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refinish/upgrade 1980 Cornwalls


johnstms92

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John (?)

-Marty actually!

I did look at a couple of those, and found some I really like.. I'm so torn in picking the right veneer so that's kind of where I'm at. In the mean time I just applied the last coat of Klean Strip to the cabinets as Im waiting here for them to bubble, the prices on veneers are starting to discourage me and lean me towards stain... Even though I won't be as happy with them, I might have to this time, go the cheaper route.. A Questions I have though, for all the knicks and craters in the cabinets, what is a good putty wood fill to use for this sort of thing?

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Marty,

If you are going to re-veneer or paint, just regular Auto Body Bondo works the best. If you are going to stain, you need a putty that will absorb the stain. Depending on how big the imperfection is, the more the putty will show up in the final stain. You will always be able to see the patch through the stain unless it is extremely small. The stainable puttys WILL show up through the stain, no matter how good it is.

Actually, if you follow the tutorials on veneering, you can do a pretty good job. It just takes time and patience. Of course, you will have to spend a few bucks to get the misc stuff/tools that are needed for veneer work. Also you can either use a trimming knife or a cabinet veneer bit on a router to trim the edges. It just depends on how nice you want to them to look and the amount of time that you want to put into it.

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I did a couple of similar jobs on a few cornwalls although I did not deal with spray paint. Watco is the way to go. Very easy. You cab get the walnut or cherry tinted Watco as well. You can do one tinted coat to darken the look then the regular watco for the rest of the coats to finish. I waited a good long time for the watco to set (week or more) and then finished with several buffed out coats of butcher's paste wax to get a bit of a soft gloss. I would also study some of the pictures and narratives posted by Greg at http://www.klipschupgrades.com/mkhorn.shtml. I followed a lot of his advice and it worked out great. I have posted some pics of my process at http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/105447.aspx?PageIndex=1. Good luck. PM me if I can help.

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I did as you suggested and read that entire page of his restoration on those beautiful Khorns... Absoloutly awesome.. since then I've ordered the same MinWax wood filler, the Heatlock veneer glue, and also after seeing what he did with the urethane and how that really made the veneer look so good, Im toying with the idea of doing the same.. But we'll see. Anyways, Haven't had much time the last few days to work on it at all now that I'm back at work with 12 hour days and up at 4A.M. my projects gonna be stilled until I get some free time this weekend. However, had to post today because my package arrived with my new speaker terminals... My jaw just dropped when I opened the package.. I had no clue what I was getting.. Check out the size of these terminals. I tried to take pictures that would show their size. I had to put them in a Photobucket link because the forums uploader said each file was too large. >>> http://photobucket.com/CWprojectTerminals

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I have yet another question... the previous owner thought it wise to rip off the back sheet with the serial numbers and signature and everything... However, he didn't get ALL of it off, so they were still defineable as true Klipsch.. However, here's the problem, I'm looking to paint the backs of the cabs black.. But want to keep what little tags I have left. Here are some photos of what I mean. http://photobucket.com/CabBacks ...... Is there a safe way to get the stickers off without ripping them, and still be able to put them back on after it's been painted? If not... I'll likely just not paint the back in order to keep the stickers.

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In my situations the labels have been mostly intact. If you want to save what you have you can follow the procedure I used. Glue down the label corners and edges. I also had to cut a couple of slits in some lifted areas to spread glue around. I wiped them down gently with a damp cloth to remove the glue residue. After they dried I cut a piece of paper an 1/8 smaller on all the boarders and taped it down with blue painters tape. This process minimizes the tape contact to the very edge of the label. In your case you could trace the irregular shape after the gluing to make the paper for masking. Then apply some tape to the paper and trim the tape to leave the 1/8 boarder before you apply the paper/tape masking. Then paint with Krylon grey primer then Krylon Satin Black.

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Is that ebony paper backed?

I've done some of this iron-on with heat lock glue and have been warned that the oily Ebony veneer would have problems with the iron-on method. Mind you, I haven't tried it myself. All of the veneering I've done is with the thicker raw veneer from certainlywood.com.

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The highest oil content I have applied was some teak. See http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/128981.aspx?PageIndex=1. It did not cause a great deal of problems. I did have to apply a little more heat and some edge areas required a little more heatlock glue. I think the extra heat allowed the glue to move around. I finally found a balance of heat vs. glue movement. I would use and extra coat of glue if I were doing it again. Some areas showed some surface discoloration due to the heat but it came right off with some light sanding. Sanding was a little tougher with the oily wood filing sandpaper more quickly. Hope this helps.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Been incredibly busy the past couple weeks with zero time for my CW project! It's a good thing I have my pops pair of '78's to listen to in the mean time. Anyhow, got to spend a little time figuring a way to install my new speaker terminals.. After recieving them in the mail a couple weeks back, my father immediately wanted me to purchase him a pair after I showed him because they're just something I've never seen before.. Absoloutly huge. Laughed at them at first thinking I'd ordered the wrong thing, but here's what I came up with... they needed a full custom job in order to work properly. And even though it felt sinful taking a jigsaw to the back of a Cornwall... It had to be done......... You can see the screw holes from the original terminals in between the holes for the new ones.

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  • 9 months later...

Okay guys, so holy thread renew, I haven't finished updating the rest of my journey for my first restoration job... I got them all done and loaded with the ALK Universal crossovers, Crites tweeters, and upgraded the speaker cable to silver plated KASA Kable for the inside. For the looks, I got the Ebony Macassar veneer ironed on and trimmed, as well as a good 7 coats of Polyeurythane. And here are the final results for those interested in a guys first resto job.

First I stained the backs, and risers to match closer to the veneer. I tried to save what little bit of serial numbers I had left after the previous owner decided to strip them off..

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