pmsummer
simul justus et peccator
I picked up a sad pair of JBL Lancer S99s last week that were in pretty rough shape. Paid too much ($100), but it's a long story, and honor was involved.
One grill was missing, and 4 of 16 corners were mushed a little, but the drivers were good. The biggest problem was a roughly one square foot of ruined veneer on one of them. It looks like it sat on a wet towel for a few years. Color bleached out. Veneer blistered away and splintered. But I really bought 'em for the drivers, so what the heck, I thought I'd experiment with veneer refinishing...
Before:
What you see here is after the SECOND step (I forgot to document the original condition). The light area is the discolored veneer, and is just how they looked when I got them. This shot is after I put a diluted Elmer's solution under and around the lifted/splintered veneer. The dark area is where the glue seeped out next to a layer of wax paper I put on top of the damaged area before I put the 50 lbs of smooth granite slab (and the other speaker) on top of the spot. The blistering, peeling veneer was about 1/3 of the bleached area.
I began by applying wood filler into the cracks and small missing areas. After it dried, I then sanded the entire area (using elbow grease AND a small orbital sander) to get the wrinkled veneer as smooth as possible.
Next, I applied some Howard's Restor-A-Finish, followed by more sanding, and some more Howard's.
Mid step:
I next added color to the larger wood-filler areas, and then two coats of tung oil with a 0000 steel wool rub.
The results aren't perfect, but these are going to replace my KLH 23s on top of a bookshelf in my office (after I re-cap them). They'll be grill-less, but out of harm's way.
After:
I didn't try very hard to get the dark bands out, but they do look better now.
Also (don't shoot, you JBL purists), but because the surrounds had ossified, I treated them with Castrol DOT4/5 brake fluid to soften the Lans-alloy surrounds. A teeny little bit got on the cones around the edge, but now I can play them and hear something approaching what thwy were supposed to sound like.
Anyone got a single Lancer 99 grill out there?
So, I've got me some JBLs, and some fun. I'm eager to get new caps into them, but that's probably an April project.
One grill was missing, and 4 of 16 corners were mushed a little, but the drivers were good. The biggest problem was a roughly one square foot of ruined veneer on one of them. It looks like it sat on a wet towel for a few years. Color bleached out. Veneer blistered away and splintered. But I really bought 'em for the drivers, so what the heck, I thought I'd experiment with veneer refinishing...
Before:
What you see here is after the SECOND step (I forgot to document the original condition). The light area is the discolored veneer, and is just how they looked when I got them. This shot is after I put a diluted Elmer's solution under and around the lifted/splintered veneer. The dark area is where the glue seeped out next to a layer of wax paper I put on top of the damaged area before I put the 50 lbs of smooth granite slab (and the other speaker) on top of the spot. The blistering, peeling veneer was about 1/3 of the bleached area.
I began by applying wood filler into the cracks and small missing areas. After it dried, I then sanded the entire area (using elbow grease AND a small orbital sander) to get the wrinkled veneer as smooth as possible.
Next, I applied some Howard's Restor-A-Finish, followed by more sanding, and some more Howard's.
Mid step:
I next added color to the larger wood-filler areas, and then two coats of tung oil with a 0000 steel wool rub.
The results aren't perfect, but these are going to replace my KLH 23s on top of a bookshelf in my office (after I re-cap them). They'll be grill-less, but out of harm's way.
After:
I didn't try very hard to get the dark bands out, but they do look better now.
Also (don't shoot, you JBL purists), but because the surrounds had ossified, I treated them with Castrol DOT4/5 brake fluid to soften the Lans-alloy surrounds. A teeny little bit got on the cones around the edge, but now I can play them and hear something approaching what thwy were supposed to sound like.
Anyone got a single Lancer 99 grill out there?
So, I've got me some JBLs, and some fun. I'm eager to get new caps into them, but that's probably an April project.
