Speakers Revival

I had old and very nice sounding AIWA speakers in the basement, but their appearance was very bad - they were scratched, dirty, the cloth speaker grid was threadbare, the cables were ratty.

I bought a nice audio amplifier and I decided to renovate these speakers and to give them a second life.

This instructable describes how this was done.

Some pictures of the speaker - how the looked before the renovation

First task was to disassemble the speakers.I have found by Internet research, that the front panel can be removed carefully by the use of sharp screwdrivers. There are small holes on the bottom of the speakers, where the tools can be inserted and carefully using them as levers, the front panel can be open.

I have dismounted the cloth and the metal speaker grids and cleaned up all dirt

I sanded the front panels using very fine sandpaper (800 grit). I decided to keep the original paint of the tweeters parts , which were behind the metal grid. There I put a protective paper tape. I cleaned with ethanol all the surfaces, which have to be painted.

I decided to paint the panel in red color. For that purpose I used ecological red varnish for kids toys. After the drying i removed the protection tape and mounted again the washed metal grids.

I have ordered a nice speakers cloth grid. I removed the "AIWA" sign, I detached the cloth, I cut a new piece and glued again the cloth to the plastic grid. After drying I mounted again the logo and fixed it melting the plastics by soldering iron. After that the speakers grids were mounted again the the panels.

I removed the bass speaker to make the box lighter

Instead to paint again the boxes, I decided to wrap them with carbon like vinyl sticker I cleaned everything with ethanol to remove the fats and the dirty, Measured the sizes and cut a band of the sticker for each speaker. A very useful tool when using this type of sticker is the hot air gun. And you need a strong nerves and some experience - based on the tries and the errors. If you do not have experience - buy some additional sticker - for reserve:-)

The old speakers did not have any legs. This is not good, because their vibrations can be transferred to the floor and the sound can be distorted. I decided to mount rubber legs.

I cut the old cables and soldered new thicker and nice looking ones. On the solder joints i put thermal shrinking tubes (again hot air gun needed)

I fixed again the front panels - a brutal force is needed :-), and now I have very nice looking and high quality sounding speakers.

Thank you for the attention and please vote for me in the contest.