SDA CRS Restoration

[F1nut]

I forum member recently purchased a pair of CRS speakers and brought them over to me to see what could be done with their less than stellar condition. Someone had painted over the walnut veneer with black paint from a spray can...ugh! They made a half ass attempt to tape off the front panel resulting in black paint getting on the original pebbled bezel cover....ugh! In addition to that, the grills were filthy and the speakers smelled like they took a bath in pine tree air fresher......big ugh!

I started by gutting them including removing the crossovers and IC sockets, making notes of all connections for later. I also removed the trim pieces at the bottom fronts of the cabinets to make stripping easier. The grills were cleaned twice with Resolve (great product) and came out perfectly clean and odor free. I taped off the front and back panels, then stripped the cabinets. After stripping I found a few nicks/dents/scratches, but hardly enough to justify painting them, maybe that person just wanted black speakers...who knows. I proceeded to repair the damaged areas, reattached the bottom front trim pieces and prepped the cabinets for color. I decided to go with a rich dark walnut dye color and once dry shot a seal coat on them. Next, one coat of lacquer was applied, when dry and lightly scuff sanded a coat of Van Dyke brown glaze was appiled. After a few hours of drying, three more coats of satin lacquer was applied. The next day I rubbed out the finish. Now, I wanted these to look as good as possible and that paint on the front bezel bugged me, so I set out to find some new pebbled material to recover them. No luck finding that stuff anywhere including Polk, so I decided to paint them instead. I used Krylon semi-flat black as it came close to the original sheen. The metal covers over the PR's had a few small dents and a little paint loss, so those were repaired and repainted in satin black to match the original sheen. After another day of dry time I re-assembled the speakers returning them to their former glory.

[F1nut]

This is a shot of the uneven black spray paint job....ugh!

[F1nut]

Looking a little better.

[F1nut]

Beautiful walnut and the back sides before stripping.

[nadams]

Those are NICE. Great work. Lemme know if you ever want to sell 'em :p

[Pauly]

Looking damn puurrrty. Have pondered about stripping the caps and bases on my 1C's and doing them walnut. It just appeals to me and looks good. Nice job.

Pauly

[hotwheelman]

Looks damn good jesse, much more pleasing to the eye.

[dorokusai]

Thanks honcho for the great work on the "disaster relief" speakers. If you guys could have seen the condition they were in firsthand....but alas it doesn't matter as they look fantastic again thanks to Wood Master Jesse.

They look so good, if you hadn't just been told...you'd never know.

[hotwheelman]

I'll give ya a dollar for em.:D Just kiddin man.

[rskarvan]

The CRS+'s that I bought off Hoosier21 are black. I've often wondered whether or not they've been painted. If they have been painted, the guy did a pretty good job.

Does anybody know if the CRS+'s back in 1988 were offered in Black direct from Polk?

Just curious.

Thanks.

Ron

[F1nut]

Yes, everything was available in black from Polk.

[gidrah]

Those look real nice. Good job. If you lived closer I'd ask you to do a couple of pairs for me.

[F1nut]

Thanks guys. I'm not looking for work, just wanted to show what could be done if somebody ran across a less than stellar pair of speakers.

[Mjr7531]

Originally posted by F1nut
Looking a little better.
A little?
Damn! Those things look amazing, awesome work!

[Loud & Clear]

Needless to say, but that's an awesome job.

[reeltrouble1]

Jesse thanks for being such a great CP member and bringing these SDA's back to "life".

RT1

[madmax]

Very nice!!!
madmax

[BobMcG]

Beautiful job!!!

[DarqueKnight]

Originally posted by rskarvan
The CRS+'s that I bought off Hoosier21 are black. I've often wondered whether or not they've been painted. If they have been painted, the guy did a pretty good job.

Does anybody know if the CRS+'s back in 1988 were offered in Black direct from Polk?

Ron,

I bought my black CRS+'s from Hoosier21 also. The finish is oak veneer with a black stain.

Beautiful restoration job Jesse.:) :cool:

[pjdami]

Originally posted by DarqueKnight


I bought my black CRS+'s from Hoosier21 also. The finish is oak veneer with a black stain.

[/B]

Me three! I'm starting to believe Hoosier has a clandestine CRS+ production facility going on.




Wood Master Jesse

Indeed.

Yeah they look great. Great job Jesse.

[trubluluc]

....I was feeling good about my new crs+ until I saw yours!

Nice work brotha Jesse, you definitely know your way around the wood shop.

Maybe you can point me in a direction.
My crs+ are in pretty good shape,
the oak (blonde) is a littel dull and there are 2 cup rings on the top of one speaker.

Would some really fine, say 000 steel wool clean them up with out removing the stain and turning it into a project?
Or what would you suggest I do to liven them up some and get rid of the rings?

-Luc

[F1nut]

Are the rings white or black?

[trubluluc]

They are blackish.

[F1nut]

Not good. The only thing that can be done is to strip the finish, then bleach them with Oxalic Acid to remove the black marks. Shall I go on?

[trubluluc]

Hmmmm....bummer

[trubluluc]

I guess I was thinking I could put add a little color to them, making them a little darker overall, to make it less obvious.

[F1nut]

Yep, black rings. What has happened is there was a chemical change to the wood from whatever sat there. Could have been water, soda, beer, a hot cup of coffee, etc. You can't really sand it out because that area will have a depression from the sanding and because it's veneer you'll most likey sand right though it, however Oxalic Acid works like a dream.

[F1nut]

Originally posted by trubluluc
I guess I was thinking I could put add a little color to them, making them a little darker overall, to make it less obvious.

You could scuff sand them, apply a dark glaze and then shoot a new coat of lacquer. You can even tone the lacquer.

[dorokusai]

<Peanuts Teacher> Wah wah, wah wah wah wah, wah.

[hotwheelman]

Originally posted by dorokusai
<Peanuts Teacher> Wah wah, wah wah wah wah, wah.


tehe.:D

[Tour2ma]

Gorgeous, Jesse...

Need to put these photos in "the book"...

[Lasareath]

Looking a little better.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7254&d=1108081993




Wow Jesse those came out very nice!!

What ever happened to these speakers?, Do you still have them?

What do you suggest I do when I want to re-veneer my new CRS+'s?

Do I need to remove the Vinyl or just glue the new Veneer right ontop of the old Veneer?

Thanks,

Sal

[hearingimpared]

Wow Jesse those came out very nice!!

What ever happened to these speakers?, Do you still have them?

What do you suggest I do when I want to re-veneer my new CRS+'s?

Do I need to remove the Vinyl or just glue the new Veneer right ontop of the old Veneer?

Thanks,

Sal

Sal, if I'm not mistaken, those are the ones that I gave to my son as a house warming present. Someone, I don't know who, replaced the stock binding posts with some nice Vampires and upgraded the tweeters to RD0194s. I bought them from Antny years back. I was told that Doro did the Vampire and RD0 upgrades but he said he doesn't recall doing it so the mystery still abounds!

[Joe08867]

They look real nice. Great job.