refinished my amp

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

ppi pc2350. it was originally gun metal grey, but when i bought it, it wasn't well taken care of. the guy went into the military and his wife had it for a couple years in storage. she beat it up. anyway, i refinished it once before to match the paint on my sonoma.

i never really liked that color, even when it was in the vehicle i matched the paint to. it looked alot better on the shelf than on the amp. so i decided to go a silver color. i tried to get creative and do a kind of "smoke". the base color being silver and a very subtle dark grey "smoke". it didn't turn out how i wanted, but it looks ok. i can live with it for now. i had to hide alot of dents and deep scratches. i didn't do that when i painted it the first time.

primed

i forgot pics when i did the attempted smoke, but basically, i painted a coat of dark grey on first, then a coat of silver. when i was finished, i scuffed it with a scotch brite pad to remove just a little bit of the silver to reveal the grey underneath. i did it in long smooth strokes. it's just a little bit uneven. i should have practiced a little more on my piece of sheet metal. here's the finished amp. i put 8 coats of clear over it.

Click to read more...

 

[ssackett 10+ year member]

looks good!

 

[JB513 10+ year member]

looks nice

 

[benchambers80]

i like the color, came out well

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

looks good!

in person, you can see 1 dent. it's pretty subtle, but it's bugging me.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

i used some primer in a rattle can from home depot. the rustoleum brand primer. do not use that stuff on anything other than wood. it absolutely sucks to sand. it clumps up. i put very light coats of it on and even after 24 hours it acted like it was still tacky, almost like it was heating up as you sanded, even by hand.

 

[edzy 10+ year member]

did you gut the case first? cause the edges look kinda ****ed up.

Also if you had it out of the case, you may have been able to hammer the dents out. And auto primer is what ou need. But good job. looks better then the red.

Ive referbed a few amps my self. its a rewarding feeling. I also made new labels for them as well.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

did you gut the case first? cause the edges look kinda ****ed up.Also if you had it out of the case, you may have been able to hammer the dents out. And auto primer is what ou need. But good job. looks better then the red.

Ive referbed a few amps my self. its a rewarding feeling. I also made new labels for them as well.

nah. i didn't gut it. it's proving difficult to find the original labels. all it had on it was a red pin strip and precision power in 1 corner

 

[andrewmoore13 10+ year member]

bondo that shit.

 

[edzy 10+ year member]

I just made new labels for mine. Printed them on label paper.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

I just made new labels for mine. Printed them on label paper.

nice. that's a good idea. i may try that.

 

[Beerdrnkr 5,000+ posts]

**** man nice work. Here's a pic of my PPI PC4100, I bought it like this and I have to clean off some of the sound deadening I got on there. http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=335299

 

[edzy 10+ year member]

well i scanned the original label into my pc, then used paint to "make it new" took about 2-3 hours of touch up to make it look right. Then printing it to the right size was a lot of trial and error. Used draft print till it was good, then printed as a photo on glossy sticky photo paper.

Cant tell from the pic, but the original had lifted and there was a lot of air bubbles under the label. Also some of the ink from the label stuck to the case, so it was not reusable. It also tore when i took it off. almost like some one reglued it before me with rubber cement or something.

But the new labels make the amps.

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

well i scanned the original label into my pc, then used paint to "make it new" took about 2-3 hours of touch up to make it look right. Then printing it to the right size was a lot of trial and error. Used draft print till it was good, then printed as a photo on glossy sticky photo paper.
Cant tell from the pic, but the original had lifted and there was a lot of air bubbles under the label. Also some of the ink from the label stuck to the case, so it was not reusable. It also tore when i took it off. almost like some one reglued it before me with rubber cement or something.

But the new labels make the amps.

i kinda feel stupid. i've made thousands of cd labels and jewel case labels. i'm pretty good with tedious touch up. shoulda thought about doing that.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

I'm guessing it's hot/humid in CO right now, so the primer needed more time to fully dry. That's why it clumped up when you sanded it. Also probably sprayed it on too thick.

I'm fighting the same thing in IL right now, so I'm waiting 3 days before I attempt sanding it.

Amp came out very nice looking.