Front Panel Cosmetic Repair / Restore

cferry1

Active Member
Hello -

Looking for your suggestions and experience on Stereo Receiver Equipment Front Panel Restoration.
Assume panel is Brushed Aluminum.
1) Repair of Scratches and light Dings on the Front Panel. How To : (?)
2) Front Panel ( brushed aluminum ) Polish (?)

Appreciate any input.
cferry1
 
Replace it with a different clean panel or a better cosmetic unit in general.

There is no spot fix for this, and the finishing techniques to do the proper finish would cost more than the unit in most cases.
 
Most face plates are anodized aluminum and any deep dings can not be rubbed out. They can be lessened to some degree with masking coatings of all kinds. It really depends on what you can tolerate in overall appearance.
 
On a finishing stand point it would be easier to start with a newly made aluminum face than to refinish a old one. Anodizing is the finish thats on a face plate, it's a chemical treatment that impregnates the aluminum. Just stripping this off is very hard to do just to get to the point of starting the new finish.

The finish.

Brushing the metal
Anodizing the Aluminum
Silk screening the print
 
Hello Again.
Thank You for replies, thus far.

How about some Rubbing Compound or Special Polish Suggestions or Brushed Aluminum Touch-Up Paint methods - if these have been tried ( ? )
 
Just got a free moment to get back on here to make a post and saw this. I bought two EQ's off Ebay recent. I put some Mother's mag wheel polish on the anodized aluminum front and it didn't damage the screen print and did clean up the metal nicely. I scrubbed lightly at first to insure no damage. Later went to a harder rub. I figured, what the heck. I'll take shot and if I damage it, I'll do what I normally do when I do stupid stuff like that, be pissed at myself and then really get angry at myself for trying it in the first place!

I tried a piece of like 2000 grit sandpaper like 30 years ago on a nick on my cheap TX-6800 tuner. It left a highlighted area. It brushed into the grain and looked fine, even took out the scratch but left the area brighter color. I figure one day I may buy a front off eBay scratched up if I can get one cheap, try sanding and then clear coat it with a very thin layer of thinned out lacquer to get the same texture and color or maybe use an oil based polish that would leave a film on the metal. But to date, I have no clue as to what a person could do to fix this other than brush the aluminum in the same direction and re screen.

I'm surprised with as many of these out there that someone has not bothered to do new screens. I spoke to a very well versed turn table repair artist named John Mathias in Washington recently by email and he informed me when I mentioned this that he has in fact done a new screen of the Pioneer PL-550 turn table metal that he restores. Sadly he doesn't have one of the PL-570 which I just managed two off Ebay recently. I intend to take the bottom off one and see just how hard it looks for me to recap it and I really just want to try my own hand at reveneering the wood with a very beautiful exotic wood. I also figure when the metal parts are off I can use the Mother's Mag Wheel polish on it to shine all the metal parts up. I have headlight cleaner polish to shine up the plastic cover but it has a crack in it. I figure I'll have a new one made and do what I mentioned above, try to fix the crack with either resin or a a blow torch from high above to melt it a bit back to normal and be angry at myself later when I burn the basement workbench area down. But back to the screen printing comments... I'm not sure how much it costs but I would think someone in the screen printing industry would see the benefit of making screens for these and simply sand polish them back to new and re screen them all and coat them with a very high quality coating much like my Samsung Freezer has a non finger print coat over the stainless that keeps it nice all the time. As example, you would only need a 10 screens of the units worth redoing.

3 Pioneer Amps, SA-7800, SA-8800, SA-9800 although I don't see much demand on the 7800 that I have. They don't go for much on Ebay.
2 Pioneer Tuners TX-7800 and TX-9800
1 Pioneer EQ SG-9800,
2 Pioneer Reels RT-909 and 707,
2 Cassettes CT-F1250 and 950 models

I mean imagine someone with 10 screens simply resanding the polished look on all your Pioneer equipment to look new, then rescreening them all and putting a light coat of thinned lacquer on them to tone down the brighter sanded surface.
Although you'd have to do all of your units in your set to match after that.
 
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