How to Restore Chrome Drum Hardware 

For screws that are the most difficult to clean: keep them under vinegar and lemon 24h. Then just rub them with a cloth and that's it

Loving the backround music, and the angles you shot are really clean! keep up the great work, always love your content

I ended up shining my kit with some car wax and cloths, hardware looked brand new afterwards and kept the shine for a while.

Amazingly helpful, I've been trying so many different cleaning methods for my hardware and nothing has lasted yet, can't wait to try this out :)

That looks great! I like to use Flitz (or something similar) because it will actually polish bare steel to an almost chrome-like shine, so if you do have chrome missing, it's hard to see. Also the Flitz has come kind of sealer in it, which protects the metal. Thanks for posting.

I'm pretty sure I've said this before on your channel but you really need to try putting chrome hardware in a bath of water and dawn dish soap. Leave it soaking overnight and it comes out like new. Tin foil and steel wool can leave tiny scratches on the surface. The Dawn method is used by vintage drum restorers and can remove even the worst cases of rust.

by the way guys, this also works for drum hoops as well! Thanks so much man for this man! love this channel

Game changer! I have tracked down and recovered my father in law's childhood 1960s pearl drum kit and am about to start restoring it to surprise him when he is allowed to visit again after this covid stuff f***s off! This is going to save me A LOT of time and money tracking down parts

Good job, man!!! I'm a Brazilian drummer. I see and I really like your videos

Brilliant! Tried it and its the best way by far to clean drum hardware! Cheers!

need to do this on a few old stands. Thanks for all the vids man!

Thanks for this!!! All the best from the Netherlands!

Awesome! I'm going to try this on a chrome snare I just grabbed out of the garbage. I'm rebuilding it for a young man who is thinking about starting to play.

OK - You are officially my Hero. (there may have been slight tearing up..) SO, My mum, bless her, gifted me with a 1970's Slingerland 6.5' x 14" Gene Krupa model Snare Drum, Chrome over Brass. It is beautiful, However, (as these amazing sounding shells are prone to being a bit on the soft side) there's some minor denting and the chrome is Decent, but could benefit from polishing compound etc. Your Chrome Snare w/polishing compound, refinishing video was AmazinG and gave me hope .. Then I see this. O.O ...my jaw be layin' round here somewhere... I know you must get tons of emails., but as I will be stripping the shell to give it the business, I wondered if you had any tips for Chrome that is over Brass, rather than Steel (or if it matters). There is some deep scratches and a bit of rust pitting on the shell and lugs. Aluminum Foil and WD40.?. or Brasso, Polishing Compound and some whiskey for courage? Thanks man. Cheers! This was seriously amazing.

Really good job man!!!I wanted to ask you if it's possible to repeat this restore on a kick drum and on a floor tom

I did the same thing with a very badly rusted drum kit I got for free. I used aluminum foil with cola. I used diet Coke but word is any cola will do. Something about the phosphoric acid in the cola. It worked amazingly well with surprisingly little elbow grease. But looking at this video above seems the foil key to this working.

You should have been invited to NAMM

I want to restore my iron cobras and want to respray them. Do you think if I apply an anti-slip with grit spray on the foot board will work and give the effect the plate originally has? Cheers, love your videos!

What was you use to clean drum hardware

Thanks for the video... I was out of Wd-40 so I used PB Blaster and foil which worked just as good but left a strong smell... chrome hardware looks brand new again... thanks again bro!

Great job man! Def gonna use this!

What about a video on bass drum pedals. I've got a couple of cheap noisy pedals, maybe a way to stiffen them up too! Loved this one!

Yo Dave. For your 100k Q&A. Question. For filling drum holes you use bondo, but you mention you only use that because it’s what you have already. If you had to choose something to fill drum holes. What it be? Thanks. You’re the best.

Nice work , I've also tried a few things .Ended up with using 0000 steel wool after trying foil both give good results. ✌

I've been playing on that exact stand for years...great vid!

Hi ! Thanks for this video, I have an old snare stand I will try your tips on it :)

old snare drum head bass beater? Love your videos

Really? It's that simple? Wish I knew this earlier when I was cleaning old stuff from my dad! Thx Dave!!

Hey David, can u please do a video on cheep cymbal felts, maybe $1 store drummer, or how to make one out of foam....etc.

I'm starting a project making a set out of some old shells I have, but I'm confused about the hoops and lugs... are there any that are the best? Or is it just all style based? Maybe content for a video....?

0000 steel wool works wonders as well without scratching. You do get the small wool dust on the hardware so I use my air compressor and blow it off intermittently

Thanks ! I will try this on my rack !

Hi David your a cool RU-vidr thanks for making vids

This is going to sound crazy... but I recently helped a friend find a drum set for her son (on a budget) and we ended up getting a great deal but the hardware was super dirty and when we set out to clean it, I joked that we should put it in the dishwasher. ...and then we did. ...and the results were amazing. Of course we only washed the metal parts (for the most part) and we made sure it was completely dry before reassembling but It looked like brand new. I did this again with an old snare drum that I bought on craigslist. I put all the lugs and rims and strainer, etc in the dishwasher and it was like magic.

I always used steal wool and kerosene for chrome but I am going to try this. Looks like a better way.

Bought a cheap off-brand practice kit. Shells are nice and tune well, but hardware is weak, as expected. I've cranked the tom wing nut about as tight as I feel comfortable with, (without breaking nut), but tom still vibrates loose on arm. It's a polished smooth arm, otherwise I would try the old soda can aluminum wrapped around tom arm to give clamp a better bite like we use to do on stripped bicycle handlebars hack, but I think this surface is too smooth for that. Any suggestions? I really appreciate all your hacks! THANK YOU!

I know you said that you don't like to use water, but citric acid powder baths are the best and easiest way to clean chrome parts and shells I have found. .75 of a cup per gallon of water left over night and the crap and rust wipes off. no scrubbing.

I was wondering if you could give me some advice, been looking at your video's, you some DIY guru, I found a completely rusted stainless steel ludwig drumkit from the 70ties in my neighbour's backyard, can you believe that. They didn't seem to know it was such a great drumkit. I was wondering if i could repair it I'm pretty handy myself, but the whole kit is completely rusted and the wood inside is completely eaten by termites. Are the drums reparable in you opinion?

Nice, I've got the same stand. I love it.

Does it works also in snare and tons rusty hoops?

Any advice on how to clean up the pitting on an old Ludalloy supraphonic?

Hey David, you should try making a Cajon

I have a acoustic drum kit that I’ve been storing my my garage for the past 15yrs I want to get it in ready to play for an event. I don’t know the condition it’s in the drums are in in cases the hardware is not. Besides cleaning the hardware and the cymbals should invest in replacing all heads as well? I ask because I’m not a very experienced drummer so I don’t know. I currently practice on an electronic drum kit but I want to get my organic drums in good working order.

This was uploaded at such a perfect time, I was going to clean up all of my chrome hardware tomorrow on a used drum set I recently got, I have brasso and steel wool and wd40, would you recommend this technique for tension rods and rims?

Old man tip here boys: Hands down the absolute best thing you can do after cleaning up drum hardware is liberally coat it with SC Johnson's Paste wax and lightly buff off. It's a miracle. I use it on all my tool restorations and for example I cleaned up an old rusty drill press post around 10 years ago back to shiny steel and it still looks as good as the day I refinished it. No oxidation or rust anywhere. If you also put it over the chrome, it'll have the same effect and will greatly reduce future pitting.

Would like to see a video on how-to-fix broken cymbal stands. Like tightening piece won't stay on shaft, stripped screws, bend-dented shafts, broken top pieces, etc

yessss I actually was needing a fixing video for my hihats

Hola,he seguido con atención cada video y haciendo pruevas de eliminación de oxido sobre los cromos encontré un producto que se utiliza en limpieza doméstica que en nuestro país se llama CIF y se puede encontrar en cualquier tienda o supermercados,hice la prueva con el aluminio y noté que desgasta el brillo de las piezas cromadas...saludos desde Santiago de Chile...

Id really like you to make some acrylic shells (or readymade) and to rope tune them! Then you could put sound reactive led lights inside. Totally rad, right!

Injeanyus idea. I wish i had thought of or suggested it. but of course i would have mentioned how the Foil is a softer metal than the Chrome finish, so it shouldn't do damage to the Chrome.

why- how- this is literally a miracle product. Top 10 Things Drum companies don't want you to know

I use soft steel wool it works well but makes a mess. Thanks for the tip.

does it work the same with stainless steel?

can I use this method for chrome snares? I know you have a seperate video for those but I don't have the ability to pick any of that stuff up and I have WD 40 and aluminum foil and the snare is pretty bad.

GReat DIY tip man! Awesome!

Alsome video, I needed this information

Is that one of your beats? It sounds pretty sweet.

Don't you sell what you work on? I'm in love with the snare you hammered!

does this works to remove rust from a chrome snare?? or should I do the Braso method?

I used window cleaner and steel wool and it worked pretty well

How can repair a stripped screw/wingnut of a cymbal stand? Thank you!

Is the aluminum causing some chemical reaction with steel that removes rust or is it simply an abrasive?

could you make a video on a custom pedal

I do a basic clean with wet microfiber cloths, hit the hardware with some Nevr Dull and polish it afterwards

Great method. Would you do the same to restore a pitting supraphonic shell?

holy...... this is realy good!

Do you think you could use steel wire it speed it up?

Would it also work to use steel wool instead of aluminum foil to clean the rust away with the WD-40????

what are the best bass drum spurs?

How did you make the leap to Al Foil? My approach (I'm kinda slow) would have been to use a rag, a steelo pad and some Silvo or other metal polish. Yet, here, an unlikely material such as foil seems to just work!! Is there some kind of reaction with the metal going on or does it just have the 'right' level of abrasiveness? Thankyou for sharing, by the way

how do you clean a Tama bass drum pedal aluminum?

I have done some restoration in the past with fair results. You had mentioned chrome buffing compound and buffing pads. Can't you elaborate? Thanks

How about a video of u cutting up some drum loops on that turntable?

do you know if that is abrasive to the chrome layer?

Will this work on cymbals as well?

Silly question, if the stand is the same as the one you have, and you have taken the time to clean it up, why swap out the internal spring with your old one? Why not just use the new stand? I have two of this Tama lever glide stands and they are great hihat stands. Thanks for the clean up tips. My older stand could use this treatment.

Would this work for brass plated hardware?

Holy shit! Awesome! Thanks for the vid!

Can this work on cymbals as well?

hey, have you tried cleaning cybmals with kerosine? It removes most of the junk by disolving it, i think it might work well

I noticed that you used a different method from the video that you did called "how to remove rust from tension rods.". Which way did you find was better?

I have the best luck using chrome cleaner from the auto part store... and a cloth.

How do you straighten out a bent hi hat rod?

Is that a roots inspired song playing in the background

can you do this with a snaredrum shell?

Good job.

Como se llama el liquido que le aplicas al hi hat

Can you do a vid on restoring cymbal logos? My schools have some new A customs and when we cleaned them we scrubbed the logos a little too hard. any tips?

Damn you’re fast!

how does the foil interact with the metal?

Excellent!

I want some new drum stuff but I don't have the money lol hey David oh nvm you just wandered my question about the rust and littinf

I have had the best results with chrome polish and 000 steel wool. It is a little messy,so I am going to give the WD-40 and tin foil a try.

Are you going to make a video about the hi hat stand you made with a lawn mower wire.

Any tips on what to do if the chrome plating is off in some parts of the hardware?

Bar keepers friend....everything will sparkle

Do a video like your snare muffling review but test different bass drum muffling methods!

how much did you end up paying for the stand?

Dope ass beat on the before & after section. That yours?

any other options besides WD40?