I have two MK2s that I am repairing. I have all the parts now, and am ready to move forward with reassembling them. My question is should I paint them? They have obvious wear and tear on the corners which most MK2s have after all this time. The best price I can get to have them done professionally is $200, which would be a black automotive finish with flakes. If I did that, then I would want to replace the lights with LED’s. That would cost $25 minimum.
Total so far I have put $250 into the decks combined. If I were to paint and and add LEDs, it would jump my investment up to around $500. I have seen MK2s sell for anywhere from $500 to $1100 a set unmodified.
You can go the cheap route and spray paint them yourself.
Painting is pretty easy, just remember to go slow, stand back a bit, and do multiple coats. If you screw up, you could always opt to have them professionally done.
I’ve been thinking about painting them myself. Scouring the internet for tips to painting cast aluminum, proper painting/preparation tips, etc. While I know my way around a paint can and since I am a student now I have the time, I could easily do it myself, primer included. Having painted cars in my younger years, there is no substitute for being able to thin the paint at will, and bake the finished product. The tricky part is working with the primer they used when they made the decks. It should be as simple as cleaning, scuffing, priming, painting. That what worries me. Nothing is as simple as it seems.
I’ve painted aluminum alloy in the past…my rims on my truck. I just cleaned them with ammonia soap and water, let dry, sanded/scuffed them, and then used rim paint, that was made for alloy rims…didn’t use any primer.
Of course, these were rims, so I was just trying to make them look nice…they didn’t really need to be pristine.
They’ve held up pretty well over the years considering its an offroad vehicle.
Polished? Is that just sanded back and lacquered? £50 is a bargain…
Are you gonna buy some of these:
Polished decks would look NICE with some of these. I’d love to have the decals match the colours of the wave forms in my DVS (Red on the left, Blue on the right).
Those look so much better than the ones I have. I’ll be putting in my order tonight.
I got the painter to come down in price to $100 for both. He does great work so I will dropping them with him on Monday. Now to get the lights, and they should be good to go in a few weeks. What color lights do you guys think would look best on black gloss?
Got a reply for the seller. They do not have them in white, and they do not have the pitch scale. I may just include the ones I have without putting them on the decks, and let the buyer make that choice.
And I am going with the blue lights on this one. Maybe red on my next ones, but I think the blue will look better with the silver tonearm.
I was quoted $270 for the whole refurbishment incl repainting cabinet, platter, LED lights, tone arm assemble refurb & calibrate..not incl shipping per deck.
I have dismantled the deck apart & planning only to send over the cabinet & tonearm assembly, was asking for another price quote but until now no replies yet…the LEDs might look nice but it’s not too important for me at this stage.
Not sure local auto painter shop around here would paint something like turntable cabinet since they never do it, and if they do would probably charge a hefty price tag.
I’ve been thinking back & forth about doing this myself
thanks for your input! get to have more confidence before shipping them over
Actually was thinking about a black deck colored matching my mixer with white LEDs
I have a stock 1210mk2 in a good condition, luckily i dont have to mess around with it & would keep it as original as it is
