# Alpine 3545 Refurb



## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

I've been wanting to do this for a couple years now and about a month ago put the plan in action. Goal is to make sure the amps are stable for a long term install, look presentable, not 100% perfect but not big chucks of old beat up, faded out aluminum either. Anyone is welcome to throw out tips.

First step was to send all three to Alpine for a check-up. All three played music but I wanted them checked out before fabing an amp rack, etc. Alpine did minor things to two of them and the third they would not work on because all of the serial number was not legible. Their policy is the piece has to have a traceable serial number or they won't touch it, even if it is 20+ years old. Cazy but it is what it is. $140 with shipping they are back with 45 day warranties! In new padded Alpine Reman boxes. Sweet deal! The return shipping and the three padded boxes alone was pushing $100 I bet.

Starting with the worst looking of the three. The one on the extreme right.



Scuffs are too deep to strip and re-annodize.



Removed the board to see a past repair. (this voided the warranty-ops) Alpine does put warranty stickers on the bottom plate.


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

Am wondering if Alpine replaced any of the caps in the vertical board.


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Bare heat sink. It appears to have been touched up sometime in its life so time to strip the paint first.



Heat sink it actually three pieces.



It was far worse than I ever expected. It takes some effort to manually remove annodizing and create scuffs this deep.

This is just removing the paint. No sanding by me.





And she was a bit dusty.



After some research and phone calls I decide to just strip it down to repaint. Oven cleaner removes annodizing per a quick Google search so.......



Now what to use to fill in the scuffs and smooth her out? Cook (AudioX) told me about Q Bond a while back and I had some already. 



It dries instantly and sands like ABS. It is perfect for the tiny scratches but takes a couple fills for the larger ones. 

First coats of primer. Looking good and haven't even starting final sanding.


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Time to work on the status plate.

Same procedure. Oven cleaner X 2, fill with Q bond, primer.











The finish plan is to paint, have the lettering engraved, and clear so the bare aluminum doesn't fade.


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

The main sink.

Oven cleaner X 2 and it looks like an Eclipse amp. 



Someone was nice enough to drill an extra hole so Q bond to the rescue. Sprinkle in a little of the pixie dust, squirt in the glue, sand, and its gone forever. This stuff is great. The instant drying really speeds things up.









Primer is drying now.

400 grit sanding on the two top plates and the second coat of filler primer is drying over night. Hope to get top coat on tomorrow.



Experimenting with several types of clear on a couple scrap pieces of aluminum. All these amps are faded out black now but at one time they were shiny annodized aluminum. Note the difference between the left and right fins that have been covered compared to the center fins that are not.



Side shot showing the difference.



Going for a semi or satin gloss as the final finish.


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

TrickyRicky said:


> Am wondering if Alpine replaced any of the caps in the vertical board.



I can take some close ups of the board if you want to check it out. I can tell they checked the two big power supply caps. The top cover was removed on one. Neither is buldging or leaking. There are some suspect dis colorations on the board around the filtering caps. Not sure if its adhesive or they are leaking.

With amps this old there is no doubt some service will be required from time to time. I am just trying to be pro-active to eliminate the amount of down time.

#2 Alpine repaired is next in line. Mr. No serial # is at Freeman's but they haven't started yet. When I get this one back together, hopefully it still works. I played it on the test bench for 30+ hours with no issues before voiding the warranty. #2 is still under test before removing the warranty sticker.


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## DagoSQ (Feb 19, 2014)

Really great work!!


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Thanks! Other work that was done.

The bottom plate is steel so I had it media blasted. It litterally looked BNIB. I was amazed.



Top coat Vs primer coat in the previous pics.



Sneak pic I took late Sunday. It actually still works.



2 more to go. Not convinced painting is the way to go.


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## strakele (Mar 2, 2009)

Looking good so far.

Any reason not to have the heat sinks powder coated?


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Still several options and powder coating is one of them. The amp looks 100% better but still looks painted. Powder coating brings in possible heat issues and due to the amount of damage by a previous owner would require filling and/or heavy coats. Either creates more issues. Anodizing is my preference but it would look like a brand new anodized beat up heat sink. I took them to the metal shop for options and powder coating was their best suggestion but they are not audio folks and I am not sure I want to wrap a 20+ year old amp in a blanket and try to use it.

Decisions, decisions.......


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## strakele (Mar 2, 2009)

Hmm. Have the metal shop put them on a mill and shave off a couple thousandths to remove dings and scratches? Then you could take some high grit sandpaper to them after to remove any round tooling marks and make them look like an extrusion (assuming that's what they are).

Then it'd look like much more like a new heat sink and you could finish them however you wanted. Wouldn't fix any deep gouges but should take care of the majority of scratches and dings.


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

The little improvement wouldn't be worth the effort to mill. There are 6 really bad spots. Powder coating and extra fans with a clear plexi amp rack top or anodizing and smoke plexi amp rack top. This is the worst one by far. Or scrap the project a use modern amps.


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## strakele (Mar 2, 2009)

They sound like pretty sweet amps and you've already gone this far.. be a shame to scrap the whole project. I'm sure you could design an install to keep them cool and hide most of the bad spots.


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

Powder coating will cover most small nicks and bad spots. A lot of amplifiers are powder coated (especially old school class AB), so I doubt there will be issues or concerns over the heat and powder coat. Powder coat is also many times more durable than the spray paint. Just tell them to go easy on the coats (so you dont get any drips or excessive build up on the edges). 


You can also compare the boards to know if they (alpine) did in fact replace all those wet caps on the vertical board, by comparing the two you sent to alpine and with the one you didn't.


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

I see moving the pictures around I lost all the tags. I will have to re link them later. 

The paint just wasn't doing it for me. They just looked painted. Picked up the first one from powder coat today. Looks 100% better. You can see every imperfection but without dropping the coin on milling them down, it is what it is.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

Jason Gibson at Freemans is an old high school buddy of mine, he's been there for ever...started before I was working there and is still there. He does good work. Been meaning to call him to take a look at somethings for me.


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## SUX 2BU (Oct 27, 2008)

Would love to see all the pics in this thread but I can't  Thanks for posting the cost for Alpine to refurb. Pretty darn reasonable. I need an end plate for one of mine. I went the "cost effective" route on my refurb and sanded off all the old paint to bare aluminum, filled in the gouges and scratches with Evercoat Metalglaze, sprayed 6 or so coats of filler primer on for texture and sanding scratch fill and then finish painted a few coats with satin black Krylon.


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## 1996blackmax (Aug 29, 2007)

Came out looking nice!


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Looks good!


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Second sink back from powder coat. It is interesting how the lower serial number amp name plate and board differs from the higher serial number. There were definately at least two versions of this amp. All the major parts are the same. Older amp name plates were actually engraved and silk screened, newer ones were only silk screened.

For anyone looking to strip anadized amps: I have tried four types of readily available oven cleaner. Plain ole Easy Off in the yellow can, by far, works the best. Even better than the double the cost 'heavy duty' stuff at Home Depot.

Although not perfect they look 100X better than before. Not sure if I will get the name plates engraved or re-silk screened. I am leaning towards engraved.

Time has expired for this project as it has taken far longer than I thought. These are put on the back burner until the comp season is over. i.e. Winter project.

If anyone has a dead 3545 please get in contact.

Updating pics lost above.


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## SUX 2BU (Oct 27, 2008)

How do you plan on getting the name plate re-silkscreened? And by nameplate you mean where the status and clipping lights are?


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

I found a place here in town that can silk screen or engrave. Waiting on the 3rd sink and take them all down at the same time. Paint yours and send it.


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Added red LED's behind the fans. Surprisingly it gave it a 'villian' style look.


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## 2010hummerguy (Oct 7, 2009)

Oh drool, those refurb prices are CHEAP!


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## cajunner (Apr 13, 2007)

the side panels are basically non-heat dissipating, it appears...

so I would think a full custom job is possible.

you could get small blanks of exotic woods and laminate them in a decorative inlay style, (think custom pool cue diamond/checker work) and for the center, I always liked the look of blued steel...

something like a birds-eye maple, or snakewood, or burled walnut... and that old school center stripe of deep blued steel ribs, in the way you'd see a finely crafted rifle have it's points...

heck, you could even have it checkered, like the grips on a rifle, that would really set it off...

http://www.exoticwood.biz/snakewood1x1x12gg.jpg

http://images.rapgenius.com/8jzpcvrgsi6rd9k3eper73n9n.1000x538x1.jpg


between 540 and 590 degrees...


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

There has been a dust trail under each side piece on all three I have worked on. My guess is they direct the fan air flow. The transistors are also under the small fins under these pieces. Makes sense.

Special thanks for Jason at Freeman's for the TLC in re-capping/refurbing the board in this sink.


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Fresh out of silk screening. Still need to be cleaned and cleared. The older amp names plates are actually engraved. The silk screener said that made them fairly difficult. Up to three sinks 100% done. 2 boards re-furbed. #3 is in progress. We might have music this year.


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## strakele (Mar 2, 2009)

Sweet


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## bigbubba (Mar 23, 2011)

Those are looking really nice. What are your plans for them?


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## qwank (Aug 4, 2013)

very nice. I love those old Alpine amps. Using a 3555 in my Corvette


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

I am putting a system for my daily together. Plan is to use at least a couple of these. The best one I might just hang on the wall.


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## MCLSOUND (Oct 21, 2011)

I just sent mine in to my tech for a overhaul. ..the power supply squeals upon start up. ..
Im going to recap this badboy..


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Good luck! It's a long frustrating road with these but when I fired the first one up with an old M88 head unit and Tannoy V8's in the garage it was rocking as long as the power supply could keep up. LOL


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## vwguy383 (Dec 4, 2008)

Hey KP, is there anyway you could redo the images? Would love to see them if you still have them. Love seeing people do amp restos.

Thanks
Justin


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## win1 (Sep 27, 2008)

Yes I would love to see them also


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

I moved all the pics around on photo bucket and all the links were lost.

See if this link works.

3545 1 Photos by acuratlsq | Photobucket

Try to guess what size speakers are playing in the video before it pans up to them.


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## imjustjason (Jun 26, 2006)

Would you guys rather I fix the links in the beginning of the thread or just browse the album?


EDIT: Fixed 'em.


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## vwguy383 (Dec 4, 2008)

if you could put them in where they were that would be great. then we see what he was talking about in his description.

Thanks a lot!
justin


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

Before and after. It took several people with specific skill sets to get to this point. Thanks to everyone.


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## vwguy383 (Dec 4, 2008)

Hey KP, the thread looks so much better with the pictures in the right place. So much nicer to see a picture with the words in your resto. Great job saving these beauties. Hope you enjoy them for a long time!

Thanks
Justin


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## KP (Nov 13, 2005)

This is the typical before and after. The amp on the right was just returned from repair. The name plate/badge on this one is near perfect. A plus! The amp on the right was benched after repair at 273 watts per before visible distortion on the scope. -3 DB on the upper end was 150K. No typo, 150K!

Note that the 3545's with the engraved name plate/badges are older than amps with a flat name plate/badge. There are also internal revisions which to my novice eyes appear to be for noise battling on the imput and an aluminum sink was added under the transformer. All the power supply and outputs are the same.

With two working amps the build in the car has started. Fingers crossed these old beasts last!
Link to the build: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...type-s-alpine-3545-zapco-audiotechnology.html



Special thanks to Freeman's, Atomictech, Perry Babin, Envision for the repair efforts, advice, and skill to bring these back to life! Conversing with the above 'dream team' of repair skills quadrupled my knowledge alone.


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## nicofrance (Nov 19, 2009)

hi kirk,

very good working on vintage amplifier ( these juba amplifier are incredible ). 
that's very interesting . . i had thinking about replace the fan of my 3558 by new one but it is collector amplifier.
it is time to test it and do it .

for me the only default of this amplifier is the noise of the fan ( like your beastly 3545 ).


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