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Talk me out of this - LaScala transformation -


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ok, you guys win.....I bought a paint gun at homedepot original list price 200...on sale fore 79......2 qts of black lacquer at 22 a can soe we are at 22X2+79=113, plus 8 hrs of sand and repaint tine....

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I did quite a lot of painting this year on my other projects and when it came time to put the paint (color) on the body it was early august and there was a lot of stuff in the air. To give myself half a chance of the paint to look good I cleaned the garage (well half of it any way, and a 4 mil. curtain down the middle) and put a fan in the window. It worked pretty good for the money and effort. Get a decent mask if you plan on spraying 2 wuarts of lacquer, I gave under $40 to HD for the one I have been using, I understand that there are "active" for lack of a better term in the filters and should be kept in an air tight bag when not in use. The body in the garage is the same as the avatar. more info at

http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/elan-f14/sows-ear-chassis-t24752-120.html

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well, so far...they are coming out very good...except for one top corner....an area of about half an inch by 4 inches. the area had some ply layers knocked off. the difficulty is using a filler that is compatible with the lacquer paint. first attempt was fine saw dust mixed with the black lacquer paint (I found a DIY wood filler recipe for lacquer paint projects on a wood craftmans site). that bonded very well and takes the paint as well as the wood does....the screw up was sanding it after only a day.....gumed up my sand paper pretty fast. second attempt is going to sit for a week and we'll see how that goes. if that doesn't work ill probably cut the area out in a uniform manner using a biscuit groove cutter and just insert some new wood in its place. Over all everything but the tops are done. The tops need some sanding and recoating.......both cabs have grooves from being slid while stacked...etc. Lacquer paint is really pretty easy to work with if you have a oil base capable gun and plenty of lacquer thinner.

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will this design be able to stand alone or rely on corner loading and will it compare to the FH-1 that Claude and Moray speak of ??.2S2P


I decided not to cut the cabs up to experiment with the 15" jub cab. the jub design works best in corners.


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so it looks like the troublesome corner has been conquered. rewind to the first attempt......I ripped off all the filler using a belt sander since there was a lot of material to sand off. round two was a reapplication of the material.....and after it set for a few hours...I put a piece of postal mail cardboard over the area and ironed it with a very hot iron....lots of pressure and heat....end result...the area is very level and very hard....a few hits with a vibrating sander should do it. so these cabs should be done by COB saturday.....won't do anything with them during the week. unfortunately...didn't take any before pictures....but I'll put up an after pic.

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  • 2 weeks later...

time to take a peek at the bar scruffy's. those are not creates on the bottom. they are cornwall style ports . with the top section routered out and the back enclosed......using a few web calculators I get at tune of 41.5 hz. I made a set of cornwall style ports about 6 years ago using an added bottom section....recently sold so I need a replacement.

Tope section mod is next. They were both in pretty bad shape. tops had lost all their finish and had deep grooves. Left cab had a top edge section about 4"X.5" ripped off about two layers deep. both cabs had no paint left on the front edges. I was going to cut the tops off and use them for a project but since they were lacquer finish and never painted or treated with silicone based polishes....there was a chance to salvage them.

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plan is to install a complete AL-4 upgrade kit in them, including the bi-wire metal terminal plate in use on pre-2007 models.

Back to work. got some more sanding and recoating to do.

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LOL I did the same thing in my garage this summer, half of it encolsed in plastic so I could paint and sand....worked ok but far from a paint booth!!!! next time I think I will do all the prep and then take them to a auto body shop and let them do the finall spray!!

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having an auto body shop do the painting would be great......I checked with a few and they told me they could not paint wood because having wood in the shop is a fire hazard.

so I bought a paint gun on sale at HD, modified it with a few orings so it wouldn't leak, and so fat, it's doing the job. you definitely have to dismantle the gun and re-oil the pistons between use.

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so today I router'd out the tops.....framed in the rear xover area to except a cover plate.....router'd out the cover plate to accept the AL-4 bi-wire termainal assembly. weather is looking pretty good so maybe another sand and paint iteration........????

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the backs are totally framed in . the frame runs edge to edge and top (all the way to the inside top of the horn section) to bottom...cut to 1/16th of an inch....it's nice and tight and with the correct seal...should not leak.

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WOW....Speakerfritz those are looking beautiful, VERY NICE WORK!!!!!.... From the last picture it looks like they are emitting some kind of divine Klipsch light..Cool

yes...the light is saying "stop with all the painting, sanding, painting already and assemble....its getting cold"

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