Hardway1969

Just found your thread in the Technical section. Love your Forte's! Great work on bringing the veneer back to life.

That is beautiful! Stunning actually! Do you build components to order for clients? Your metal working skills are awesome. I assume you have access to a machine shop to achieve such precision. Thank you for sharing!

The veneer on the side risers has lifted in the middle and on the verge of splitting as well as the top. The pictures below is some of the worst damage but not all. At this point staining them is out of the question. I am going to let everything dry for the rest of the day and research options to possible salvage the veneer. The sides have faired well but this project is not going to plan. If I can repair the veneer enough I will look in to 314carpenter's suggestion of the lacquer black. I welcome any suggestions and feedback.

So applied another coat of Citri Strip. Since it indicated the working time was 30mins - 24 hours I figured I would let it go overnight and see how it did. The initial results were promising but quickly turned to disappointment as the edges of the veneer were now lifting. As I scraped the top a piece of veneer came out and an edge peeled up. FUDGE! The pictures below are after a wipe down with warm water to pull as much of the dried up CS off as I could.

Since I did not want to take a chance of sanding anymore veneer off I bought some Citri Stripper and did two rounds of it. I let the first round sit for about an hour and scrapped it off while it was still gooey. It definitely pulled a good bit of the black paint off but there was still a lot left behind.

I continue to work on the single Quartet, always keeping in mind I have the other waiting for me that is in the exact same shape. I put a 220 sanding disc on my Makita random orbital sander to see if I could get the bulk of the black paint off the front riser. It was heaviest on the ends and was careful not to let the sander catch the edge. Unfortunately I was not careful enough and ended up sanding some of the veneer away at the very bottom.

Yeah, its a cool car. It was somewhat neglected when I bought it in January. Have spent quite a bit of money and a whole lot of time getting things right on it. At times, it has fought me for every inch of progress. Thank goodness it is pretty... I would have given up a long time ago if it wasn't.

Before I started this project I read countless posts and articles on refinishing speakers like these back to satin black. I am not truly "restoring" these speakers, just refreshing them enough to get permission from the wife to let them in to the house. With that in mind I bought some satin black Rustoleum paint that others had reported good results with. Starting with the just the bottom riser, I thinned it down 8 to 1 in hopes it would allow some of the grain to come through. After the first pass, applying as thin a coat as possible, I could tell the paint was just standing on top of the grain so I wiped it off. I thinned down to 10 to 1 and tried another pass and it had the same result so it was wiped off too. I know I could buy some more expensive Benjamin Moore enamel that others have raved about but my question is, will that allow the grain to be seen? I suspect the original black was sprayed on and that is why it is coming off so easily with mild sanding. If this is true, should I look in to getting them sprayed professionally? Another thought that has recently crossed my mind is, since the black is coming off so easy, I could possibly strip them and stain them a dark walnut color. This would be color where any black that was stubborn would contrast with the stain and not stick out. I welcome any thoughts you guys and girls have. Thanks!

My plan has always been to go back to black as that is their original color. Wanting to preserve as much of the veneer's grain as possible, I started with 400 grit sand paper on a good sized sanding block. This was to help flatten the surfaces that were raised due to damage. The blue paint literally came off looking like laser printer toner. I was surprised how quickly the original black came off in some spots as well.Everything smoothed out very well so I was happy with the results of just an hour's worth of hand sanding.

Its been a long time since my last post but I still have these speakers. I have hung on to them with the goal of refinishing them so I can bring them in to the house and enjoy them. They have seen one car be sold, two more come in, and a host of other small projects get attention. Well now it is their turn as my '88 Mercedes Benz 560SEC is with my mechanic getting its air conditioning addressed. Below are some pictures of their current state. The blue/purple paint appears to be some sort of latex as it has a somewhat chalky finish to it. The top has seen the brunt of abuse as you clearly see some prints left from a piece of equipment, mild water damage, and scratches. I used some frog tape and bubble wrap I had to cover the front while I work on it.

I am just now seeing this. Congrats on the score! They look to be in fantastic shape. It never ceases to amaze me what people GIVE AWAY to the Goodwill. I have found all of my Klipsch speakers and vintage gear at GW and the Salvation Army. Funny thing I see GW put low end cheap stuff in their auction cabinets yet put the good stuff on the shelf. Thank goodness for it as it lets enthusiasts like us scoop them up at very reasonable prices.

I received the drivers yesterday and all was exactly as described! Thank you so much for helping get my KG2 to a more correct state.

I know this thread is over a year old but did you ever sell the K-9-K woofer?

I learned this lesson the hard way and started taking pictures of stuff as a I packed it up to show what the pre-ship condition was. File a claim, submit any pictures you have, and go from there. UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, they all ship and destroy stuff. I remember getting a package that had the tire tread mark on it when they ran over the corner with the forklift. In that case the seller simply sent me another one as he wanted me to be happy. At the very least, these companies know when they mess up. They should be more proactive, include an apology note and offer to help with the claims process. I realize how "perfect world" sounding that is but anything is possible if a company chooses to embrace it.

I will listen to them more over the weekend. Maybe I can convince the wife to let me bring them in to the house so I can hook them up to my Denon 2ch receiver. When hooked up to my Yamaha there was a noticeable absence of highs but plenty of mid range and bass. If this rings true when hooked up to my Denon I will pull the tweeters out and take a look at them. Progress will be slow on these as they are not an urgent project but I will certainly post a lot of "in progress" pictures and details.

Thank you Cohoangler! Yeah, they definitely look a lot better. Luckily the stuff that looked like mold was in fact mildew. Next time I have them on their side I will look in to the riser. At this point they are definitely going back to black, just need to prep them and determine the best way to get them to as close to the black factory finish as possible. I will research Bob's parts and kits this week and look in to placing an order soon. I am excited!

I would be eager to know as well as my Quartets were factory black but some moron painted them purple.

I pulled the crossovers out for a visual inspection and did not see anything out of the ordinary. The capacitor looked good and was not swelled up or busted open. Should I look in to buying whole new crossovers or could I repair what I have? Should I start with the capacitor and go from there?

Since it was pouring rain outside and elbow grease is free I decided to clean up the Quartets. All in all they came out very nice. I was not able to get the centers of the rear radiators to pull out with my shop vac. I have a feeling they have been push in for some time. Of course, my cleaning started with vacuuming the bottoms out since I got a sneak peak of all the cobwebs when I was loading them in to my car.

Thank you everyone for all the information and encouragement. I don't know the history of them but based on the mold I can only assume they did not move for quite sometime, possibly in a storage unit or something. I will take pictures as I go along to document their condition and any interesting finds inside. Documentation and photos are my thing as I am a vintage car enthusiast and currently the caretaker of a 1971 Datsun 240z. I keep an going repair thread for it so this should be something interesting to have in the shop. http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/49581-hardways-1971-240z-8011-build-and-repair-thread/#comment-451072

I found a very unloved pair of Quartets at one of the Goodwill's I frequent on Tuesday 11/29 for $20. They need a serious cleaning but all of the drivers and radiators work. They sounded much better than I expected. I am going to investigate the condition of the crossover as the highs sound a bit dull. According to the price tag they were put out on Sunday 11/27. I am sure the less than desirable purple stain and sheer weight of 52 pounds made a lot of people simply walk by them or give up once they attempted to move them. Getting them in my small sports car was definitely a challenge but worth it in the end. Despite the hideous color the cabinets are in pretty good shape with no major physical damage to the veneer. I have already been researching what it would take to restore the cabinets as well as the upgrades from Bob Crites. The serial numbers are non-sequential and are very far apart from each other. The tag indicates the original finish as BLK 19. I am fond of the natural walnut finish but since these are supposed to be black I will return them to their original color. I will also try to pull the cones of the rear radiators back out using a shop-vac and brush attachment. Hopefully with some patience it will return to its original form. A few questions. What is the best cleaner and type of wrag to get the mold off the woofer? I don't want to do any damage to it or leave a lot of lint behind. How much power do these really need to sound right? At the moment, just for testing I have a Yamaha 2ch RX-595 40wpc receiver hooked up to them but I feel its under powered for these. I have a larger Denon 2ch DRA-685 rated at 100wpc. Do I need more than that?