Repairing a damaged Vic Firth pad

I purchased this pad from someone on OfferUp. The price was right and this double-sided pad, one of Vic Firth's nicest, is no longer made.
It arrived two days ago in the mail, wrapped in a single layer of padded envelope material. The padding was not nearly enough to protect the corners of the particleboard platform from being knocked around and damaged.

I contacted the seller, who responded with, "Caveat emptor, crybaby".
I reported him to the admins at OfferUp. The next day, his seller profile was gone from OfferUp, meaning I would not get any help from him or from the platform in terms of a whole or partial refund.
So there was nothing left to do but repair the pad as best I could.

That's fine. I like to repair things.

After carefully, examining the damage to the particleboard, I surmised that the best way to proceed was to remove some of the crushed, expanded bits, flood the area with glue and clamp in place while it dried. 

Since there were at least three corners of significant damage, repairing the pad could take a few days.

 

 This worked out more or less as I expected; it's not pretty, and I'm not a woodworker. But when it's completely dry in another day or two it will be hard enough for me to lightly sand the surfaces, apply a couple coats of clear nail polish and call it done.

The weather here in Portland is unseasonably warm and humid -- and I'm aware this could become a new normal -- so drying will take a little longer.

Obviously, particleboard does not lend itself to finesse, either in the repair or the result; but I'm hopeful that the repairs will be solid when done.
An early peek this morning hints at how well they'll hold up when finished.

A little more filler, perhaps with a glue/wood crumb mixture, should fill the remaining gaps.
Sanding the hardened glue/wood patches should give me enough of a surface to apply some clearcoat over.

The rubber won't lay perfectly flat at the edges where the repairs are, but considering how inexpensive the pad was and my lack of other options, I can live with it.

UPDATE: In the end, the wood bits were just too crumbly to hope for a nice, even surface. After everything dried, I decided the best way to finish it off was with a carefully-applied, drum corps-style tape job. All things considered it worked out quite well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my money, it is nearly always better to repair something than to replace it.
Happy drumming.