Showing the Wetsounds some love

(mikeski) · (mikeski) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 05-31-2010, 9:58 PM

So my Wetsounds Pro 485's are probably one of the first sets ever sold. They were the actual pair we used for some speaker testing back in the spring of 2006. In talking with Wetsounds, the early white housings were not painted, they were the natural white plastic. Fast forward to the fifth season and 450 hours later and they were not looking so hot. The tops had yellowed pretty badly and the sides had marks from the covers chaffing while towing.

Stripped them down to the raw housings, sanded them down, filled all the screw holes up with bondo, filled the seams up with bondo, and had them painted with Nason auto paint custom matched to the hull of the boat. Stoked with the results, really liking the smooth look without the seams and bolt holes. Check it out.

Now, I am thinking about having them covered with ClearBra to protect them? Anybody a clearbra expert...

(mikeski) · (mikeski) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 05-31-2010, 9:59 PM

Sorry for the sideways pictures, iphone specials...

(norcalmalibu) · (norcalmalibu) **Join Date: Jun 2004** 05-31-2010, 10:01 PM

should have bought NVS the color would not have faded...plus everyone knows NVS are way louder.. =)

(mikeski) · (mikeski) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 05-31-2010, 10:06 PM

Keep it up and I'll repo your amp... $hit disturber. Too bad NVS's don't play very long in the marina on a broken down Sanger..

(wake_upppp) · (wake_upppp) **Join Date: Nov 2003** 05-31-2010, 10:33 PM

"Broken down Sanger" Oh dear! Nice work Mikeski. I am however a little concerned about the filler/bondo filling the seams and holes being sanded flush with the housing. Its possible that you may get some cracks showing up because you always want to fill a little past the edges of a hole, seam or whatnot. Its kind of like a "bridging effect". You usualy want a halo of filler out past the edges is what Im trying to say. This way its less prone to stress cracks right at the edge.

(mikeski) · (mikeski) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 05-31-2010, 10:48 PM

Working on these reminded me how much I suck at body work. Good points Sparky, I probably should have broken out the grinder and ground the seam into a V so the bondo would have a better chance not cracking. The body shop did the final body work, they might have redone some of my shoddy body work. I'm not that worried about the holes but the seams could be prone to cracking.

(jonyb) · (jonyb) **Join Date: Nov 2008** 06-01-2010, 7:08 AM

Nice job Mike!

(hatepain) · (hatepain) **Join Date: Aug 2006** 06-01-2010, 11:12 AM

That does look really great and its nice to hear those are still going strong all those hours later.

(wake_upppp) · (wake_upppp) **Join Date: Nov 2003** 06-01-2010, 5:40 PM

The "V" will help with adhesion of the filler material, but the "halo" affect is still the best chance of not having any cracking even with the V. You always want to feather out your filler past any sharp edge. They look great!

(bmr82) · (bmr82) **Join Date: Jul 2008** 06-01-2010, 8:18 PM

Just installed my Pro80s and Syn2 amp this weekend. Look and sound great.

(wetsounds1) · (wetsounds1) **Join Date: Jan 2006** 06-02-2010, 8:39 AM

Mikeski,

Nice Job. Those look amazing. This is a pretty cool story. Literally the first production set of 485's.

Tim
Wet Sounds