Best foam for a set of CS3007's???

[scootchu]

I picked up a pair of CS3007's for a song. They need new foam and two questions I have; Where can I get the best matching foam surround for the 8" woofer and how do I remove the plastic trim ring around the outside of the cage?
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y278/scootchu/IMG_3281.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y278/scootchu/IMG_3282.jpg

[V'ger]

The plastic ring is glued onto the basket. You need a n X-Acto or other brand razor knife or a thin hooked tip carpet knife.

Remove the speakers from the cabinet. From the reverse, run the knife in the gap between the metal basket and gasket and run around the circumference seveal times. Do not go too deep, as a you can cut through the front of the plastic gasket.

With your fingers, remove what foam is left between the cone and the rim/inner edge of the gasket. Then with a thin knife, work the knife into the gap where the foam is sandwiched between the frame and gastket. Don't force it deep. Go around the circumference several times, each time working deeper. Eventualy you will hit the raised lip of the basket at the outer edge.

Take a wide and thin screwdriver, and insert it at the front (cone) side between the gasket and frame where you just used the knife. Push it in gently about 1/2 way, then turn gently to try to pop the gasket off. Remove and reinsert about 1/8th around. Repeat. usually by the third or fourth insertion, you will feel the gasket start to move. You can then insert deeper and turn a little harder.

Be careful as the gasket is hollow and will crack at the four screw holes if you pry too hard. I try to avoid putting the screwdriver in next to a hole. You can use superglue to reglue the gasket if it breaks at a hole.

From the looks of your photos, I'd check that the spider and voice coils are OK before refoaming them. If you can press on the center of the speaker and feel the voice coil hit the speaker's back plate, then the spider is stretched too much and needs to be replaced.

Try to move the cone in and out and move it around and try to find a position where it can move without scratching against the voice coil gap. And of course, take an ohmmeter and check the resistance of the coil. Just look for a low resistance reading. The DC resistance is not the impeadance. So anything low (< 10 ohms) is probably OK.

I just bought a pair of Reference Fives on ebay. They were alrady 'professionally' refoamed. However, one speaker is perfect, the other has a stretched spider on the midrange and the woofer is scratchy thoughout the cone movement. the migrange is toast (I have replacements), but I will have to take the gasket off and see if I can peel up the foam without ruining it to see if the cone was mis-centered or the VC is toast.

Repairability depends on how long and hard a user plays one of these once the foam starts to go. If you catch it early and refoam, they will last a long time. On the other hand, if you wait too long, damage can be nearly irreversible (economically).