The world's sexiest finish?

[The Dudster]

http://www.hififorum.nu/forum/topic....Terms=mercedes

This speaker is so sexy! Not the shape, not my style, but the finish and build!

I plan to do the same for the Linkwitz Phoenix I am about to build. Not the build, I don't have a CNC router, but the finish.

He got a car painting guy to paint it in a Mercedez auto paint.
Cost about 200$ to do. Imagine a pair of floor standing Phoenix'es in that finish, maybe blue in color???

BAF

[VvvvvV]

Sounds like a ripoff, he could have got a Porsche finish for less

MATT BLACK FORD SPRAY PAINT £2.00

[johninCR]

Why go thru all that trouble to make a beautiful finish with nice rounded curves then stick them on top of interesting looking stands which absolutely clash with the speaker?

[Aclark]

The speaker for my dad were done the same way but in a dark red. The metallic paint does look very fancy.

I would only reccomend it on your "Flagship" speakers because it is a bit expensive unless you have the experience and equipment to do yourself.

[cocolino]

originally posted by VvvvvV
Sounds like a ripoff, he could have got a Porsche finish for less

$200 is not all all expensive. When the material and the preparation of the surfacees was included it was even a bargain.


Car paint and all else what You need on materials: as primer, filler, hardener, solvents is very expensive.
A professional done laquer surface for a speaker enclosure is very time consuming, expensive (often much more expensive than even very fancy sorts of veneer) and ask for a lot of experience (particular those metallic effects).

The preparation of the surfaces is really hard work (primer - grinding - primer - grinding - filler -grinding - filler - grinding ..........) until You have them perfectly flat and smooth.
Another important thing is a perfectly flat undergroud to begin with - no filled-up srew-head holes or the like. Even when a filled up srew hole looks perfectly closed, flat and smooth - it WILL come slightly through again with the time (a few weeks or month later).
To do such a job also You NEED a real laquering cabin. I learned that the hard way.
In former times I tried car-laquer with very varying results - not quite bad but not quite up to a really professional result.
After many experiments and after I spend a lot of money on materials I decided to do the preparation and grinding myself and finally have the final job done by a pro in a laquering cabin.
In that times I paid DM 500.- (now $300 - I have to add that said speaker-system was composed of several enclosures with quite unusual shapes).
The result was even less satisfying than the best of what I did myself so far.
After that experience I quit using car paint for speaker enclosures.

I wouldn`t recommend trying for beginners unless You have a LOT of time, patience and money to spend.
A good veneer job looks much nicer than a poor paint job.

[VvvvvV]

I would have thought that excellent quality heavy duty matt paint spray would do all right-with some varnish perhaps

[Vigier]

I completely agree with cocolino; and I don't think the matt black ford spray is as good as 2-component-paint (or whatever the english words for that are).

Anyway: the speakers are indeed beautiful, but 2 things:
- the stands...
- the plastic BR-pipe. He could have done that much better: a straight pipe in the back of the baffle, and in the front: round it with a router...

Grtz, joris

[cocolino]

originally posted by VvvvvV
I would have thought that excellent quality heavy duty matt paint spray would do all right-with some varnish perhaps

To achieve a good looking and durable surface You need AT LEAST 4 layers of composite paint (paint/hardener):


1.) primer (thick consistence for closing porous underground and as underground for the following layers)

grinding

2.) filler (thinner consistence than before for still finer surface)

wet grinding (last grind with grain of at least 600, better 800)

3.) coloured laquer

4.) clear laquer (varnish)



mostly You have to repeat steps 1.) and 2.) - sometimes several times.

Step 4.) maybe required also 2-times. It just looks better when You have a thick layer of clear laquer.

Also it`s possible to leave out step 4.) at all as there is 2-component coloured paint which in principle doesn`t require another layer of clear varnish. However, this just don`t look good - looks like cheap plastic in opposite to additional clear laquer which gives that sort of of "noble" enamel effect.

[Jim85IROC]

If you like the finish on those speakers, you'd like the finish on my Tangband computer speakers too.

After sanding & filling, then going through untold amounts of primer, I layed down a black Urethane basecoat/clearcoat 2 stage automotive finish on my speakers, then wetsanded & buffed them to a mirror finish.

To get an idea of what my speakers look like, forget about piano finishes. Go to a car show and find a black car with a reflection that's good enough to shave in front of, and picture a 3" tangband flush mounted in it.