Fabric (non tolex) covering questions

I've built three amps, all covered in tolex (or off-brand material). I got the hang of it with help from Uncle Doug's videos. A few months ago I saw Benson's gorgeous amps covered in cotton fabric, rather than a vinyl material. For my latest build I decided to give it a shot.

I went to the fabric store and bought a yard of this geometric mid-century-looking fabric. I cut a few test pieces and started testing glues. I don't see how the contact cement + spray combo could work since the fabric is porous. I tried Gorilla Glue spray, 3M 77, and Mod Podge. The 77 was bad, the next day I could peel the fabric right off. The Mod Podge held well but bled through the fabric like I thought a liquid would. The result looked a little uneven, because the glue pushed back through the fabric more in some places, even though I rolled it while the glue was still wet. The winner was Gorilla spray. The fabric went down flat, and had really good hold the next day.

Then came a finish. Benson says their amps are "brushed with lacquer." Well, I tried that. It really took all the clarity out of the pattern. It yellowed way more than I thought it would (it's just clear gloss lacquer).

Wondering if anyone has any experience using fabric as a finish? Any ideas? Would a gloss poly give me the same look in the end but come out clearer? Is the loss of clarity in the pattern just something I'm going to have to deal with?

 

I used brush-on Deft clear gloss lacquer. The suitcase tip is interesting. My guess is, because this is hard, all the tutorials I found were about ripping off old suitcase fabric to stain or paint the wood. Ha. Nothing about redoing the exterior fabric. I'll keep looking though.

That's an interesting idea. I've seen lots of epoxy videos online. It looks really cool, but I've always had questions about using on multi-sided objects. How would I keep it from dripping down the sides?

Good catch. I'll paint a piece white and see how that works. That would be the easiest option if it works!

Interesting, I don't think I've seen 2 part poly before. Once it's mixed is the consistency the same as any other brush-on poly? What's the advantage to the 2-part vs a can off the shelf?


I noticed something fun this morning. There must have been a chemical reaction of some kind between the lacquer and the Gorilla glue (not shocking, based on the lacquer's smell). As of this morning the Gorilla lost all of it's hold! I wonder if anyone has successfully used lacquer over an adhesive? Anyway, I'll cut some more test fabric and keep trying. Luckily the fabric was on sale and I bought a couple yards. But if wood glue + poly works for netgear69, maybe that's worth a shot.

 

Just an update for those who are curious. I did another round of testing with spray lacquer and spray poly. The final test I'll do is a brush on poly. For this test I also painted the wood white. I think intensely calm was right, part of the darkness with brushed on lacquer was the wood itself.

Like I said before, the spray lacquer caused the Gorilla Glue to lose all hold. It seems to have weakened the wood glue, too. I could just peel the fabric off with a firm grab. The only glue that's held through everything is regular Mod Podge. I brushed it really thin and it seemed to do a better job of not bleeding back through the fabric.

The spray lacquer (4 coats) on a white substrate looks MUCH better. It still has some yellowing, and I imagine that will darken over time (maybe that's good, or bad, I guess it depends on how "vintage" I want it to look). It's thinner than the brush on lacquer, but it still dried hard and felt protective.

The spray on poly (4 coats) went on REALLY thin. It barely even felt like it was building a film on top of the fabric. The fabric pretty much still felt fuzzy through the poly. It was completely clear though, so +1 for the poly there.

I have a tub of brush-on poly somewhere, as soon as I find it I'll do a final test with that.

 

Well for what it's worth, the test that's been closest to the Benson image above has been a very thin brushed layer of Mod Podge as a glue, applied only to the wood, with 2 coats of brush on semi-matte Polycrilic on top, on wood that's been painted white. The poly dries hard, and seems like it will protect the fabric really well. The poly has not yellowed at all, and as it seeped through the fabric it seems to be working like another layer of glue, adhering to the wood. The spray adhesives looked yellow on white-painted wood, and that seems to have come through the fabric a little.

Time to start for real, I guess. I'll give it a shot on the whole head cab and post some photos if it works out!

 

I finally had time to finish this. I would 100% recommend this for DIYers. It was by far the easiest and best looking amp covering I've ever applied. It was also the cheapest. Unlike tolex, cotton fabric is really stretchy, so corners were a piece of cake. If my corner cut was off a hair, I could just sort of smudge the fabric with my thumb, toward the corner, and the glue held it in place.

If anyone wants to do this, my workflow was:
1. Prime all wood with white primer (to prevent the wood color bleeding through, if you use dark fabric you can probably skip this)
2. Brush on a thin layer of regular mod podge
3. Stretch fabric tight to wood (hold in place for about 30 seconds and then the glue gripped it)
4. Brush on 2 coats of Polycrylic (I used semi-gloss, 220 grit light sand b/w coats)

Unlike tolex you can't use uncle doug's trick of putting a hot awl through the tolex for screw holes. But you can just drill new holes! I successfully drilled right through the acrylic coated fabric. It doesn't budge.

To paraphrase the Talking Heads: and you may ask yourself, "Why did he paint it pink?" Who knows.