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Paining La Scalas Im scared


dtximages

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Ok most of you know, i have a destroyed pair of la scalas. i tried to reveneer them and its just going to be too much work and money. there is alot of surface area considering the size and the woofer horn. I think im going to paint them black.

Tell me what you think and what i should do. I want to buy a very high quality black and paint them, then coat them with polyeurathane (however its spelled).

suggestions please?

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That might turn out pretty cool!

Personally, these are a home version of PA Speakers anyhow... Just make sure you get it all the way back in the doghouse so it looks like a pro job! One of the best pairs I ever saw, had a LOT fo poly on them, almost like a grand piano finish. Those were cool!

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yeah thats what i wanted was a black shiny veneer (maybe add some bass boat sparkle for my redneck friends). i want them to look like a car finish or a piano. but no one sells that veneer that i can find. i want to be able to touch it first. idont want to blindly order from the net .

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i want them to look like a car finish or a piano.

I still wonder if one could do all of the prep (filling & sanding) and then get an auto painter to do a gloss black on the speaers. It might be worth asking an independent (if you can find one) auto painter about it.

I don't know abou the metalflake, tho! [:$]

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Once you get all the vener off, and remove any sticky stuff, prime them with oil based primer mixed with 15% mineral spirits.

They probally won't look that bad once they are all even tone. From there you can fill, sand, and prime again, before giving them a final black goat. Stay away from full gloss since it shows imperfections. A semi-gloss or satten finish would look best.

The oil base paint penetrates a lot better than water based.

A lot of places do not carry oil based house paint, but carry oil base metal paint such as rustolium. Comes in base (you can add color mix), gray primer, gloss black, satten black, semi-gloss black, and a few other colors.

Your final coat will also have to be oil based paint.

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You're not going to get shiny piano black, it's just too much body work if the cabinets have been torn apart like I can imagine.

Just get em with a good base and paint solid oil base black. JWCullison has experimented with different paint techniques with his Cornscalas and DBB Corns. You might query him.

Funny you should mention that sparkle stuff. I remember my first guitar cabinet. I had two eminence 12" and knew about horns, so I made this really horrid cabinet out of 3/8" ply kind of voice of theatre style. Then threw glitter in the wet black paint for the rock and roll look! LOL

M

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I'll throw in some thoughts.

1) I always quote the books. Exeriment first on some similar material. If you've got a lot of goo from the veneer, maybe that is difficult to duplicate. This is just to say that the second or third project always go better than the first. So make some scrap wood the first and second efforts.

2) The little rollers, about 3 inches wide and 1.5 inches in diameter are very good for painting. They come with their own little painting pan. I use a lot of satin white and satin black latex. I'm sure they're good for oil too.) You must put on a thin first coat and use a sanding block to knock down uglies. The second coat is much better. A third can be wonderfully smooth.

3) If you need to sand out glue, a good random orbit sander can be very helpful. I could loan you my Bosch if you want.

4) I messed up big time in putting down wood veneer on a project. The surface was a mess after I peeled off the veneer. I "solved" the problem by applying Formica type plastic laminate (actually WilsonArt) from HD. There is a medium shine black which is quite pretty, if a little flat.

You're project sounds like mine. Though I will not suggest that you made as big a mess as I did. Smile.

The laminate is good because it hides everything and you should be able to use the same glue as the veneer, unless you were using iron on.

In this case you might get away with just doing the top and two sides. Then rig up some grill cloth. The upper part would take a plane frame. You could make some W shaped frame for the bottom, making it look like a Belle.

If you do this you will need a router to trim. I could loan you my little Porter Cable if you're in need.

Best,

Gil

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Besides seconding what Gill said, I suggest trying some black lacquer (on scrap material). The better types are self leveling to a degree and can give you the glossiest black finish this side of French Polishing. Thia presumes of course that you start with a smooth surface. I used some on MDF straight from Home Depot and got a very nice black finish.

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From there you can fill, sand, and prime again, before giving them a final black goat. Stay away from full gloss since it shows imperfections.

Those black goats can be very problematic. Some of them shed quite badly, and the hair gets in the paint...

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