Quick and dirty foam revival

[tarior]

I would have one (serious) concern. There might be a solvent in the rubber spray that reacts badly with the foam. It would be a disaster if the foam just dissolved.

This. The solvent carrier will almost certainly dissolve the old foam.

 

[Doug G.]

Why. not use the "experts'" choice - duct tape?



Doug

 

[dbCO]

I would have one (serious) concern. There might be a solvent in the rubber spray that reacts badly with the foam. It would be a disaster if the foam just dissolved.

If so, it's yet another refoam.

 

[dbCO]

I did coat some surrounds on the inside as well. Not easy, but can be done. I ultimately decided that inside coating was not necessary. Remember, the more coating you apply increases the chance you will alter the sound of the driver. All the speakers I coated were important to me. All are still up and working today.

Thanks, that's good to hear.

 

[dbCO]

If they are still intact- why mess with it, is my thought?

I'm going for a brief visit to my sons home 1100 miles away, I did the slave cones then but I'll have seven grandchildren charging around this time. I'd like to test it first here and if it seems workable I'll give that a go. The slave cone surrounds were completely vaporized when I replaced them in July.

 

[dbCO]

The verdict is in! I would like to thank you all for your thoughtful input. I came up with two older surrounds which cleanly came off of the 8 inch drivers without without damage. I sprayed with X-Protector, it went on evenly and set up relatively quickly. It was flexible in a manner that would work well for construction situations. Even a thin layer was much stiffer than a foam or butyl surround and I did not feel that it would hold up as a speaker surround. I will order the same surrounds that I used on the slave cones because I didn't think that I could remove the excellent spray from the cone if some got onto it. Sorry for the lack of photos, but they would not have shown that the rubber, while flexible, was much too stiff for a surround. Thanks to all.

 

[rumblestrip]

Has anyone ever tried spray rubber sealant to refresh very old, but still intact foam surrounds. I'm thinking of removing the drivers, masking the cone and spraying a layer of rubber over the foam surrounds. These obviously are not audio treasures. I have done dozens of surround replacements but these have always been after the foam was no longer intact.
I understand that the Fs may change but these are only less than top notch JBLs.

Thank you for any thoughtful input. dbCO

Actually, not a bad idea. I tried it myself a few times using the flowable silicone windshield sealant I got in the automotive department at Canadian Tire. It worked really well on foam surrounds that were still intact. The only problem was when the foam was so dry and fragile that if you spread it on with a brush it was thick enough that it could brush a hole in the foam. So all I did was drop a gob on a patch then hold the speaker up with the cone facing sideways, turning it slowly and tilting it sideways as the silicone ran down (remember it's flowable) and let gravity do the spreading. Just be sure to make it run far enough on the sides to make contact with the metal frame or the surround will just separate from the frame there. Once the surround is completely covered set the speaker down facing up and the silicone settles into a nice even, clear, layer that is quite strong once it's dried. Then, if you want the maximum sealing, do the reverse side of the surrounds, too. Also, if the silicone is too thick to run easily you can thin it a bit with paint thinner.