M14s: I may have a pair

[Alien_Shore]

OK, while I wait for the woofers to be "GPA'd", I needed to work on these cabinets.
Several things are in obvious need of repair. I started with the base cabinets:



They all have some refinishing issues, but there are some structural problems too. First off, there was a woofer mounting bolt missing. Turns out that there was a big chuck of particle board broken away and the tee-nut was gone as well. In case you're wondering, the bolts are 1/4-20 x 1 in. (finished in a lovely dark color). The tee-nut obviously is a 1/4-20 thread (more on the parts later). First thing was to take some industrial strength wood filler and patch the hole. You can see right there at six-oclock, this is after 3 applications and sanding in-between. It actually filled in pretty nicely:



There was a similar issue with one of the cabinet tops where the horns mount. One of the horn mounting bolts was just turning the tee-nut. Turns out it was cross-threaded like never-before-seen. I asked Bill @ GPA for some advice and finally got both the bolt and the tee-nut out without damaging the horn. The repair job was similar to the base cabinet - wood filler, sand, repeat.

The snazzy knurled bolts for the horn (and the crossover) are socket head bolts (you can find these at home depot online - not available in retail stores near me anyway). I couldn't find the woofer mounting bolts anywhere, so I figured what I would do is convert them all to socket head bolts so I can just use the same tool to remove the horns and the woofers, plus they look very cool. So here is the hardware I'm using for the repairs:

Per speaker -
(6) #10-32 x 1" steel socket cap screws (MR931 horn bolts)
(8) 1/4-20 x 1" steel socket cap screws (Woofer bolts)
(1) 1/4-20 Brad hole tee-nut
(1) #10-32 Brad hole tee-nut
(8) Shepherd 1-1/8 in. Plastic Base Nail-On Cushion Glides (for the foot)



With the holes patched, and the new tee-nuts installed, it was time to do the re-finishing. I scanned this site for the recommended stuff. Howards Restor-a-Finish gets the nod. I also picked up the Howards Feed-N-Wax. Let me tell you, this stuff is unreal! Talk about easy, no-mess, and fantastic results. I'll let the pictures tell the story. Here is the top-cabinet before I started - lots of water stains, sun damage, etc.:



Then comes the Restor-A-Finish (I'll start calling "Jesus in a can") you just slather this stuff on and rub it in for a few minutes with a soft cloth:



Twenty minutes later you just wipe it down:



As if it didn't look dramatically improved enough already, just rub in some of the Feed-N-Wax ("Apostles in a bottle"):



Holy divine furniture re-finisher, batman! Unbelievable. This stuff is highly recommended... A+!

OK, on to the pedicure. The feet of these 30+ year olds were looking rough:



I figured what I'd do is tear off the crappy particle board feet, and replace them with hardwood. The nearby Lowes had some nice oak 2x2's...that'll do just great. I cut them to size (18" x 14" in case you're wondering), glued and screwed. Here they are in the jig waiting for the glue to dry:



Stay tuned, as the epic M14 refurb continues...and thanks for watching.