HOWTO- Painting Speakers

Mailing List

By Joining the mailing list you will be notified of site updates.

Show Your Support For
This Site By Donating:

Audience: All
Last Updated: 09/15/09 10:35 AM
Original Creation Date: 11/06/03 10:35 AM
**All times are EST**

HOWTO- Painting Speakers

By Erik Rodriguez

Plain and simple, this article tells you how to paint your speakers. Its easier than you think.

Things you will need:

Set of speakers
Exacto Knife
Tape (Scotch Packing tape works well)
Lots of Newspaper
Primer (or cheap flat paint)
High Gloss Paint
About 6 hours

Let me start by saying there are 5 important tips to start moding:

BE PATIENT!	If you're painting, don't rush the drying process.
Clean ALL your materials	Clean metals with alcohol, Don't let paint dry in the wind.
Never work in the dark	If you try to paint in the dark, you will probably overspray or under spray.
Be safe	Paint in where there is dequate ventilation. Don't Solder on the carpet.
Be smart	Don't spray paint against the house. DUH!

Getting Started

Start by cleaning your speakers with Windex. Remove the speakers very carefully. These speaker enclosures are wood, so don't let the Windex sit on them. Next, cover the speakers with newspaper. Its always better to cover more than you are going to paint (in case you mess up, spill, etc). In this case, I even covered the back of the speakers.

Tape off everything so the tape makes a tight seal. Cut the extra over-laying tape with an exacto knife.

Painting

Make sure you are ready to paint. Take the time to inspect everything. Make sure the tape is stuck down tightly so paint doesn't get under it. The base coat should be a primer. However, you can use straight paint on wood. I used a cheap flat blue paint. The purpose of using the cheap flat stuff first is to mask the original black color. The base needs to consist of 2-3 light coats.

Allow at least 30 minutes to dry on wood. I recommend at least 1.5 hours on plastic and 2 hours on metal (but nobody makes speakers with metal enclosures). After you've applied 2-3 base coats and no black is showing, you're ready for the good paint. I used 2 coats of high gloss enamel model paint A clear coat was not needed because the speakers never get handled like a keyboard or mouse.