Tolex repair

[Locrian99]

Not a pedal question but figured there’s a few amp builders here who might have a good suggestion for this.


Picked up this 1x12 cab tonight off Facebook marketplace pretty cheap. The guy I got it from got it this way and said he was told it was a fender cab that they replaced the tolex on and put a new grill cloth. The tolex caught my eye and the price was right but some of it needs to be glued back down. I read contact cement is good for this? Can anyone confirm or have a better suggestion? Thanks!

 

[HamishR]

Psionic audio have a video for just this problem. It's quite difficult to get contact to work in a situation like that because you can't separate the two layers easily or well enough for the glue to set before pushing them together. What Mr Psionic does is clean it out as much as possible, then paints in some white glue - I think you call it Elmers in the US? White PVA glue anyway. Then while making sure any seepage is wiped away he tapes it down very thoroughly with blue masking tape.

I'd probably stick some heavy books or something on top too. It doesn't take too long for it to cure - a few hours. But I'd leave it for at least 24.

FWIW I love that tolex! I use the black version a lot on my amps. And yes, I use contact.

 

[Locrian99]

Psionic audio have a video for just this problem. It's quite difficult to get contact to work in a situation like that because you can't separate the two layers easily or well enough for the glue to set before pushing them together. What Mr Psionic does is clean it out as much as possible, then paints in some white glue - I think you call it Elmers in the US? White PVA glue anyway. Then while making sure any seepage is wiped away he tapes it down very thoroughly with blue masking tape.

I'd probably stick some heavy books or something on top too. It doesn't take too long for it to cure - a few hours. But I'd leave it for at least 24.

FWIW I love that tolex! I use the black version a lot on my amps. And yes, I use contact.

Thank you I’ll check out the video and I’ve got plenty of Elmer’s on hand.

 

[Locrian99]

Well this worked out pretty well. Still have two other sides to do but it worked. Took me a while to get to this cause of the holidays etc.



I didn’t actually watched the video just took a q-tip with some isopropyl on it and cleaned it out the. Put Elmer’s on the a tip and spread it around pushed it down cleaned up the excess with a damn paper towel. Taped it down set a couple books on it and let it set for about 24 hours.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Well this worked out pretty well. Still have two other sides to do but it worked. Took me a while to get to this cause of the holidays etc.

View attachment 39537View attachment 39538

I didn’t actually watched the video just took a q-tip with some isopropyl on it and cleaned it out the. Put Elmer’s on the a tip and spread it around pushed it down cleaned up the excess with a damn paper towel. Taped it down set a couple books on it and let it set for about 24 hours.

Elmers is not water proof! I use the 3m spray adhesive. put tape everywhere you don't want the spray, spray both surfaces, remove the paper tape, wait about a minute or two for it to evaporate, place some scrap plywood on it, then weigh it down with about 20 pounds for a day.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/cbgnawus1408/

 

[Locrian99]

Elmers is not water proof! I use the 3m spray adhesive. put tape everywhere you don't want the spray, spray both surfaces, remove the paper tape, wait about a minute or two for it to evaporate, place some scrap plywood on it, then weigh it down with about 20 pounds for a day.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/cbgnawus1408/

View attachment 39549

Well I’ve got it all down with Elmer’s now we’ll see how it holds worst case the residue will be easy to get off I imagine if I need to go another route dosn the line.

 

[HamishR]

Well as long as you don't go out into a tropical thunderstorm you should be ok. I generally avoid the tropics with amps anyway.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Well I’ve got it all down with Elmer’s now we’ll see how it holds worst case the residue will be easy to get off I imagine if I need to go another route dosn the line.

Yeah it's the hot humid weather that makes the tolex curl when water based adhesive is used. They came out with the low voc water based adhesive and a lot of amp builders switched because of AQMD regulations, only to have this happen a year or so down the line. That's when they switched back and used air scrubbers instead of low voc.

We do get the 'monsoon' season here in SoCal, where the heat goes up into the hundreds, high humidity and even more damaging, the dew point goes up into the mid 60's. This weather will kill plants because they cannot "exhale" due to 100% saturation of water in the air. But I digress, lol, I do that a lot.

The repair looks great!

 

[Locrian99]

Yeah it's the hot humid weather that makes the tolex curl when water based adhesive is used. They came out with the low voc water based adhesive and a lot of amp builders switched because of AQMD regulations, only to have this happen a year or so down the line. That's when they switched back and used air scrubbers instead of low voc.

We do get the 'monsoon' season here in SoCal, where the heat goes up into the hundreds, high humidity and even more damaging, the dew point goes up into the mid 60's. This weather will kill plants because they cannot "exhale" due to 100% saturation of water in the air. But I digress, lol, I do that a lot.

The repair looks great!

Thanks. Hoping the rest come out as well. When I picked this up it was in a storage unit/garage at an apt complex got the feeling it had been there for awhile. We don’t get monsoons here in NW Oregon but plenty of rain so I’m sure it was exposed to some high humidity in there. Thankfully my music area where this will live is pretty climate controlled and we rare see hot and humid days. If it is the AC is going and will suck all that moisture out of the air anyways.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Thanks. Hoping the rest come out as well. When I picked this up it was in a storage unit/garage at an apt complex got the feeling it had been there for awhile. We don’t get monsoons here in NW Oregon but plenty of rain so I’m sure it was exposed to some high humidity in there. Thankfully my music area where this will live is pretty climate controlled and we rare see hot and humid days. If it is the AC is going and will suck all that moisture out of the air anyways.

Two of my Uncles lived in Wheeler. Uncle Oscar owned a house with a doc, had a 100 crab boiler, could smoke something like 50 salmon at a time. And boy did he make some incredible smoked salmon..... We used to vacation up there every year when I was a kid. Ah memories......

 

[Locrian99]

Two of my Uncles lived in Wheeler. Uncle Oscar owned a house with a doc, had a 100 crab boiler, could smoke something like 50 salmon at a time. And boy did he make some incredible smoked salmon..... We used to vacation up there every year when I was a kid. Ah memories......

Wheeler, tiny little town on 101. Seafood over on the coast is pretty awesome. Bet that was some awesome smoked salmon. Father in law used to do quite a bit of mechanic work for some of the dairy farmers in tillamook, also used to do quite a bit of dory fishing out of pacific city. Getting a bit old for all that anymore but still has an awesome connection for fresh oysters right out of tillamook bay. He heads over and grabs em by the bushel from the guy that runs the oyster bed over there quite often.

 

[EZS]

When I glue down my war torn cabs, I use contact cement with an epoxy brush, While its getting tacky, I gently heat the tolex with a heat gun to make it pliable. If any residual glue seeps from the repair, it rolls right off with your finger after it dries. Solid.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

When I glue down my war torn cabs, I use contact cement with an epoxy brush, While its getting tacky, I gently heat the tolex with a heat gun to make it pliable. If any residual glue seeps from the repair, it rolls right off with your finger after it dries. Solid.

I forgot to mention that a hard rubber roller, the type used for silk screening, rubbed over the area to be sure to remove any bubbles and to firmly bind the two pieces together.

I have a 70's 4x10 Bassman Ten that I'm refurbishing, just put four new P10R-F's in it, wired it Parallel/Serial, and getting ready to rip off the old tolex and recover. New grill cloth too. This poor old thing was just beat to crap. I bought it out of sympathy, lol... Lemme tell you, with those four new speakers in it, put outside at about 70% volume, playing this thing is a religious experience. Shimmering GOBS of fenderness just cutting a knife through the air.......

 

[HamishR]

Have to agree re the roller. Since I got a hard rubber roller everything has improved. Especially my tolexing. It really does make a difference. I hate tolexing but now at least it generally stays put.

 

[Locrian99]

Have to agree re the roller. Since I got a hard rubber roller everything has improved. Especially my tolexing. It really does make a difference. I hate tolexing but now at least it generally stays put.

Good to know I haven’t done the bottom yet the back didn’t quite turn out as well as the top hit I also probably didn’t take the care I did with the top. I’ve got one of those hard rubber rollers putting in new linoleum in my laundry room.