Tolex care/refurbishment

[JakeAC5253]

I'm refurbing my '81 JCM800 2203. Got the circuit 99.5% now, but the tolex looks like hell from the previous owner. Its dirty and faded, and I want to bring some life back to it if I can. Can you just scrub this shit with soap and water?

I found some of this shit, any good for applying after its clean?
https://www.tubesandmore.com/products/r ... -and-vinyl

 

[ericsabbath]

vaseline
I recently sold a 2002 Bogner Shiva that was quite roughed up and looked 20+ years old before retolex
it looked almost as old as my '73 Marshall JMP
I didn't really care about the blemishes, but I really had to sell it, so I paid a friend to change the headshell tolex cause it was ripped and was also heavily chewed on by my dog
the front plate tolex was still original, though, so it was faded, slightly yellowish and dull
my friend applied some vaseline and that made it look pretty close to the new courvin on the outer shell

 

[ericsabbath]

I wouldnt try any sort of refinish paint or coating
I had a '77 JMP that was sprayed with something like that and it looked horribly awful

 

[moltenmetalburn]

Retolex it. Cheap and not that hard. Removed tolex best you can in one piece for "pattern". Watch some videos. Don't spray or rub lubes on it.

 

[GuitarGuyLP]

I have deep cleaned tolex with 303 aerospace cleaner. I use that stuff on my cars tires, and trim and it cleans really well, and doesn't leave anything behind. I follow it up with the 303 aerospace protector. It is not too shiny as long as you actually follow the directions. Looks great on just about anything, and really protects well from UV. Plus it is not sticky so it won't attract dust.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Good call on that spray, I didn't realize it was a paint. I looked quickly and thought it was similar to a leather conditioner.

Vaseline sounds good, I'll have to give that a try.

Not sure if I want to re-tolex it or not at this point. The chassis metal is slightly bent in certain spots, so if the tolex looks perfect then it would amplify the damage on the chassis. I'm gonna shine up the tolex and replace the vent with a new one. After that I'll decide if I want to have it re-tolexed or not depending on how it looks.

With the replacement of the vent, the rivets will look brand new and shiny with all the corner joint rivets much darker by comparison. If it looks shitty, I was thinking I should try and shine them up a bit. I thought I could try a wire brush drill bit, but that may scratch up the plastic pretty bad. Maybe spray some brake cleaner and give them a scrub. Brake cleaner may dull the plastic tho...

 

[moltenmetalburn]

It seems like your trying to maintain a specific budget. Not sure if its too costly but new boxes can be had for like $200. After all the modding wo.t you keep it? Is $200 too much to add?

http://m.ebay.com/itm/302164037710?_mwBanner=1

 

[JakeAC5253]

It seems like your trying to maintain a specific budget. Not sure if its too costly but new boxes can be had for like $200. After all the modding wo.t you keep it? Is $200 too much to add?

http://m.ebay.com/itm/302164037710?_mwBanner=1

I wouldn't say there is a budget, I would buy a new headshell no problem. I would say I'm trying to maintain some of the "vintage" about the looks. So like 50% vintage and 50% well maintained and nice. Also its kind of a personal challenge or a skill check.

 

[SpiderWars]

Good call on that spray, I didn't realize it was a paint. I looked quickly and thought it was similar to a leather conditioner.

Vaseline sounds good, I'll have to give that a try.

Not sure if I want to re-tolex it or not at this point. The chassis metal is slightly bent in certain spots, so if the tolex looks perfect then it would amplify the damage on the chassis. I'm gonna shine up the tolex and replace the vent with a new one. After that I'll decide if I want to have it re-tolexed or not depending on how it looks.

With the replacement of the vent, the rivets will look brand new and shiny with all the corner joint rivets much darker by comparison. If it looks shitty, I was thinking I should try and shine them up a bit. I thought I could try a wire brush drill bit, but that may scratch up the plastic pretty bad. Maybe spray some brake cleaner and give them a scrub. Brake cleaner may dull the plastic tho...

Or maybe go the other way and relic the new rivets?

Never used 303 on amps but it's good stuff. I've only used the protectant though, not the cleaner.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Wow, I can't believe how much better the tolex looks now. I just cleaned it with some arm & hammer shower clean (I had it around the house) and then followed that up with vaseline as recommended in this thread. Wow, I can't believe how much better it looks now compared to before, the vaseline did a lot of good. The vent replacement gave me a little trouble as the holes in the vent were too small for the ribbed rivets I bought, but drilling them out was easy. The rivet holes in the cab had to be drilled out too as there was too much wood and junk inside the holes, so I drilled them straight through so the junk could come out the bottom. They eventually all tapped in fairly easily, except a few are slightly angled, but not too bad. I'll give it a few days and see if it bothers me enough to pull them and try again. Still can't believe how much better it looks already, with about $10 worth of parts and some time.