How often does this happen? You get a hot radio and are amped up to hell about it and then you notice, oh no!! A slider/switch cap is missing!!
This is a right pain in the downstairs department, but all is not lost, in an hour or two you can hack together a replacement that will fool your friends and loved ones into thinking your newly acquired radio is all stock and was well worth all the money you spent.
What You'll Need
The main thing you'll need is an epoxy polymer. In Australia we have this marvellous gear called Knead-It. It's a compound of two parts that when mixed cures to rock hard in about ten minutes. As long as you're quick this stuff is amazing to work with. You'll also need a common household plastic bottle cap and some spray fat, or some similar lubricant. Lastly, of course you need at least one of the slider/switch caps you're missing.
For the finishing off you'll also need (not pictured!) sandpaper, and the correct colour paint.
Step 1
Mix up enough of the epoxy to fill the bottle cap. Pack it in good and tight and level it off. Remember to work quickly once you've got it mixed, you're on the clock as of now!
Step 2
Spray the cap with the epoxy liberally with the lubricant.
Step 3
Spray one of the slider caps you have and push it into the expoxy as deep as you can. Be sure to push it in evenly and preferably in one go so that it makes a perfect impression. Be sure that it's pushed in deeper than it needs to go, you don't want it flush with the top. The idea is to 'cast' your replacement knob with some excess so it can be sanded smooth without making it smaller than the original.
Step 4
Give the expoxy 10-15 minutes to cure and then pop your original switch cover out with a pair of pliers or prise it out gently from the sides with a small flat head screwdriver. You now have an negative mould of your switch cover!
Step 5
Spray the inside of the mould lightly with some more of the lubricant and then mix up another lot of epoxy. Once mixed push it into the mould nice and firmly. You've got a couple of minutes of high pliability before it starts to cure so push it well into the corners of the mould. Put a piece of wire or something in the middle of the new switch to make a hole for where it will mount on the radio. As long as it's in the vicinity of where it should be you'll be ok, you can fix up the mounting properly once it's done curing.
Step 6
Give it a good 20 minutes or so, you want to make sure it's fully cured before you attempt to take the cover out of the mould. If it's remotely soft it can deform your cast. Prise it out with a screwdriver or something similar and you should get a nice facsimilie of your original switch cover!
Step 7
The last things you need to do are sand the edges and trim off any excess epoxy. Take your time getting your corner all square and ensure the back of it mounts correctly on your radio. Finally you need to undercoat and spray it the correct colour. For anything that needs to be 'chrome' I'd use SpazStix Mirror Chrome, but you need to fillow it's preparation instructions to get it right.
Once your new creation is all dried its time to mount her up!
Now, You can probably tell pretty easily which one is the hack job up close, but it's always going to be a massive improvement over not having one at all, and it will provide a great placeholder until you find a donor one or BREDGEO does a run of them.
And from a distance you can barely tell it wasn't stock at all!
Good luck!!
Rock On.
This is a right pain in the downstairs department, but all is not lost, in an hour or two you can hack together a replacement that will fool your friends and loved ones into thinking your newly acquired radio is all stock and was well worth all the money you spent.
What You'll Need
The main thing you'll need is an epoxy polymer. In Australia we have this marvellous gear called Knead-It. It's a compound of two parts that when mixed cures to rock hard in about ten minutes. As long as you're quick this stuff is amazing to work with. You'll also need a common household plastic bottle cap and some spray fat, or some similar lubricant. Lastly, of course you need at least one of the slider/switch caps you're missing.
For the finishing off you'll also need (not pictured!) sandpaper, and the correct colour paint.
Step 1
Mix up enough of the epoxy to fill the bottle cap. Pack it in good and tight and level it off. Remember to work quickly once you've got it mixed, you're on the clock as of now!
Step 2
Spray the cap with the epoxy liberally with the lubricant.
Step 3
Spray one of the slider caps you have and push it into the expoxy as deep as you can. Be sure to push it in evenly and preferably in one go so that it makes a perfect impression. Be sure that it's pushed in deeper than it needs to go, you don't want it flush with the top. The idea is to 'cast' your replacement knob with some excess so it can be sanded smooth without making it smaller than the original.
Step 4
Give the expoxy 10-15 minutes to cure and then pop your original switch cover out with a pair of pliers or prise it out gently from the sides with a small flat head screwdriver. You now have an negative mould of your switch cover!
Step 5
Spray the inside of the mould lightly with some more of the lubricant and then mix up another lot of epoxy. Once mixed push it into the mould nice and firmly. You've got a couple of minutes of high pliability before it starts to cure so push it well into the corners of the mould. Put a piece of wire or something in the middle of the new switch to make a hole for where it will mount on the radio. As long as it's in the vicinity of where it should be you'll be ok, you can fix up the mounting properly once it's done curing.
Step 6
Give it a good 20 minutes or so, you want to make sure it's fully cured before you attempt to take the cover out of the mould. If it's remotely soft it can deform your cast. Prise it out with a screwdriver or something similar and you should get a nice facsimilie of your original switch cover!
Step 7
The last things you need to do are sand the edges and trim off any excess epoxy. Take your time getting your corner all square and ensure the back of it mounts correctly on your radio. Finally you need to undercoat and spray it the correct colour. For anything that needs to be 'chrome' I'd use SpazStix Mirror Chrome, but you need to fillow it's preparation instructions to get it right.
Once your new creation is all dried its time to mount her up!
Now, You can probably tell pretty easily which one is the hack job up close, but it's always going to be a massive improvement over not having one at all, and it will provide a great placeholder until you find a donor one or BREDGEO does a run of them.
And from a distance you can barely tell it wasn't stock at all!
Good luck!!
Rock On.
