greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 I took a pair of Cornwall II's in on trade last year. They were in pretty nice shape overall, but the grills were not my cup of tea. Actually, I think the old green colored grills are rather ugly. I decided to try to dye them brown and this is what happened. Here they are on some plastic on my shop floor. One original ugly and the other sprayed with a mixture of water and brown dye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 I used this dye and put two caps of the dye into an old glass cleaner spray bottle and filled it with water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 Then I sprayed the mixture liberally onto the grills, soaking the cloth completely. As I started spraying, dark brown spots appeared and I didn't think this was going to work. But as I sprayed more and soaked them down, the color evened out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 I sprayed from all four sides of the grills to make sure the mixture got into all the crevices. Then I pulled the plastic up over and let them sit for two hours. I was sort of following directions at this point, in that they said to soak the clothing for a certain amount of time and then rinse out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 To rinse them, I used a hose and hosed them down with hot water. I have a floor drain in my shop and I used pieces of wood under the plastic to direct the flow of water to the drain. Then I let them sit flat on the floor for a day to dry out. Radiant floor heat, so they dried in one day. It may take longer on an unheated floor. When they were dry, they looked much better than the ugly green, but not dark enough, and the dye color was darker in some areas than others. Sorry I don't have a picture. So, I decided to do the dye mixture again, but I did it differently this time, and this is what I recommend. I used 3 caps of dye in the spray bottle and then filled it with water. I soaked the grills the same as before, from all four directions and really soaked them good. Completely saturated. It took one spray bottle full per grill. Then, without covering them, I let them sit there for a day to dry. When I came back the next day, they were completely dry and a very nice even brown color. I gently rubbed the cloth to see if any brown residue would come off and nothing did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 What a difference! This really worked a lot better than I thought it would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 One of the reasons it worked so well is because I chose a dye color that actually had a chance of working with the original color of the grills. What I mean is, I was going a little darker than the originals, and not too far off the original tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 The brown really looks nice with the oak too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 13, 2008 Author Share Posted March 13, 2008 Your results may vary. I've only done it this one time. I may have lucked out, I don't know. Please don't email me and tell me you ruined your grills because of this photo-essay, I would just dye! [] Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customsteve01 Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 That looks great, but I thought you said Grills to die for....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundbound Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 An awesome idea! They look very nice. Great job. [Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arky Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 You sure have a talent for such things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Excellent work and good thinking and technique. The spray bottle and wrapping them up to 'soak' is genius. Tell me, what color were they really to start? That doesn't look like Heritage cloth weave and it must surely have been real fabric (not poly) in order for the dye to soak up and 'take'. But yet they look original? hmmmm I'll ask Steve P to check this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groomlakearea51 Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Please don't email me and tell me you ruined your grills...I would just dye! Greg Now that's funny!! The "dye" is cast!! Great work!! Was the cloth the synthetic fabric type? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Phillips Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 That looks great, but I thought you said Grills to die for....... Steve....OMG that is to die for, king of cookers for sure.....remember I moved up to Indy from NC, grilled out a lot for VFD fund raisers. BTW the grill cloth die turned out nice, very nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted March 14, 2008 Author Share Posted March 14, 2008 It sure looks like original grill cloth on original grill frames, glued in the manner than Klipsch did the grill cloth, and with the same type of velcro fasteners. I don't know what the original color was, but when I got them they were the ugly greenish color you see in the picture. I should have taken a "before" photo of the speakers. I don't know the exact makeup of the cloth, but I'm pretty sure it was the kind that's NOT supposed to take dye well. It seems like the same type of cloth as the black grill cloth from Wendell Fabrics/Duracrest. I was suprised it took as well as it did. At first the dye didn't take well. I was able to rinse a lot of it out after letting it soak for a couple of hours. The next attempt was without rinsing, I just let it dry on the cloth. I thought for sure I'd come back the next day and be able to wipe the dye off the cloth with my hand, but it didn't come off at all. Now - I didn't take a white cloth and try to wipe it off and I didn't put any water on it to see if it would come off. So I make no guarantees about the use of this product on cloth grills. But with the success I had on these ones, I'm just dyeing to try it again on another set. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Beautiful Work ! For some reason, when I looked at those Beautiful speakers................I got this sudden Urge .........(Got to get some exactly like that!!!!!). Again Great work, as always................ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shodrewken Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Very pretty indeed. The grills do go very well with the oak cabs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 It sure looks like original grill cloth on original grill frames, glued in the manner than Klipsch did the grill cloth, and with the same type of velcro fasteners. I don't know what the original color was, but when I got them they were the ugly greenish color you see in the picture. I should have taken a "before" photo of the speakers. I don't know the exact makeup of the cloth, but I'm pretty sure it was the kind that's NOT supposed to take dye well. It seems like the same type of cloth as the black grill cloth from Wendell Fabrics/Duracrest. I was suprised it took as well as it did. At first the dye didn't take well. I was able to rinse a lot of it out after letting it soak for a couple of hours. The next attempt was without rinsing, I just let it dry on the cloth. I thought for sure I'd come back the next day and be able to wipe the dye off the cloth with my hand, but it didn't come off at all. Now - I didn't take a white cloth and try to wipe it off and I didn't put any water on it to see if it would come off. So I make no guarantees about the use of this product on cloth grills. But with the success I had on these ones, I'm just dyeing to try it again on another set. Greg Thanks for the timely post. I was going in a different direction: http://www.fabricspraypaint.com/Default.asp?Folder=156&Name=_Upholstery_Fabric_Spray_Paint I had forgotten, or had not got that far in my thing, that there is such a thing as Rit dye! I like your results! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 greg, boy those look much better. regarding the dye rub off, etc. if you get the grill wet it will probably run off. just try to keep it dry man! Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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