Removing paint off of Altec drivers suggestions?

[doucanoe]

I found some old Altec 288C (I think) compression drivers today. One has a 84503 throat with a mantaray horn and the other with a 84656 throat and a larger manatray horn. The smaller was sprayed with some damping material on the outside of the horn. Also a very nice 416A in a cabinet.

The guy I got them from was a musician who claimed he got them for compensation for lack of payment on a gig he had.

Problem is, Some moron decided to paint the whole works (excluding the woofer that was hidden in the cab.) a off yellow color. Im thinking that its more than likely a latex paint but it could be oil based.

Anyone have any suggestion as to how to remove the paint from the drivers with out doing any serious damage to them? They test out at around 12-13 Ohm's and work but need a re-charge I think. I cant even get a Allen wrench near my 291's without it latching to something. These nothing. I am running those 291 16K's in my system now and they sound great.

Ron

[hapy._.face]

so, let me get this straight
you need to strip:

- compression drivers (?)
- mantaray horns (?)
- a cabinet (?) and
- throat adapters (?)

All of these things?

This will require more than one product and more than a few hours of serious effort. For stripping paint off metal surfaces- I like a product from KLEAN-STRIP labeled "premium STRIPPER". It comes in a spray can and gets in all the hard to reach areas and odd angles. You can buy it at a Home Depot- $6 a can. As far as stripping the paint off your wood cabs- ask yourself what your end plan is. Obviously- you don't care for the 'off-yellow', but perhaps it's easier to prep and repaint another color. Stripping paint off compression drivers- I'll leave this one alone. I'd ski with care on that one. Perhaps you could just learn to live with it (?). At any rate- good luck!

[moldyoldy]

Stripping paint off compression drivers- I'll leave this one alone.

That would be a good place to stick on some of them there HorryWood RW&B decals.

Sorry, couldn't resist. Just got my Daily Dose of Disgust from eBay...

[doucanoe]

Well, the paint is on the throats,horns and compression drivers. The 416A woofer was untouched (thankfully) because it was in the cabinet.

Im not concerned about the Mantaray horns because I can just shoot them a different color, but the throats and compression drivers are a little off putting. I thought about a stripper but was worried about the metal finish on the 288's. Maybe just leaving well enough alone is the answer but I figured someone here had been faced with this in the past.

My guess is that someone contracted for a wall and ceiling repaint where ever these were hanging and everything got painted to match.

Ron

[Steve Schell]

Doucanoe, an alnico magnet driver like the 288C has an inside ring magnet, which is fully shielded by the outside pot structure. There is very little external magnetic field with such a structure. Your 291-16K drivers are an unshielded ceramic magnet design, and these throw stray lines of force all over the place. The ceramic structure may seem to attract ferrous objects more due to this, but it does not necessarily indicate that there is higher flux density in the voice coil gap.

I once successfully removed black spray paint from a pair of Altec 802C drivers found at a swap meet. Can't remember for sure, but I would have used either acetone, paint thinner or naptha, as I keep all of these around. Anyway, it attacked the spray paint but not the green oriiginal paint. It dissolved the original decals, though.

If the yellow paint on your drivers is latex, find yourself a can of the product named Goof Off. I have bought it at Home Depot. This solvent melts latex like crazy while leaving most other finishes alone. Old Lansing Iconic bass cabinets have a bad habit of placing themselves under dripping paint, but Goof Off has cleaned them right up.

[doucanoe]

Thanks Steve, The Goof Off sounds as good as anything. Im going to start with the throats and see how that goes.

Also, thanks for the tip regarding the sheilded Alnico magnets for the 288 drivers. Thats a new one for me. I guess you learn something every day around here!

RC