I did something similar last year, where I bought a pair of 80s speakers at an auction ( $9, can’t remember the brand, but they were mid-fi), repair the cabinetry, painted them white, re-screened them in white, re-foamed them and gave them to my nephew as a starter set. Not a hi-fi system by any means, but I got to nurture my nephews love of music for a pittance. And I got an opportunity to strip down a pair of speakers and save them from the landfill.
Painting old speakers (Dynaudio C2)
https://imgur.com/a/LQepOAR
As shown above, I never really liked the bright yellowish maple color of my C2, after consulting plenty artisans, I finally finished a repainting the C2 with the following process.
0. Tape masked all the parts I don't want the paint to touch
1. Sanded the speaker to remove existing stain and protective coating
2. Brushed with few layers of charcoal / carbon color milk paint
3. Sanded a few times (from 80-150-250-400 grit)
4. Brushed with charcoal distressed stain
5. Waxed to seal everything up
It now has a matte, black rusty wood look. I didn't find many painting discussions so hopefully this is helpful for those who're looking to repaint old speakers. One biggest take away here is - painting isn't hard and it's pretty fun to develop further bonding with your speakers :) - it's easy to mess up but also super easy to fix, just sand and paint again!
As shown above, I never really liked the bright yellowish maple color of my C2, after consulting plenty artisans, I finally finished a repainting the C2 with the following process.
0. Tape masked all the parts I don't want the paint to touch
1. Sanded the speaker to remove existing stain and protective coating
2. Brushed with few layers of charcoal / carbon color milk paint
3. Sanded a few times (from 80-150-250-400 grit)
4. Brushed with charcoal distressed stain
5. Waxed to seal everything up
It now has a matte, black rusty wood look. I didn't find many painting discussions so hopefully this is helpful for those who're looking to repaint old speakers. One biggest take away here is - painting isn't hard and it's pretty fun to develop further bonding with your speakers :) - it's easy to mess up but also super easy to fix, just sand and paint again!