Magenta Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 1 hour ago, Marc said: New thread idea - Pimp your Halcro EC800. I'm sure Mike might even offer a small token prize for the best entry Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Yeah sure.... but please, no racing stripes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtfoto Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 2 hours ago, Mr 57 said: Great idea....starting with the how to of removing the face plate..... looking forward to seeing the brave ones making a start.... A hell of a lot of screws and allen headed ones as well. Not too difficult just time consuming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr 57 Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 Cheers to you Sir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtfoto Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Well finally have everything buttoned up. New tinted acrylic cover over display and aluminium front for the draw. Lettering done by a mate who is a signwriter. Printed on very clear and thin stick-on vinyl. Left it looking like brushed stainless as I did not mind the look, but I may end up painting it further down the track. Excuse the crappy picture quality. Good luck to all the other owners with their pimping efforts. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemarquis Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Great job. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider27 Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 1 minute ago, jtfoto said: Well finally have everything buttoned up. New tinted acrylic cover over display and aluminium front for the draw. Lettering done by a mate who is a signwriter. Printed on very clear and thin stick-on vinyl. Left it looking like brushed stainless as I did not mind the look, but I may end up painting it further down the track. Excuse the crappy picture quality. Good luck to all the other owners with their pimping efforts. Superb Work. I wish I could do the same as you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magenta Posted August 8, 2017 Author Share Posted August 8, 2017 29 minutes ago, jtfoto said: Well finally have everything buttoned up. New tinted acrylic cover over display and aluminium front for the draw. Lettering done by a mate who is a signwriter. Printed on very clear and thin stick-on vinyl. Left it looking like brushed stainless as I did not mind the look, but I may end up painting it further down the track. Excuse the crappy picture quality. Good luck to all the other owners with their pimping efforts. Looks great! Well done! Best regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr 57 Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 Sweet job......well done. Looking forward to sorting mine. Time is a problem (moving house).....but loving the music these things make Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ex brickie Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 21 hours ago, jtfoto said: Well finally have everything buttoned up. New tinted acrylic cover over display and aluminium front for the draw. Lettering done by a mate who is a signwriter. Printed on very clear and thin stick-on vinyl. Left it looking like brushed stainless as I did not mind the look, but I may end up painting it further down the track. Excuse the crappy picture quality. Good luck to all the other owners with their pimping efforts. That is brilliant! I should send mine to you for a makeover! How about you send us some step by step instructions on how to do this? ?. I have one and wouldn't know where to start! Well done.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtfoto Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 On 8/9/2017 at 6:48 PM, ex brickie said: That is brilliant! I should send mine to you for a makeover! How about you send us some step by step instructions on how to do this? ?. I have one and wouldn't know where to start! Well done.... I will try to make it as simple as I can. Bare in mind this is how I did it and some people may have a different or better way. First thing was to remove the front of the case. There are a few screws to remove plus screws holding the electronic panels. Some are phillips and some are allen keys. I then very carefully sanded the panel with wet and dry using a block to keep everything flat. When all the machining marks are gone I re-sanded with smaller grades of wet and dry till I had the finish I liked. I then gave it a complete rubbing down with medium steel wool making sure I went straight from one end to the other. I had a local plastics factory cut me a piece of tinted grey 3mm acrylic 160mm x 35mm. The lighter grey seems to work quite well but you can use any colour you like. This was glued to the inside of the panel in front of the display window using a VERY SMALL amount to 5 minute araldite. Mainly at each end. I bought piece of aluminium bar from Bunnings 3mm thick by 20mm wide. This was filed and sanded till it fitted the opening of the tray with about the thickness of a credit card clearance. It was polished the same way as the cover. I did notice after this was done that the aluminium from Bunnings must be a different alloy than that used in the front panel, as it is slightly more silver looking. This will probably be less noticeable after a while. This again is glued onto the end of the 2 rods at the front of the tray. Very little glue is required as the is no real strain with the cover. Just hold in place for a few minutes to make sure you have clearance all around. I have a mate who is a sign-writer and he scan and fabricated and printed up a replica of the original lettering (minus all the audio logos on the bottom). It was printed on very thin clear adhesive vinyl and at the same time his machine also cut all the holes for the buttons on their correct positions. Getting this on was a bit of a headache but it worked out ok in the end. I may be able to convince him to print me some more should anyone here want to do it the same way. Probably would have to charge a minimum amount to keep him happy plus postage. keep in mind if you do try this and are not comfortable putting it on, then I would take it to a local sign-writer who would probably be happy to do it. As I am just starting some major house renos I will be a bit quite from here on but if you want the lettering let me know and I will do my best to accomodate you. Hope this helps a bit. Errors and omissions excepted. :-) Cheers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keys1234 Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 If you find ant]ymore I am interested in one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joz Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 2 hours ago, keys1234 said: If you find ant]ymore I am interested in one Stand in line please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keys1234 Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 Thank you I will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr 57 Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 UPSAMPLING...... How many have tried this on their new toy? Fly into the setup menu and give it a whirl....I guess it would/could be system dependent, but I find it an improvement, if you can believe that, when the unit is already a great listen. Enjoying it for sure....thanks again Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ex brickie Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 On 8/11/2017 at 8:55 PM, jtfoto said: I will try to make it as simple as I can. Bare in mind this is how I did it and some people may have a different or better way. First thing was to remove the front of the case. There are a few screws to remove plus screws holding the electronic panels. Some are phillips and some are allen keys. I then very carefully sanded the panel with wet and dry using a block to keep everything flat. When all the machining marks are gone I re-sanded with smaller grades of wet and dry till I had the finish I liked. I then gave it a complete rubbing down with medium steel wool making sure I went straight from one end to the other. I had a local plastics factory cut me a piece of tinted grey 3mm acrylic 160mm x 35mm. The lighter grey seems to work quite well but you can use any colour you like. This was glued to the inside of the panel in front of the display window using a VERY SMALL amount to 5 minute araldite. Mainly at each end. I bought piece of aluminium bar from Bunnings 3mm thick by 20mm wide. This was filed and sanded till it fitted the opening of the tray with about the thickness of a credit card clearance. It was polished the same way as the cover. I did notice after this was done that the aluminium from Bunnings must be a different alloy than that used in the front panel, as it is slightly more silver looking. This will probably be less noticeable after a while. This again is glued onto the end of the 2 rods at the front of the tray. Very little glue is required as the is no real strain with the cover. Just hold in place for a few minutes to make sure you have clearance all around. I have a mate who is a sign-writer and he scan and fabricated and printed up a replica of the original lettering (minus all the audio logos on the bottom). It was printed on very thin clear adhesive vinyl and at the same time his machine also cut all the holes for the buttons on their correct positions. Getting this on was a bit of a headache but it worked out ok in the end. I may be able to convince him to print me some more should anyone here want to do it the same way. Probably would have to charge a minimum amount to keep him happy plus postage. keep in mind if you do try this and are not comfortable putting it on, then I would take it to a local sign-writer who would probably be happy to do it. As I am just starting some major house renos I will be a bit quite from here on but if you want the lettering let me know and I will do my best to accomodate you. Hope this helps a bit. Errors and omissions excepted. :-) Cheers. Hey - maybe you could make a mini business out of getting the local plastics place to cut a few more of the tinted acrylic plates then sell to a few of us? Cosmetically that's the piece i'd like to get hold of to make the display look rather neater... The lettering was good too 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemarquis Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 (edited) 2 hours ago, Mr 57 said: UPSAMPLING...... Yes, tried this. Have to re-do every time you load a new disc though, and does seem to make a difference. Edited August 18, 2017 by lemarquis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr 57 Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 2 hours ago, lemarquis said: Yes, tried this. Have to re-do every time you load a new disc though, and does seem to make a difference. That's a pain..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtfoto Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 5 hours ago, ex brickie said: Hey - maybe you could make a mini business out of getting the local plastics place to cut a few more of the tinted acrylic plates then sell to a few of us? Cosmetically that's the piece i'd like to get hold of to make the display look rather neater... The lettering was good too I would be happy to do that if there was enough demand. They would cost you $15 plus postage. And I am just covering costs here. Anyone who is interested can PM me. Cheers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ex brickie Posted August 18, 2017 Share Posted August 18, 2017 Count me in 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtfoto Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 Just received a genuine tray front cover from Mike. Unexpected but very much appreciated. Not sure if I will try to replace my effort with the real one as I put it on pretty securely. Might have a go when I am feeling brave. Big thumbs up to Mike. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ex brickie Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 @jtfoto would you be able to get another acrylic panel for the display? cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtfoto Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 1 hour ago, ex brickie said: @jtfoto would you be able to get another acrylic panel for the display? cheers I will order one for you tomorrow Nick and pm you when I have it. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 6 hours ago, jtfoto said: I will order one for you tomorrow Nick and pm you when I have it. :-) @jtfoto Can I pls order one to. Winter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ex brickie Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 @jtfoto thanks - you are a star! I'll need to,read you instructions carefully on how to apply it without gluing up the whole machine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtfoto Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 2 hours ago, Winter said: @jtfoto Can I pls order one to. Winter Will grab you one too mate. Will pm you when ready. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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