all hell sizes! Too bad the guy was careless with the shipping.
If the gouges in the shell aren’t too bad, try using some Plastic Wood filler on the gouges and sand it down smooth. You are going to re-Zola the interiors anyway, but you’ll want a nice smooth, gouge -free surface to refinish.
As for the Zolacoat damage, I’ve suggested a couple options to other people in the past that have asked the same question. You can try to find a matching faux stone spray paint at Lowes or Home Depot. Krylon, Valspar and Rustoleum all make similar products. It will give you the speckled Zolacoat look, but you might have a hard time finding a good color match. It is also pretty messy to apply and goes on pretty thick. I’ve used it before as an undercoat on an Octoban refinish to give me that slightly textured epoxy look under the final black top coats. Even then, I had to knock down the roughness with sandpaper to get it less bumpy.
As cheesy as this option sounds, I’ve seen guys get great results using this stuff. Look further down in the older posts for a guy in Argentina that refinished some vintage Tama concert Bongos with this product. Looked pretty damn close to original!
Another option which I haven’t tried and is likely the most professional solution is to use a product similar to what Tama originally used called Zolatone. It’s an auto body coating you’ll see in truck beds and older car trunks. You might want to buy a quart and take your shell or all of your shells (so they all match) to a body shop and have a pro apply it. If you are going to re-spray all of your shell interiors, then I’d suggest sanding down as much of the original Zolacoat as possible so you won’t have double layers of this stuff choking your shells. It is a high durability, nitrocellulose coating and generally applies a bit heavier than a regular paint. Tama claims is was used to make the shells less susceptible to humidity…but we all think it was used to cover up the nasty looking mahogany inner shell plies!
Here’s a link to a quart size container of the “Marble Stone” finish that’s a pretty close match:
http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/zolatone-20-marble-stone-quart-20-63-qt-p-31879.aspx
Hope this gets you on the right track.
Cheers.
- jt