Sanyo 9975 LU phase I

This is my second encounter with a sanyo so please be patient on this post!
I am trying to restore by myself the exterior plastics speaker grills front and back cover without messing with any "moving parts" on this particular box.I managed to go so far for today,however encountered the first problem and seek for advise before dismantling the box into tiny peaces of scrap metal and plastic.
I am not able to remove the grills so far because of the underlying glue and the little holders that can be seen on the pics.
Is there a way to go around it?I straighten the little grill pins but something is holding back the grill from popping out.(maybe brute force)
I managed to take out the tuner window without big drama or damaging the box thus leaving some residues behind that may prevent me from sticking a new one in place.
It's not a pro situation but its a start since not finding proper people to restore boxes for me left me with the solution of tackling some problems by myself,learn in the process a couple of things and do a good job.
I certainly enjoy dismantling boxes but if i want to call it a restoration i am not over the hill yet.
Hope you enjoy the process maybe add some comments before i destroy the box on fire and fury!

You could try a heat gun with low heat or hairdryer for those grills. I would heat them from the front. The glue looks like the tacky and stretchy type, It will take some force to break it.

A more hardcore method would be to heat those grill "ends" from inside with a small gas torch. Of course it is a bit risky (ending up with molten pastic), but a fast blow of 1000C+ hot air would probably soften the glue quite a bit.

There is also the possibility that the grilles have been "molded" to the box. In some boxes it seems that the grilles were inserted at a high temperature, melting the plastic and gripping on the the box very tight. I've yet to find a method of removing this type of grilles.

Line Out said:

You could try a heat gun with low heat or hairdryer for those grills. I would heat them from the front. The glue looks like the tacky and stretchy type, It will take some force to break it.

A more hardcore method would be to heat those grill "ends" from inside with a small gas torch. Of course it is a bit risky (ending up with molten pastic), but a fast blow of 1000C+ hot air would probably soften the glue quite a bit.

There is also the possibility that the grilles have been "molded" to the box. In some boxes it seems that the grilles were inserted at a high temperature, melting the plastic and gripping on the the box very tight. I've yet to find a method of removing this type of grilles.

Click to expand...

I knew i was playing with fire!
Maybe painting them over is the easy way out............lol
Ok made it by applying heat as you suggested,however its a tough egg to crack and not make any damage to the box.
Other problems still are on since i gotta dismantle the back of the box.
Probably painting over it was not an option if you want the job done right,there are some chrome parts as you can see.
Thank you!

You could mask the chrome with tape. Or maybe use rubber spray paint in "reverse", masking off others than chrome, spraying the rubber, removing the masking tape and then just paint over the spots you want to paint. Lastly, remove the rubber on top of the chrome. I've never tried that, but maybe I should.

Next time i paint over!The second grill was even worse.I am just happy i did not scratch the box more or brake it in half!To install them in place again will we a good task!

Another task finding a matching close to original color for the sanyo and an additional color for the grills.
Planning is 50% so gotta plan more before performing the grills were just an example how you can make your life more difficult.