Hi all..
Please excuse me if this has been covered before..
Im sure like many me..many of the vz-2000 owners will have a few dents on the edge/corners of the aluminium trim where the playback and input controls are..
im sure it would be very difficult to heat up the trim to remove and press out those dents and manage to keep it relatively straight..
If you're like me and dont have access or resources to fabricate and install a new trim.. here is my fix
Hard to see in this pic... but i had 2 of these deep dents on the corner edge of my VZ... could not let it stay like that without trying something
Using a flat and broad soldering iron i decided to attack the problem from behind...
Here i melted a hole from behind the trim in the location of the dent..
CAREFULLY using the soldering iron and a broad flat screw driver i pressed out the dent.. It is very very thin aluminium so it doesnt require all that much force.. Its also worth mentioning its very easy to screw this up and send your screw driver or iron through the aluminium..
You will want to press out as much as you can.. just past the original level...
Once its pushed out you can level it out again by gently using a hammer to 'panel beat it' flush
Here you can see the finish difference, UV over time had mad the clear coat go a yellow.. Perfect opportunity to restore this
I taped up the trim and plastic areas fr protection, I used a small flat block of timber cut to the width of the trim to hold the sand paper. This will allow you to 'finish' the dent area and get it perfect level again.. This also works perfectly to restore the brushed lines back to the aluminium.
Sand smooth, i used 600-800 grit... I was careful not to roll the block over the edge as the edge is a flat bevel.
Smoothed out and you couldnt tell there was a dent there at all..
Using the soldering iron again i smoothed out and filled in the plastic hole... later to be hi-filled and sanded
End result.. Refinished the whole lower trim. Close to original.. Just waiting to apply aluminium clear coat
Please excuse me if this has been covered before..
Im sure like many me..many of the vz-2000 owners will have a few dents on the edge/corners of the aluminium trim where the playback and input controls are..
im sure it would be very difficult to heat up the trim to remove and press out those dents and manage to keep it relatively straight..
If you're like me and dont have access or resources to fabricate and install a new trim.. here is my fix
Hard to see in this pic... but i had 2 of these deep dents on the corner edge of my VZ... could not let it stay like that without trying something
Using a flat and broad soldering iron i decided to attack the problem from behind...
Here i melted a hole from behind the trim in the location of the dent..
CAREFULLY using the soldering iron and a broad flat screw driver i pressed out the dent.. It is very very thin aluminium so it doesnt require all that much force.. Its also worth mentioning its very easy to screw this up and send your screw driver or iron through the aluminium..
You will want to press out as much as you can.. just past the original level...
Once its pushed out you can level it out again by gently using a hammer to 'panel beat it' flush
Here you can see the finish difference, UV over time had mad the clear coat go a yellow.. Perfect opportunity to restore this
I taped up the trim and plastic areas fr protection, I used a small flat block of timber cut to the width of the trim to hold the sand paper. This will allow you to 'finish' the dent area and get it perfect level again.. This also works perfectly to restore the brushed lines back to the aluminium.
Sand smooth, i used 600-800 grit... I was careful not to roll the block over the edge as the edge is a flat bevel.
Smoothed out and you couldnt tell there was a dent there at all..
Using the soldering iron again i smoothed out and filled in the plastic hole... later to be hi-filled and sanded
End result.. Refinished the whole lower trim. Close to original.. Just waiting to apply aluminium clear coat