How To Restore Speaker Grill Fabric

[ohohyodafarted]

I have had good luck with OxyClean. But the process is not easy. I remove the speaker and then the speaker board that the grill cloth is attached to. In most cases the cloth is stapled, and sometimes it is also glued to the speaker board. Obviously you first remove ALL the staples, and if the cloth is also glued, CAREFULLY peal the cloth off of the board.

Then I make up a strong solution of oxy clean in HOT water. Fold the grill cloth so it will fit into a shallow rectangular cake pan and fill the cake pan with the solution of OxyClean and water. Let the grill cloth soak for about 15 minutes, and slosh the crill cloth around in the mixture every few mintutes to help loosen the dirt and grime. AFter about 15 minutes, pour off the grungy soultion and do this all over again. You can rinse with clear cold water after the second soaking and rinse until the water runs clear.

Block the grill cloth on a bath towel to soak up the majority of the moisture. And while the grill cloth is still damp, you will need to re-staple the cloth to the speaker board. If you wait till the grill cloth is dry, you will find the grill cloth has shrunk and may be too small to cover the speaker board. So be sure to re-attach to the speaker board while it is still wet. AFter the grill cloth dries it will shrink making the grill cloth nice and tight on the speaker board.

The one caveat is that some grill cloths will also bleed the dye in the material and it is possible that you will lighten the color of the cloth. But most dark color grill cloths have been sun bleached anyhow by the time we get them so they are no longer the color they were when they left the factory anyhow. In some cases I have also re-dyed the grill cloth after cleaning, but it is hard to match the old colors and if there are metalic threads in the cloth, I don't recommend dying because the metalic threads have been known to take on the dye and you will lose the metalic effect those threads provide. Also many old grill cloths are woven from several colors of threads, and if you try to re-dye, you will lose the muti-color look of the grill cloth.

[VA561]

Thanks for all of the helpful advice. Outstanding website Bob!