First, "Ludaloy" is a trade name invented by Ludwig for its ALUMINUM shells. Its a spun, single piece of sheet aluminum of a certain gauge, nothing more, nothing less.

Second, the issue is not with the plating per se, but the PREPARATION of the shell FOR the plating process. Also, the care and handling of the drum after it was purchased has a lot to do with the pitting/flaking issue. The minute something happens to the drum, such as something scratching the chrome or the like, the surface has been compromised and the deterioration process begins. It starts as small pits and if left to its own natural devices, it gets worse and into the flaking. I've seen some where the chrome plating comes off in sheets!

Its like the chrome on an old unrestored car, or a chrome plated steel snare drum, wherein you see rust forming. People always say the chrome is rusted. It's not, its the base metal below it that is rusting. Chrome itself doesn't rust. Its the same kinda thing with a supra.....the problem is with what's underneath the chrome, not the chrome. Seems the 60's era supras tend to hold up much better than the ones from the 70's and beyond. It had a lot to do with who was doing it for Ludwig as well as the prep work.

:2Cents:

Thanks for explanation which basically covers what I've written.

I cannot agree to one point: There is "alloy" in the name.

I don't believe that you can trademark it like that, if it's not a composition of metals.

Even in 99% to 1%

Without disagreeing with previous comments on plating; I would like to add that I have a Drouyn alloy snare (made in Australia) which is the ONLY one I've ever seen without serious issues. It spent it's whole life up until now in Perth, Western Australia; one of the driest cities in the country. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the climate helped to preserve the drum and indeed the whole kit.

[IMG]http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g179/troutstudio/Drouyn/file-33.jpg[/IMG]

I tend to agree that it is more of an issue with the quality of the plating. Chrome does not rust as such.. and should be a high level of protection for the surface it is adhered to.. be it Luddaloy, Aluminium, Brass or whatever.

Seasonal / location factors however do affect many products, and I can vouch, as testament, (a product unrelated to this thread), the rubber used in roll surrounds and the magnets of loudspeakers.. are far more prone to deterioration in the humid, southern and northern areas of the east coast of OZ. In my "day gig" 30 years in HI Fi service down here, I have witnessed just how much humidity can shorten the life of certain products.

Cheers

Warm, dry climates like we have in the West US has everything to do with pitting and or rust, or the lack of, combined with shell prep and the quality of the plating.

Oh boy, here we go. CryBaby

I think the flaking/pitting issue is a combination of things.

As with the Supra shells, it starts with the material, then the prep work, then the pretreatments and then the actual plating.

As everyone knows, early Supra shells were brass and you very rarely (if ever) see these shells flake/pit. Then Ludwig switched to aluminum shells. I'm sure they had to change the process/specs to get the plating to work. Since this process involves human interaction there would be plenty of room for issues to occur.

Check out the Chrome Plating wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_plating

[INDENT]A component to be chrome plated will generally go through these different stages:

[LIST]

[*]degreasing to remove heavy soiling;

[*] manual cleaning to remove all residual traces of dirt and surface impurities;

[*] various pretreatments depending on the substrate;

[*] placement into the chrome plating vat, where it is allowed to warm to solution temperature; and

[*] application of plating current, under which the component is left for the required time to attain thickness.

[/LIST][/INDENT]

So based on this information, it might be possible to link flaking/pitting problems to a date or time period.

For example, maybe the plating company used a different degreaser, maybe there were different plating companies located in different climates (arid vs. humid), maybe the equipment was out of spec and the electric current was not optimal during the plating process, maybe it was the aluminum material quality, maybe the shell was not brought up to the correct temperature, maybe aluminum is not made to be chrome plated, maybe it just had to do with the day of the week or a combination of all these things.

After the iconic sound of the Supra, the first thing you usually think about is flaking/pitting, so this is a common issue. But why is it common? When you think of a car and its condition based on location, it's because of the climate. Salt is used to melt snow, which causes rust and chrome pitting issues on cars. Classic cars from these areas were known to be swiss cheese. That's why you want to find a classic car from Arizona. I bet Supra owners didn't drive around with their drums tied to the car roof during winter or store them in a pool of water. After the plating process, chrome is actually supposed to be durable.

Check out this information from the wiki:

[INDENT]Maintaining a bath surface tension less than 35 dynes/cm requires frequent cycle of treating the bath by a wetting agent and confirming the effect on surface tension. Traditionally surface tension is measured by a stalagmometer. This method is, however, tedious and suffers from inaccuracy (errors up 22 dynes/cm has been reported), and is dependent on user's experience and capabilities.[/INDENT]

This part of the process is very telling and might be a big part of the Supra flaking/pitting problem.

Collecting dates and the condition of shells would be a lot of work and in the end the data might not even produce a date range(s) where flaking/pitting is a problem. But maybe it might.

This is a really cool "forensic" discussion of why the beloved Supra seem to be prone to flaking/pitting.

Let's keep it going, but keep it civil. :)

-Tim

I agree, civil = good.

Another question, to those of you who have owned Supras for decades, did you regularly polish yours? Maybe regular maintenance helps. I know after using Turtle Wax Chrome Polish/Cleaner, water or an additional layer of polish acts completely differently than the first, like a wax residue has been left. Maybe doing that once every few years helped some survive longer...

I think the "hand built" prep stages for plating has to be 70% of it, with environment being the rest.

I am the original owner of a 1967 Supraphonic that spent its first 28 years in cold rooms in CT and NY . Past 17 here in Japan where the rainy season humidity is a killer and winters damned cold . Not one spot of flaking or rust on the drum . Seems to me that the 70's drums are more prone to the flaking than 60's .