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What paint for front and rear baffles?

I think I know how they might look.
As far as cost and I didn't mind spending a little time, I might just lay them flat, mask off appropriate areas and brush on multiple coats of black latex acrylic house paint, wet sanding in between coats.
It could go relatively quickly with dry hot weather and properly thinned paint( so as not to leave brush marks).
 
Yeah, I wouldn't mind doing something like that. These look better in the pics than they do in person. They are flat black, and they aren't totally uniform looking across the whole baffle, and there's nothing I could do to bring the color a deeper black. They have a sort of "chalky" appearance, for lack of a better description.

I've painted wood flat black before, and that's what these look like, where like the paint soaks in some spots more than others and they end up not the same exact color throughout.
 
dosto233 said:
Better to BE a know-it-all than just sound like one :)

Your absolutely right, a 2 part catalyzed finish is definitely the way to go, let's be clear about that and if you'll be doing more than an occasional restoration of audio products, it's worth the investment (which is why I'm planing on these purchases), but I think for a lot of what makes up the average AK'er it's very cost prohibitive. A compressor, a decent gun (even HF's), and paint? The knowledge required and possible learning curve simply aren't worth it for some. Remember, were mostly painting speakers and components; not engine parts exposed to heat and vibration. If its worth it to you, it CAN'T be beat, but otherwise the Duplicolor stuff is wonderful if you truly go the extra mile on prep with the right products.

Cheers
Click to expand...

QFT.....I have to remind myself not every dude has a basic spray gun, compressor, and at least a little bit of proficiency (but they should, dammit!). It just seems so fundamental if you're a guy...ya know? But even I, with a spray booth, walk-in batch oven that can reach 900 F, multiple grit blast cabinets, powder coating rig, specialized spraying equipment, etc. just want to reach for a rattle can every now and then. You know, I think a customer mentioned to me once that the "Plati-dip" rubber type coating was pretty good stuff. It's not hard so it's not brittle which means it won't scratch easily (much like what makes powder coating so durable). I've never tried it, but he was pretty impressed and I remember wanting to try it out after he went on about it. Here it is....

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/perfor...ubber-coating-spray-11203-6.html#.UDcGsqDYFdh
 
I have used textured paint. Unfortunately dust magnets in the texture and time consuming to dust. The fade due to oxidation and indirect UV rays another issue.

Hopefully you will achieve satisfying results in your refinish.
 
tomlinmgt said:
QFT.....I have to remind myself not every dude has a basic spray gun, compressor, and at least a little bit of proficiency (but they should, dammit!). It just seems so fundamental if you're a guy...ya know? But even I, with a spray booth, walk-in batch oven that can reach 900 F, multiple grit blast cabinets, powder coating rig, specialized spraying equipment, etc. just want to reach for a rattle can every now and then. You know, I think a customer mentioned to me once that the "Plati-dip" rubber type coating was pretty good stuff. It's not hard so it's not brittle which means it won't scratch easily (much like what makes powder coating so durable). I've never tried it, but he was pretty impressed and I remember wanting to try it out after he went on about it. Here it is....

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/perfor...ubber-coating-spray-11203-6.html#.UDcGsqDYFdh
Click to expand...

I used Plastidip on the back of my old Boston A-150's.

The real downside to it is everything kind of sticks to it, like dried skin, whatever, and it's hard to get it off. The color looks good, but the texture doesn't work too well.

IMG_1961.jpg
 
Damn, that's too bad about stuff sticking to the Plastidip because it looks great in that pic. Oh, well. Alright, last recommendation....VHT Satin Black Epoxy paint. It has better scratch resistance than the Duplicolor Engine Enamel with ceramic and it's self priming. I've used this at the shop to touch up parts we've powder coated matte or gloss black where the hanger hook or wire covered up a little area of the part. I've never tried it on wood, though. I get mine at Pep Boys.

http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/epoxypaint/

One final thought....and this is what I'd personally like you to do because I've been meaning to do this for a while and just haven't made the time to do it. You have three Grainger Industrial Supply stores in Pheonix. Call 'em up and ask to speak to whoever is most familiar with the paint and coating products and get his opinion on the toughest matte/satin black rattle can paint they stock. Or, look through their online catalog yourself and see if anything catches your eye and do a few google searches to see if you can find additional info or, better yet, testimonials. Many times some excellent products are marketed from some not-so-mainstream sources and you just have to dig a little bit to find them.

- Michael
 
I have thought of using my air compressor to blow dust off my cabinets. I don't want to blow in my dome tweeters and cloth dust caps on my subs.
 
You can see in this pic after I replaced the crappy spring clips with binding posts, there are little pieces of lint or whatever on the back. The biggest problem with Platidip is when something would get on it, and then you tried to wipe it off, lint and stuff from the rag would get stuck on it too.

IMG_2191.jpg


Where it does work great, in like on a car where you can just spray it off with water. Here's a before and after on the door handles on my Jeep. It's held up great and easy to clean on this.

IMG_1980.jpg

IMG_1978.jpg


I also did the bezel around my shifter on my Magnum, it was chrome before.

IMG_1975.jpg


Because those things turned out great, I thought it would work great on speakers too. Actually, if the speakers weren't handled much it'd probably work fine, but I'm always swapping speakers around so I handle them quite a bit, and that's when I noticed it on the Bostons that they were hard to clean. I mean, of course you can't just spray them off with a hose.

I'm not in a real big hurry to paint these, so I have the time to consider all the options presented so far. I'm also going to recover the grilles from the ugly dark brown they are now, to black. There are also a few spots with missing veneer that I'll need to figure out how to fix. I did get one thing done, well two actually. I replaced the broken binding posts on one speakers, and I got all of that dried foam that was in them out and replaced with fiberglass, and that got rid of the thick sounding upper bass they had.

I have another project for this weekend anyway, I'm going to strip a mid century coffee table and use Watco Danish oil on it.
 
sm19422 said:
I have thought of using my air compressor to blow dust off my cabinets. I don't want to blow in my dome tweeters and cloth dust caps on my subs.
Click to expand...


I'd be concerned with that too unless you can regulate the air pressure way down.
 
OK, I just repainted my L26 Decade baffles using Dupli-Color black Trim Paint from O'Reilly's Auto Parts. (I still need to clean some overspray off the foilcal). The original baffles were in decent shape but I'd scuffed them up slightly trying to clean them and they had a few blemishes. Here is before:

IMG_4193.jpg


And after:

Bafflerepainted.jpg


I am pleased with the results.
 
Those look good. I bought a can of the Dupli-color engine paint. I haven't gotten around to doing them yet, but I'm going to try it out the back first to make sure it's what I want.
 
Shoot a SATIN CLEARCOAT over the paint for protection.
Make sure the BASE COAT will not react (lift) with the CLEARCOAT.
 
This is an older thread but I wanted to consider a couple of things:

1. In most speakers, the front baffle is painted black so it does not stand out through the front grill fabric. If the speakers are going to be used mostly with the grills on, then a good coverage flat black will do the job.

2. does anyone know whether the original black paint that was factory applied is a water-based oil or an oil-based? the reason I'm pointing this out is that very good results could be achieved by painting with a water-based paint and a roller.
 
Note: I have used black fabric spray paint to refresh my grills, also have sprayed others brown to black no sonic changes noticed! Ijs
 
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