Finally made (barely some) time to spruce up my first ever purchase, a Panasonic F35. I can't even call this a restoration as I didn't do that much and what I did do was without time or a budget. If anyone has done a more ghetto restoration (see what I did there) you should be ashamed 
All functions work so this is really just aesthetic. The main goal was to get a feel for what disassembling a box is like. This was more about the process than the outcome. With this knowledge and practice I can make decisions on how to approach my larger Panny, and after that, my grail.
The before: a rusty, dirty beach box full of sand with speakers that have been hit by the odd beer. FYI the tuner is slightly misaligned because the back is already half-off.
The rust and sand:
Supplies: the finest acrylic paint that one dollar can buy. I mixed in some yellow to warm up the bright white.
I also wanted to paint the grills but they have tabs folded and glued which made them too time-consuming to remove so I decided to just hit the outsides with a wire brush and then brush on some black. I wasn't even going to buy any metal paint for this so I used what I had on hand and sprayed it into a container then brushed it on from there.
I freehanded the cone painting and didn't even bother masking anything. From this I know I won't be brush painting anything significant, in white at least. Up close you can see brush strokes. I imagine diluting the paint improves matters but it's still worrisome. The speakers in the best condition needed two coats. One more needed three, plus touchups. The worst of the lot needed too many to count:
No closeups of the cones afterwards but sharp lines - I'm lucky enough to have a steady hand.
Total time for partial bath, cleaning the center caps with iso, speaker painting, grill sanding & painting, re & re: somewhere around 4 hrs. Total cost: about $6 in brushes, paint and q-tips.
End result - not bad for a quick first effort:
All functions work so this is really just aesthetic. The main goal was to get a feel for what disassembling a box is like. This was more about the process than the outcome. With this knowledge and practice I can make decisions on how to approach my larger Panny, and after that, my grail.
The before: a rusty, dirty beach box full of sand with speakers that have been hit by the odd beer. FYI the tuner is slightly misaligned because the back is already half-off.
The rust and sand:
Supplies: the finest acrylic paint that one dollar can buy. I mixed in some yellow to warm up the bright white.
I also wanted to paint the grills but they have tabs folded and glued which made them too time-consuming to remove so I decided to just hit the outsides with a wire brush and then brush on some black. I wasn't even going to buy any metal paint for this so I used what I had on hand and sprayed it into a container then brushed it on from there.
I freehanded the cone painting and didn't even bother masking anything. From this I know I won't be brush painting anything significant, in white at least. Up close you can see brush strokes. I imagine diluting the paint improves matters but it's still worrisome. The speakers in the best condition needed two coats. One more needed three, plus touchups. The worst of the lot needed too many to count:
No closeups of the cones afterwards but sharp lines - I'm lucky enough to have a steady hand.
Total time for partial bath, cleaning the center caps with iso, speaker painting, grill sanding & painting, re & re: somewhere around 4 hrs. Total cost: about $6 in brushes, paint and q-tips.
End result - not bad for a quick first effort:
