Best way to straighten dented speaker grills!

[BoomboxLover48]

Dear Folks,
I found the best way to straighten dented boombox grills.
All you need is a new hammer and a birch wood board. If the hammer is not new, it will scratch up the grills.
As you know one cannot hit with a hammer to straighten dents because the grills will stretch and never go to the original shape.
When you use the rim of the hammer to go round at the edge rim of the grill it comes smooth and flawless.
Place the grill flat, face down on birch wood board and use the new hammer to smear and iron out the dent. It works like magic.
Why I chose Birchwood was all because the wood should be soft to gently press inward and should grab the grills too.

 

[Beosystem10]

Good work! I've always used the wallpaper torch & freezer spray technique for removing dings from thin metals, especially aluminium and steel, which will - as you suggest - tend to stretch if they're dented. That way, the paint remains undamaged and any stretching caused by the original impact will shrink as soon as the freezer spray hits.
My shrinking hammer is fine on 22swg up to 18swg car panels but no use on mesh so I never had the cahones to give a flat hammer a shot at the job either.

 

[redbenjoe]

if the grills have already stretched bc of a very deep dent --
there is a little tool called a shrinker//stretcher-
its in auto repair catalogues

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Good work! I've always used the wallpaper torch & freezer spray technique for removing dings from thin metals, especially aluminium and steel, which will - as you suggest - tend to stretch if they're dented. That way, the paint remains undamaged and any stretching caused by the original impact will shrink as soon as the freezer spray hits.
My shrinking hammer is fine on 22swg up to 18swg car panels but no use on mesh so I never had the cahones to give a flat hammer a shot at the job either.

Thanks john!
In this case I was planning to paint it.
Sadly there is a down side for the thermal shock method to fix the dent. The paints on our boomers will lose adhesion in that sudden cooling method. The paint doesn't have enough flexibility to grab on to the metal. It is no problem for automotive coatings because they are designed for this sudden changes in temperature. I used to formulate coatingscar bumper TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin) primers for leading automotive paint companies. It has to pass Ford, GM, Toyota and all specs. One important test it has to pass in the Thermal Shock test where the coated plastic panel with a scribe is froze and then blasted with steam and checked for adhesion using 3M 828 tape.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

if the grills have already stretched bc of a very deep dent --
there is a little tool called a shrinker//stretcher-
its in auto repair catalogues

Good to know that Ira! I will look for that soon! I never knew something like that exists.

 

[redbenjoe]

very cool // effective manual operated tool -
before you use it on your grail grills --

practice on a junk box or a neighbors grail or any thin perforated metal scraps

 

[BoomboxLover48]

very cool // effective manual operated tool -
before you use it on your grail grills --

practice on a junk box or a neighbors grail or any thin perforated metal scraps

Thanks Ira!

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Great thread!

That's exactly how it do it!

 

[fresh produce]

Great work! Sony cfs 99?

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Great work! Sony cfs 99?

That is correct Peter!
It is my second CFS99. Awesome box! It sounds excellent! Actually better than my other CFS99.
This one doesn't have the tape scanning feature showing the number in red above the cassette deck.

I painted the grills metallic gray flat paint and it came out like brand new!

I'll post pics later.

 

[bklyn sound]

great info there Royce!!!!

 

[blu_fuz]

That's funny, I've been doing the same thing!

 

[BoomboxLover48]

That's funny, I've been doing the same thing!

It's nice we both thought about the same method!

 

[BoomboxLover48]

great info there Royce!!!!

Thanks Jimmy! It works well!

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Great thread!

That's exactly how it do it!

Thanks Chris! It works well!

 

[BoomboxLover48]

More pics...