ADS metal grills touchup. Paint pens? Dents?

[Old Guy8]

I aquired a second pair of ADS L880's, series 2 version. They do have a couple light dents and scratched off paint. Anyone have experience with paint touchup on ADS perferated grills? Also reducing dents. These grills have a cloth backing to keep dust off the sticky surface mids and tweets. If touched up I won't have to disturb and replace cloth. Ideas?

 

[Dennis Gardner]

Rawhide or rubber mallet and block of wood are traditional metal working tools. A pine 2x4 works great as a backing board and in tight areas like those with corners, you can use
a dowel or other smaller ended piece of wood as a block to tap on to reform the metal. Small,even, taps are used to test how much force is needed to change the surface.

Paint touchup on speaker grills is tough as most speakers have been exposed to elements for years and the current paint on the grills is not the original color anymore. Sunlight and even indoor lighting changes it over the years.

 

[Old Guy8]

Rawhide or rubber mallet and block of wood are traditional metal working tools. A pine 2x4 works great as a backing board and in tight areas like those with corners, you can use
a dowel or other smaller ended piece of wood as a block to tap on to reform the metal. Small,even, taps are used to test how much force is needed to change the surface.

Paint touchup on speaker grills is tough as most speakers have been exposed to elements for years and the current paint on the grills is not the original color anymore. Sunlight and even indoor lighting changes it over the years.

Dennis,
Thanks for reply.
Dents: I have rubber mallets and will carefully test to see if I can improve them.
The painting: You are likely right that half measure of touchup may not be best. Maybe I can find a suitable cloth backing replacement. It is likely someone here has done this. My search did not find a thread. The paint looks to be a satin black. Not much gloss to it.

 

[savatage1973]

For removing dents (especially from rounded corners like that), I use a pestle from a mortar and pestle set (commonly sold in housewares for grinding spices)--generally marble or hard wood with a rounded end. Go at it from the back and "work" it until you get it as close to right as you can. As for paint--you will probably never be able to match that exactly for just touch up, so you can either re-paint the entire grille, or a little trick that has worked for me, is to use Kiwi Black Paste Shoe Polish--apply like paste car wax, let it dry and buff it out. I have never had any luck with any type of marker for covering and matching, so I don't even try anymore. YMMV

Good Luck!!!

 

[mike0565]

I had a pair of 1290's that I repainted the metal grills. I used satin black and it came out nice. As far as the cloth on the back side, I stripped it off. It was a matter of preference. If your interested in doing this, I used a razor blade scraper, then sanded. Pressure washed them, lightly sanded again, then painted. I realize why the cloth is there but with the gap that the grills have on the 1290's, I didn't think it made much of a difference. I think they sounded better when done.

 

[Old Guy8]

For removing dents (especially from rounded corners like that), I use a pestle from a mortar and pestle set (commonly sold in housewares for grinding spices)--generally marble or hard wood with a rounded end. Go at it from the back and "work" it until you get it as close to right as you can. As for paint--you will probably never be able to match that exactly for just touch up, so you can either re-paint the entire grille, or a little trick that has worked for me, is to use Kiwi Black Paste Shoe Polish--apply like paste car wax, let it dry and buff it out. I have never had any luck with any type of marker for covering and matching, so I don't even try anymore. YMMV

Good Luck!!!

Savatage,
May try Kiwi. See how it works. One grill has a little large area bow-in of center thst can't rasily be seen. Will likely leave it. Other has one small crease i will address.
thanks

 

[Old Guy8]

I had a pair of 1290's that I repainted the metal grills. I used satin black and it came out nice. As far as the cloth on the back side, I stripped it off. It was a matter of preference. If your interested in doing this, I used a razor blade scraper, then sanded. Pressure washed them, lightly sanded again, then painted. I realize why the cloth is there but with the gap that the grills have on the 1290's, I didn't think it made much of a difference. I think they sounded better when done.

Mike, Thanks for reply. May paint and try without cloth backing like you did.
On side note, only larger ADS's I have heard were L980's screaming some music not my taste in a garage. Bet those 1290's sound nice. I now have two sets l880's stacked, powered by a small Rogue hybrid in parallel, 175 or 200 wpc, 4 ohms. Has some serious bass.
All great info. Thank you.

 

[Obankenobi]

I painted some similar Canton grills with satin black rattle can paint, they came out looking like new. Brushed with steel wool first and made sure to get any stray 'hairs' off

 

[Blue Shadow]

I have done metal work on a few different pairs of grilles, all coming out very nice. My workbench has two layers of vinyl flooring on it and this offers a hard but soft surface to back up the work area on the large area dents. Once these are out of the speaker, a backing board, buck of some shape will help get the smaller dings out. These are aluminum grilles, I think, and it is thin. It does not take much to get it to go back in position. I use a couple pound mallet and a board of correct size, a 4x4 chunk maybe, to get the large spots smoothed. Then if there is a crease to deal with a regular hammer is large enough to tap that smooth. Just need to move the metal from large corrections down to small correction using appropriate tools until you are happy with the results.

Here is a 1590/2 grille I have smoothed, painted with Satin Black, installed, took the picture and then removed. These block a lot of the air movement as proven by feeling the rush of air around the edges of the grilles when installed. But they really look good when on the speakers.

 

[Old Guy8]

I have done metal work on a few different pairs of grilles, all coming out very nice. My workbench has two layers of vinyl flooring on it and this offers a hard but soft surface to back up the work area on the large area dents. Once these are out of the speaker, a backing board, buck of some shape will help get the smaller dings out. These are aluminum grilles, I think, and it is thin. It does not take much to get it to go back in position. I use a couple pound mallet and a board of correct size, a 4x4 chunk maybe, to get the large spots smoothed. Then if there is a crease to deal with a regular hammer is large enough to tap that smooth. Just need to move the metal from large corrections down to small correction using appropriate tools until you are happy with the results.

Here is a 1590/2 grille I have smoothed, painted with Satin Black, installed, took the picture and then removed. These block a lot of the air movement as proven by feeling the rush of air around the edges of the grilles when installed. But they really look good when on the speakers.

View attachment 769768

Blue shadow,
That grill looks good.
Thanks to all of you, for your experience and ideas. As always AK members come through again.
Old Guy8

 

[Blue Shadow]

How is the body work coming along?

Have the parts moved to paint, yet?

 

[Old Guy8]

How is the body work coming along?

Have the parts moved to paint, yet?

Blue Shadow,
Have not done a thing but listen to them, so far. Guilty. Sound great. But, I am recapping some Ohm C2's on workbench as I write. Been chewing over what way to go. Think it will get flattened out and full paint job. Will try to come close to my other L880's. Don't know if will lokk for replacement cloth for backs. See how they look without first. Speaker grills, unlike receiver cabinets, they're right in the open. I better do a good paint job.

 

[Porkloin]

"Cambric" is the name of the cloth if you care to join the girls down at JoAnn's. They use it to make dust blocking cozies. It's only behind the front face of my grills, but I'll probably be doing the whole thing as I'll have over $200 invested in new goop on the domes.

 

[Old Guy8]

"Cambric" is the name of the cloth if you care to join the girls down at JoAnn's. They use it to make dust blocking cozies. It's only behind the front face of my grills, but I'll probably be doing the whole thing as I'll have over $200 invested in new goop on the domes.

View attachment 770561

Porkloin,
Thanks, will pickup some. I have not yet considered any work on the domes. Are you doing it now? L880's?

 

[MJB1959]

View attachment 769715 I aquired a second pair of ADS L880's, series 2 version. They do have a couple light dents and scratched off paint. Anyone have experience with paint touchup on ADS perferated grills? Also reducing dents. These grills have a cloth backing to keep dust off the sticky surface mids and tweets. If touched up I won't have to disturb and replace cloth. Ideas?

The felt material on the inside can be peeled off, and I have used nail polish to cover paint nicks to good effect, as for the dents, it's kind of hit and miss as to the quality of results you can get, maybe if you have the funds, see what a auto body shop might try.

 

[Blue Shadow]

as for the dents, it's kind of hit and miss as to the quality of results you can get,

Not really. It is not hard to get great results. grab the grille and start with the biggest problems and bang em out. go to the next size down on issues and keep doing that until you have what you need. Even the curved edge ones want to go back to original. cracked or broken is another issue but the metal can be worked very easily. An autobody guy would laugh they are so easy.

 

[Old Guy8]

MJB,
Yes I could see how novice bending could make worse instead of better. I'm going to take it slow monitoring for improvement. Mine are not to bad dents wise. There are quite a few areas without paint though. Think do need a full repaint.

 

[Porkloin]

Porkloin,
Thanks, will pickup some. I have not yet considered any work on the domes. Are you doing it now? L880's?

L-780's. Disassembled the mids and tweets before going to Richard So for the refurb. I wanted to paint the face plates with the same paint that the baffles will be getting. I've also recapped and have done quite a bit of listening with new -vs - old and electrolytic -vs- poly, but don't want to finalize my opinions until the drivers are "equalized" by Richard.

 

[LexDM3]

I've had some rough 1290 grills come through here. Some of the methods I've used are similar to what others have posted here.

To take out dents, I put a couple of layers of painters tape on the face of a hammer. I used a linoleum floor tile underneath and gently tapped the grill dents out. The aluminum they used is easy to work. Take your time and you'll get the dents out.

The shoe polish trick works well on both metal and wood. Another good thing is to use a black oil-based Sharpie and go over the dents. Most regular black Sharpies are somewhat purple but the oil ones are true black. After you put it on, let it partly dry and then run over it with your thumb to kill the sheen.

 

[Jelle]

Fixing them up is all fine and cute, but how does one get a new set of grills for an ADS L1290? Mine came without grills.... :-(