Aquaplas repair ??

[gdwrench]

Yep,lets give it a whirl !!

I picked up some LE 14a's over the weekend that the original owner tried to clean the surround areas and chipped them all up :yes:.One of the cones had a small fracture in the middle also,so I'll fix this too.

This material reminds me of "gelcoat" and is workable in a similar fashion. I ended up sanding all the chipped edges flush with 150 grit, sanding the cones edging being careful not to take anymore of the paper that I could help....I blew that clean with some air pressure and then mixed up some catalized clear and thinned that out a little.I applied this mix to the exposed paper edges with a small paintbrush and it "wicked" right in to the exposed paper.This will make it 'solid" overnite so the paper edge does not fray or deteriotate anymore (could probably use superglue also). Tomorrow I should be able to sand this and spray some type of textured material at them and then paint them before the surrounds go on....

Edit : I also found a great way to clean off the old surround material off of aquaplas :yes:. What I used was a Dremmel with a "wire wheel" Arbor.This wheel has "nylon" bristles on it opposed to brass or steel. It takes off the old surround and adhesive without damaging the aquaplas !!! Just awesome,and no chemicals to loosen the glue

 

[nissan guy]

Good score. Also thanks for the tip on the surround removal. I have a set of l100t3 woofers i am in the process of re foaming right now, but the residual glue on the basket has stopped me from going any further. I haven't had any glue stuck on this bad on any of my other speakers so far. Jbl must have used some good adhesive.

 

[Sir.Byrd]

I had to fix a puncture in a LE14A and after I patched it I color-matched the patch to the old color. The texture wasn't perfect but it is was pretty close, you couldn't tell from farther than 1 foot away.

 

[wiredbecker]

Looks really good Byrd. What type of paint did you use?

 

[Sir.Byrd]

Acrylic

 

[wiredbecker]

Even more impressive because acrylic usually has a glossy plastic-like quality to it. Did you mix it with a matte varnish? or simply dilute it with water and do multiple layers?

 

[Sir.Byrd]

Multiple layers, just straight up paint.

 

[wiredbecker]

Noted. I've got some stained aquaplas needing cleanup. Thanks for the tips. :thmbsp:

 

[Copa1934]

Yep,lets give it a whirl !!

I picked up some LE 14a's over the weekend that the original owner tried to clean the surround areas and chipped them all up :yes:.One of the cones had a small fracture in the middle also,so I'll fix this too.

This material reminds me of "gelcoat" and is workable in a similar fashion. I ended up sanding all the chipped edges flush with 150 grit, sanding the cones edging being careful not to take anymore of the paper that I could help....I blew that clean with some air pressure and then mixed up some catalized clear and thinned that out a little.I applied this mix to the exposed paper edges with a small paintbrush and it "wicked" right in to the exposed paper.This will make it 'solid" overnite so the paper edge does not fray or deteriotate anymore (could probably use superglue also). Tomorrow I should be able to sand this and spray some type of textured material at them and then paint them before the surrounds go on....

Edit : I also found a great way to clean off the old surround material off of aquaplas :yes:. What I used was a Dremmel with a "wire wheel" Arbor.This wheel has "nylon" bristles on it opposed to brass or steel. It takes off the old surround and adhesive without damaging the aquaplas !!! Just awesome,and no chemicals to loosen the glue

I've used the dremel now on 3 sets of LE10's, but I used the steel. Next time I'll try the nylon instead. I didn't have any damage, but I like the idea it worked for you. I should try the super glue trick, didn't think about reinforcing the edges like that. Have a 122a that could probably use such a treatment. Someone replaced the surround but used cheap material and glued it on the face instead of the backside. Pain.

 

[jimbofish]

I also found a great way to clean off the old surround material off of aquaplas :yes:. What I used was a Dremmel with a "wire wheel" Arbor.This wheel has "nylon" bristles on it opposed to brass or steel. It takes off the old surround and adhesive without damaging the aquaplas !!! Just awesome,and no chemicals to loosen the glue

Aw, man! :sigh: I wish you'd discovered this back in July!

 

[westend]

I once repaired a 6" tear in an Aquaplas woofer, using light paper and adhesive. These were applied to the back of the cone. I did nearly the same as Sir Byrd, using flat acrylic latex paint (blended to color) and a fine brush. This was used to blend out the line from the repaired tear. I don't know if I'd squirt a full coat on the whole cone, that may result in a change in response because of the added material.

 

[gdwrench]

Aw, man! :sigh: I wish you'd discovered this back in July!

If its any consultation Jimbo, while I was cleaning them I was thinking of you

 

[gdwrench]

Good score. Also thanks for the tip on the surround removal. I have a set of l100t3 woofers i am in the process of re foaming right now, but the residual glue on the basket has stopped me from going any further. I haven't had any glue stuck on this bad on any of my other speakers so far. Jbl must have used some good adhesive.

On the basket side I would use the more aggressive bristles as not too waste the nylon. You would get faster results also :yes:

 

[jimbofish]

If its any consultation Jimbo, while I was cleaning them I was thinking of you

It'll probably happen again when you refoam.

 

[gdwrench]

It'll probably happen again when you refoam.

I'll try to make sure they are not upsidown......or was that upsidright???

 

[gdwrench]

Here's this evenings festivity's

Did some light sanding with 240 grit and started applying texture after tapeoff.The first texture material I used "stood" up to high so I had to let it dry and knock it down and apply something else.What I ended up using was "chipgaurd"/"rocker spray".You can get this stuff at O'reily's I believe or other auto parts places...Your local jobber if necessary.It comes in different colors so I opted for white so I won't have to use that much paint overtop...Trying to stay as thin as possible due to the weight factor.

I kept most of the material toward the top and just sort of blend downwards trying to make a uniform appearance..It might look a little thick in a couple spots but thats because its "wet",when it drys it shrinks and looks much better...

This last pic here is where I marked it with tape.....Directly above this is the "fracture" repair

 

[gdwrench]

The first pic here you can see how nice this stuff shrank up...looks good enough for paint !!

I picked a color called "heirloom white",it was the closest to the aquaplas I saw and went with it:yesin fact I think it's a direct hit).I sprayed them just enough to cover uniformly and then applied one coat of "satin clear" to dull them up somewhat.I think they turned out awesome and probably have about 3 hrs into them total if that

The last pic I'm pointing directly at the fracture :yes:,all the edges look uniform as if they were never touched !!That treatment with the clear really helped there.....This material will shrink just a little more overnite tonite.........Tomorrow I'll finish cleaning the baskets and then it's surround time.

 

[gdwrench]

Here they are with the surrounds all attached with contact cement...Quite a bit of work here when doing 2 pair. You can also see I had been doing other detail to them in the interim...

Question: Were the original surrounds supposed to be adhered to the "face" of the cones on the LE 14a's ??? When I cleaned the left over material off them,the adhesive and surround remnants was on the "face". I have seen these drivers in other photo's where they appear to be on the backside of the cones :scratch2:. These drivers have not been reconed as there are no part# stickers on the backsides and the spider adhesive definately looks original.. Either way I opted to apply these to the "backside" of the cone's

 

[Copa1934]

Here they are with the surrounds all attached with contact cement...Quite a bit of work here when doing 2 pair. You can also see I had been doing other detail to them in the interim...

Question: Were the original surrounds supposed to be adhered to the "face" of the cones on the LE 14a's ??? When I cleaned the left over material off them,the adhesive and surround remnants was on the "face". I have seen these drivers in other photo's where they appear to be on the backside of the cones :scratch2:. These drivers have not been reconed as there are no part# stickers on the backsides and the spider adhesive definately looks original.. Either way I opted to apply these to the "backside" of the cone's

Hey, what's with the blue? Looks kinda cool. All the LE speakers I've done were all backside, but honestly I'm not an expert. The white paint job looks cool. Probably will have some impact on performance, but difficult to say how much. Big cones.

Hey, how are your Frankenspeakers sounding, by the way? Been a while since you completed them. You've had some time with them, I'm sure, and I'm wondering what your thoughts were.

 

[gdwrench]

Hey, what's with the blue? Looks kinda cool. All the LE speakers I've done were all backside, but honestly I'm not an expert. The white paint job looks cool. Probably will have some impact on performance, but difficult to say how much. Big cones.

Hey, how are your Frankenspeakers sounding, by the way? Been a while since you completed them. You've had some time with them, I'm sure, and I'm wondering what your thoughts were.

Well the blue thing is that I'm doing a project where I'm changing things up a little :yes:. Going to trick out some Lancers . The white really needed to be done as the edges of the drivers were chipped pretty bad (well to me anyway).I did end up taking some of the aquaplas off and only put on enough material to achieve "hiding"..I can't see the difference being that dramatic with my application only being a mill or two :scratch2:
Yes I'm pretty sure the surrounds are supposed to be on the backs also,just somewhat confused why there was old surround and adhesive on the front sides..

Ah yes,the ole' speaker conversion ! Those are covered up in the corner right now awaiting some driver transplant's.The mids that I used were actually woofers and you can guess how they sounded . I do already have the replacements I just haven't made time to get back at them,,,but I will