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Help painting a turntable

W

weegidy

New Member
I purchased a technics SL-23 on eBay about a month ago. It came in "working condition" but had a little trouble keeping speed and the belt looked like it was sewn together by a 3 year old.

I replaced the pitch control potentiometers, lubed up the motor, and replaced the belt. It sounds amazing, but it is 40 years old and the paint looks pretty nasty.

I would like to sand off the current paint and paint it a glossy black. I am pretty good at spray painting things evenly-but spray paint usually looks like spray paint no matter how good someone is at applying it.

That being said, what are some of my options for doing a professional paint job on this turn table? I was thinking that using car paint might be a good idea but I have no experience with that sort of painting. Right now I am open to anything (including spray paint).

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Well, spray paint and car paint are typically the same stuff. And you can get a pro job yourself if you know the process. The trick is to approach it like a guitar refinisher does, which is largely how car paintes do it: spray, wet sand between coats going to 1500 grit, several coats, , probably top coat gloss, go 600 to 1500 grit after curing for a few weeks, then buff with 3m Finesse it or Mequires mirror glaze (2 followed by 7). Thats how I would gloss the sucker up! You could ask more at the Guitar ReRanch forum for tips.

Good luck!
 
As a professional painter (custom motorcycle paint) I would recommend in your situation, using a base/clear process which you can get in spray bomb form. prep the plinth to a 600 grit finish. (dry) because on a tt plinth, they are generally made of MDF or HDF. If you wet sand, you may cause the Mdf to swell from the water, that's if you cut through the original finish when sanding. You can use a spray bomb primer as long as you match up all your finishes to the same type of paint. Prime the plinth, sand smooth with 600 grit, then spray the base coat. Allow the base to dry to the touch. Then apply approx. 3 coats of clear. Allow to dry overnight, then you can carefully wetsand with 600 grit wet. At this point, all your doing is removing the shine so the next coats have something to adhere to. Wipe off completely dry and apply 3 more coats of clear. if you get a relatively dust free finish, it should be good to go. You can wax with an automotive wax, but not for at least 30 days as it generally takes this long for paint to cure fully under air dry conditions. A local automotive paint supply store should be able to set you up with all you will need.
Hope this helps.:)
 
Your base looks like plastic or some sort of metallic vinyl covering? You should find out what it is before deciding on how to prep it. Have you considered wood veneer? They make it with peel off adhesive on the back and it's pretty easy to apply and trim.
 
I'd use Dupont Nason Ful-thank 2k. Its an automotive, single stage, direct gloss paint. I've used this on countless cars where folks were trying to save some money, and many many stereo / juke box parts. works like a charm. A cheap spray gun will do just fine.
 
I restore cars (not professionally) so spray paint is my best friend. I totally agree that a smooth professional finish can come from a rattle-can with proper prep, cure times and careful sanding & buffing. One word of caution if you go with a metallic finish - wet sanding causes problems unless you intend to totally remove the paint. I've had good results laying down a light 1st coat followed by a moderately heavy 2nd coat, then a coat of clear when the 2nd metallic coat is just dry to the touch (make sure both products are from the same mfr.). Depending on what the directions say, you may even be able to then apply a 2nd coat of clear within minutes of the 1st coat. Let it dry for at least a week Then wet sand with 400, 800 & 1,200 paper & buff. You will be able to see your face in it...

I have a 2nd-hand SL-1200 that has a section of silver rubbed off & I've been trying to figure out how to touch it up. Might repaint the whole thing if I can find the decals...
 
Thanks everyone for the great responses! The red turntable is really nice - hopefully I can get mine to turn out just as well.

guystp said:
As a professional painter (custom motorcycle paint) I would recommend in your situation, using a base/clear process which you can get in spray bomb form. prep the plinth to a 600 grit finish. (dry) because on a tt plinth, they are generally made of MDF or HDF. If you wet sand, you may cause the Mdf to swell from the water, that's if you cut through the original finish when sanding. You can use a spray bomb primer as long as you match up all your finishes to the same type of paint. Prime the plinth, sand smooth with 600 grit, then spray the base coat. Allow the base to dry to the touch. Then apply approx. 3 coats of clear. Allow to dry overnight, then you can carefully wetsand with 600 grit wet. At this point, all your doing is removing the shine so the next coats have something to adhere to. Wipe off completely dry and apply 3 more coats of clear. if you get a relatively dust free finish, it should be good to go. You can wax with an automotive wax, but not for at least 30 days as it generally takes this long for paint to cure fully under air dry conditions. A local automotive paint supply store should be able to set you up with all you will need.
Hope this helps.:)
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Thanks for all the info, but I'm a little confused by some of the terms you used.
Spray Bomb is just like a spray can from Home Depot, right?
Are HDF and MDF are particle board? That's is what my tt is made from.

Also, do I just use 1 layer of actual paint? Or should I do a couple layers of paint before I spray the clear coat?

One more quick question. As you can see in the photo I posted (first post), the part of the paint that is most faded is the paint that has been covered by the dust cover for the last 40 years. Why is that part of the paint discolored more than the paint that has been exposed?
 
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You could perhaps get it powder coated, not too expensive and will give you a great finish, plus it is a lot easier.
 
It's vinyl over particleboard or MDF, so you can either spray-paint the vinyl (dubious but might work), re-cover the vinyl with other vinyl like wood-look or something, or take off the covering and start over. I can't imagine putting this much effort into an SL-23, but who knows it might look abso fab too! Have you tried cleaning it with something to remove that smoke coloration?
 
speedle said:
It's vinyl over particleboard or MDF, so you can either spray-paint the vinyl (dubious but might work), re-cover the vinyl with other vinyl like wood-look or something, or take off the covering and start over. I can't imagine putting this much effort into an SL-23, but who knows it might look abso fab too! Have you tried cleaning it with something to remove that smoke coloration?
Click to expand...

Well this is my first nice turntable. I'll try to take the vinyl covering off before I paint it, but I am open to the idea of just rebuilding the entire case from scratch. When I was a sophomore in high school I started listening to FLAC audio and ever since my audio expectations have been increasing. I am going to college next year so I would like to get all of my audio equipment sounding (and looking) good before I leave.
 
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