Old case repair attempted

[Grumpikins]

So the olds ambassador baritone that my son found in an antique shop also had a case, probably original. It was in terrible shape. Most of the seams were separated. Covering peeling. The back had been smashed and some of the plywood layers separated. It was all held together with duct tape. But the latches, handle and hinges are in pretty good shape.

Sorry, I didnt take pictures.

I really didnt have hope for this case but today I started messing with it to see what I could do.

I pealed all the tape off. Cut away the loose bits of covering. Used my Brad nailer and started tacking the seams back together. The results were much better than I expected. The case went back to it's original shape.

I'm really surprised. I think next I will peal all the fabric out and use fiberglass to reinforce the seams on the inside. Then we'll see.

[gocsick]

Is it one of the orange brown ones?? I have one in my basement.. let me know if you need pictures..

[bloke]

A combination of a Stanley staple gun and (original) Gorilla Glue is pretty darn good.

WETTING the wood (prior to applying Gorilla Glue) makes the bond even stronger.

Tolex (covering for cases) can be found on the web, but gluing it to the case and getting it to STAY STUCK is a challenge.

Truck bedliner spray or vehicle undercoating (the type that sets up hard) is OK...but mask off and repair/replace any case hardware first.

[MiBrassFS]

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[Grumpikins]

Some pics of after stapling.

[Grumpikins]

Interior.



It's frustrating, my phone is pretty old and for some reason only half the pics I took would upload. But there's enough for you to get the idea.

Today I picked up fiberglass materials. Pulled all the interior out. And glassed about one half of one side of the case along the inside seam. Its setting up now. Well see how that turns out.

I initially tossed all the interior fabric in the trash. But as I looked at the bare inside of the case, I thought I might not feel like replacing all the fabric. So I set it aside to decide later.

I'm hoping to get this thing in good enough shape for short transport and storage. Its definitely not going on any long distance trips under a bus or shipping. Thanks.

[Grumpikins]

This is a 1959 Holton 6/4 tuba case I rehabbed. It was one step away from the dumpster. Sides were flapping in the wind with large open seams. I used Titebond 3 recommended by the elephant and satin black paint to seal any areas of missing Tolex. I’m very pleased with the results.


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That's very encouraging. I'm thinking about using truck bedliner coating to refinish the outside. Not sure. Will decide when I get to that point.

[MiBrassFS]

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[bloke]

Mrs bloke has done some deluxe-ish case repairs for me for customers. It's time consuming and takes a lot of patience. I sort of get them to the structurally sound and sort of smooth level, and then she finishes them out with tolex.

For my 32-in tall Holton/York B flat which is 4 + 1 front action, I did some searching and one of my buddies had a new/old stock squatty MTS case (before they even started putting wheels on them) that was just big enough for the instrument, but not much more.

I did some calculating and advising, but she had to make it into reality (it's easy for someone to run their mouth, but it takes skill to make the words into something three-dimensional) and she did a very nice job of blocking that case fit that instrument with the lid closing just so. The calculating and advising that I did involved the tilt of the instrument in the case, because it was such a close fit. It had to be at a particular angle for the 19-in bell to fit "level" way up in the end of the swell of the case.

The work you guys did is really nice (congrats on both of those), but/and re-blocking to fit another instrument whereby the case is barely large enough for the instrument to fit in there with no blocking... My hat's off to her.

Oh yeah...
That late 1950s Holton case. That's a really nice job.
Those were made back when GWW was building stuff in the United States out of real plywood, and not in Puerto Rico out of Masonite, and they had many more curved surfaces and were way more form-fitting. That case was absolutely worth restoration.

[Grumpikins]

Is it one of the orange brown ones?? I have one in my basement.. let me know if you need pictures..

I would say it was a dark brown color originally. It's not black, but almost. I'm sure the color has altered with age.

I took a peak at the fiberglass a little while ago and it's all set. Really worked well. Added a lot of stability to the case. I probably should do another layer for more strength. But, I'm not sure if I want to. But I already have it all apart so doing it half a$$ed would make the whole effort a waste of time and money.

Speaking of money, so far my only cost in repair is about $35. For the fiberglass. I was going to buy the basic kit which is around $30. But it included a bunch of stuff I dont need. Instead I bought the larger can of resin for $29. Which included a small tube of hardener. And the woven fiberglass 2ft by 3ft for $6. The can of resin will go a long way on small projects. Say I use 1/3 of the resin, and half the glass on this case, that will be like $13. I also have to say I dont like the woven glass. It unravels too easily and seems to have less coverage density.

[bloke]

There's a product called Kitty Hair that is resin with fiberglass fibers all in it. It's messy but it works and it's strong

[Schlitzz]

I have a Bach Fiddy B with a bad latch on the case. The actual latch loop is gone. Oh well.

[bloke]

I have a Bach Fiddy B with a bad latch on the case. The actual latch loop is gone. Oh well.

If it's one of those old skinny plain black ones, send me a picture of the latch.
Otherwise, go listen to the Arnold Bax Viola Sonata...on continuous loop.

[Schlitzz]

I have a Bach Fiddy B with a bad latch on the case. The actual latch loop is gone. Oh well.

If it's one of those old skinny plain black ones, send me a picture of the latch.
Otherwise, go listen to the Arnold Bax Viola Sonata...on continuous loop.

Well, you've got Harold in Italy......

[MikeS]

I have a Bach Fiddy B with a bad latch on the case. The actual latch loop is gone. Oh well.

If it's one of those old skinny plain black ones, send me a picture of the latch.
Otherwise, go listen to the Arnold Bax Viola Sonata...on continuous loop.

Well, you've got Harold in Italy......

…and when you fix the latch, you can listen to this as a reward. (Is there an anti-sarcasm font? This is really quite wonderful.)

[bloke]

@MiBrassFS

I was surprised how thinly truck bedliner can be (and tends to be) applied. The first time I used it I was expecting it to be globby and to be like the hard version of undercoating, but it's not at all like that.
I actually was depending on to be a little bit thicker to hide some of the imperfections in the case - which I would have addressed, had I known how thinly it applies.

I think I had the same exact case for a long time and let @tubaing buy it from me for sort of a cheap price when I straightened out his really messed up 345.
If the interior liner is minimal and blue, it's probably from the same era.

[MiBrassFS]

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[bloke]

Those do-it-yourself cans of bedliner are pretty expensive and there's a procedure that you have to go through to mix something together with it to activate it before spraying it with a time limit. If you ever try it, you'll be surprised at how thin it is. I certainly was. My concept of what it is and what it does totally changed.

contrasting...
Perhaps a couple of years ago, I ended up selling a vintage 186 on consignment that was in USA made GWW wood case from the same era, and they fiberglassed the you-know-what out of that wood case to make it into a touring case. It was so heavy that I could barely pick it up with the tuba in it and it was quite heavy with the tuba not in it.

I think the hard undercoating - that's sprayed underneath vehicles - is somewhere in between bedliner and fiberglassing, as far as thickness and weight.

In contrast, the bedliner stuff is little more than a texture.

Have you ever used that aerosol zinc paint which is sort of a substitute for when zinc coating starts to wear off of pipes and sheet metal? That stuff really creates quite a thickness - if one desires for it to, and has a sort of a gummy texture that tends to resist running. Bedliner spray is not like that at all, and really isn't much more than paint with a texture.

In my estimation, a layer of tolex and glue on a wood case weighs considerably more than a good coating of bedliner sprayed on a wood case.

In the late '70s, I had a wood case for a 186 that I bought new, and the tolex was coming off pretty badly way too quickly. I don't recall having to mix two parts together, but somewhere I bought some epoxy paint. (Maybe it was one of those Sears outlet stores marked down... Are you old enough to remember those?) It actually added a little bit of thickness (brushed on) and strength but not so much as to make the case weigh much more.

[MiBrassFS]

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[bloke]

Yeah, the soft funky undercoating is superior, because the hard stuff cracks and allow salt water to leak in underneath it, but I'm not talking about cars or trucks; I'm talking about coating a wooden instrument case.
... back off topic: I wonder if powder coating a truck bed would be better than truck bed liner, but I don't know anything about that either.

All I'm saying is that my experience with truck bed liner on wood cases is that it's not thick enough rather than being too thick.

I'm not going to use it for that reason and your belief is otherwise and you're not going to use it for the otherwise reason.