# Best glue or trick to repair speaker foam surround?



## milburyl

I recently had an accident and wrecked my SUV. My subwoofer was damaged in the accident and my amp received a few scratches and chips, but works A1 still.

My sub is a JL Audio 13W7AE. I contacted JL and they said for $360 they can rebuild it. I looked on Ebay for foam replacement kits and they are reasonably priced, but I am not too keen on the way the foam attached to the cone. The original surround is sandwiched in between the cone and their "w-cone". The replacement foam glues to the topside of the cone. I want to try repairing the sub myself before I send it away to JL and have them rebuild it. 

Is there a glue that I can use to repair the original foam? Or has anyone had experience with the re-foam and gluing it to the top of the cone? Will the glue actually hold up to the extremes and stress that a 13W7AE at full power will put on it?

Any ideas from anyone on which (besides sending it back to JL) repair would be best, repairing the original foam and retaining the original sandwiched foam or cutting the original foam off and replacing it using the "glued on top of the cone" option?


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## Eric Stevens

Get some E6000 or Go2 Glue from Home depot and glue the tear with a very thin layer of adhesive.


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## milburyl

I assume the E6000 or Go2 glues are both flexible. What about the hexane rubber glue that comes with the foam kits?


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## Electrodynamic

Eric Stevens said:


> *Get some E6000* or Go2 Glue from Home depot and glue the tear with a very thin layer of adhesive.


^ This. Clear E6000 (it's available in clear and black color) will work great to fix the surround. Be sure to let it cure for 24 hours after the applicaiton and you will be good.


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## boarder124

E6000 is my favorite. Ive found it at big lots before too.


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## thehatedguy

I think GOOP is the same thing as E6000...made by the same people, looks and smells the same. At one time it was hard to source E6000 locally but found some GOOP and it worked.

But anyways, I fixed the speaker with it like was recommended by Eric and it held up until I sold it...dunno what happened to it after that.


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## milburyl

I found E6000 on Ebay, but it says its not recommended for use on styrofoams such as polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene. I believe the surround on the W7 is polystyrene? What do professional speaker builders use for glue? I found some stuff on Ebay that is speaker specific and is a Nitryl rubber glue that stays flexible. 

If the surround on my sub was rubber, then E6000 or Goop would be sufficient, but am a little leary since the surround is made from Polystyrene and not rubber.


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## Extended Power

I bought a couple of the repair kits off fleebay for my 12w7's.
It came with glue in a small bottle.
I also watched one video of a guy just laying the repair surround on top of the old surround, and said it was a perfect way to repair it. (I don't believe that for a second!)
Then I watched the proper way to cut the old surround off, and remove the cone, etc.

I'll have to look at the kit to see if the glue bottle has anything on it that describes what it may be....


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## milburyl

This is the info on E6000 regarding foams:


"Can Amazing E6000 be used on Styrofoam™?

No. E6000 Series adhesives are not recommended for use on any polystyrene, polyethylene or polypropylene plastics."


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## Eric Stevens

Foam surround are formed from Polyester foam.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that E6000 works great on Polypropylene as I have glue many a dust cap down with E6000. Styrofoam is attacked by most if not all solvents and all rubber based glues will have solvents. If tyhe glue used for the re-foam kits is a flexible rubber based adhesive that remains flexible for life it will make the repair effectively. 

You just dont want to use a glue that attacks or melts the foam material. So a flexible rubber adhesive that will bond the foam without attacking it applied very thin just where the torn pieces will meet together should give you a sucessful repair that can last a very long time.


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## cajunner

I haven't tried it but using a logical stream of thought, perhaps it would be possible to sew the foam together using a sideways running stitch, that would flex easily with the movement of the surround but also hold the seam evenly at the break?

and I would also submit, the use of a glue to an even mildly dirty tear seam, will hamper efforts. I believe it is possible to use a 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe and swab, to degrease as can be done safely to assure a bond with such a thin layer of glue.

I have also thought, why not replicate the suture of a skin tear, using butterfly suture techniques.

this would be using several extremely fine pieces of tape running parallel with the cone edge, up to the speaker basket, possibly using as many as 7 pieces for a tear that extends perpendicular to the surround's circumferential axis, as many screwdrivers have plowed into virgin rubbers and left such a gash...


even a ragged hole could be held together this way until the flexible, somewhat long cure glue has had time to vulcanize or adhere chemically with the polyester/Santoprene.


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## milburyl

Ok, just watched a video on YouTube from simplyspeakers.com showing how to replace the foam on a W7 sub. I guess they do take the upper cone off and sandwich the foam in between the lower and upper cones. So, I guess my worries about only gluing to the topside are gone. I ordered a tube of E6000 and I'm gonna try to glue the tear back together first and see how that goes. And if that doesn't hold up, then I'll order the foam kit and follow the directions from their video and repair it myself rather than send it back to JL. $60 vs. $360 plus shipping a 55lb woofer 2 ways. Kinda a no-brainer on that decision.


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## cajunner

I'm 98% sure you'll find the E6000 solution to work well enough to not need refoaming.


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## miniSQ

Eric Stevens said:


> Foam surround are formed from Polyester foam.
> 
> I can tell you with 100% certainty that E6000 works great on Polypropylene as I have glue many a dust cap down with E6000. Styrofoam is attacked by most if not all solvents and all rubber based glues will have solvents. If tyhe glue used for the re-foam kits is a flexible rubber based adhesive that remains flexible for life it will make the repair effectively.
> 
> You just dont want to use a glue that attacks or melts the foam material. So a flexible rubber adhesive that will bond the foam without attacking it applied very thin just where the torn pieces will meet together should give you a sucessful repair that can last a very long time.


sorry eric, i am laughing out loud here that you actually have to talk him into this


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## boarder124

GOOP and E6000 are similar but not the same. They are made by the same company but the E6000 is a little thinner and seems to stay a little more flexible than GOOP/Shoe Goo.


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## therapture

I have used a thin layer of clear silicone rubber sealer on surrounds before...extended an 1/8" or so past the torn spot. It worked, what can I say.


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## daniloreyes

milburyl said:


> I recently had an accident and wrecked my SUV. My subwoofer was damaged in the accident and my amp received a few scratches and chips, but works A1 still.
> My sub is a JL Audio 13W7AE. I contacted JL and they said for $360 they can rebuild it. I looked on Ebay for foam replacement kits and they are reasonably priced, but I am not too keen on the way the foam attached to the cone. The original surround is sandwiched in between the cone and their "w-cone". The replacement foam glues to the topside of the cone. I want to try repairing the sub myself before I send it away to JL and have them rebuild it. Is there a glue that I can use to repair the original foam? Or has anyone had experience with the re-foam and gluing it to the top of the cone? Will the glue actually hold up to the extremes and stress that a 13W7AE at full power will put on it?
> Any ideas from anyone on which(besides sending it back to JL) repair would be best, repairing the original foam and retaining the original sandwiched foam or cutting the original foam off and replacing using the "glued on top of the cone" option?


Well... What was the final solution and did it work?


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## RayD8r

I know this is an old post but it keeps coming up in all my searches so I'll give it a go. I have 2 Kenwood KFC-W12DVC Performance Series 12" drivers and I thought I had them protected fairly well with some pretty rugged "chicken wire" galvanized mesh in the back of my work SUV. However in the rush of closing up a project I inadvertently must have tossed some junk between the seat back and the front of the enclosure and a piece of it got through the cage and wore into the foam surround and scratched at the cone a bit. I love these drivers and had to hunt high and low to find a second one when I came across an unbeatable deal on a dual 12" enclosure and well matched amp and decided to upgrade. I got the first one about 4 years ago on clearance to replace the aged 12" Kenwood that comes in the loaded single sealed enclosure that I blew immediately upon putting 250 watts to it. I got it for $50 at a yard sale so I wasn't too bummed and at least I knew the new Kicker DX250.1 that I bought for it was putting out good power. Once I got the new driver in there I was all smiles with it in the back seat of my extended cab truck. Now that I have a vehicle with more room, what's the first thing I want to stuff in there? More subs of course. So I got the enclosure and amp off a buddy for putting belts in his 4 runner. Took me about 15 minutes and I got an A-trend B-Box dual 12 ported enclosure and a Cobalt CB1500.1D amp that were brand new, never been used. The amp was still sealed in the box. He had installed 2 12" Kickers in the box but that was as far as he got before finding an awesome deal on 2 12" JL W3s with an amp and box already set to drop in his 4 runner and I got the benefit of the outcome. He had already given the Kickers to another friend, which didn't hurt my feeling at all because I've blown every Kicker I've ever had with amps that delivered less power than the drivers were suppose to be able to handle. Needless to say I'm not a fan of their drivers, but the amps are ok, I've never melted one.
Anyway, sorry for the run on story, got a bit sidetracked there. I already typed it so, I'll just leave it. I did research on my drivers and the foam surround is actually urethane foam so I'm assuming that the E6000 will be safe to use on it? And I also came across a video where the dude used cheap foam sheet material from Wal-Mart. My issue isn't a complete puncture, it is still intact from the rear, inside the basket but it looks quite significant on the front face. These drivers are discontinued and I can't even find a used one now. I hunted for over 2 weeks to find a second one to put in this dual enclosure. They have taken every watt that I've thrown at them like champs and they sound awesome. I also think I had that first one wired up wrong for the fist 4 years of it's life and I now have them wired up at 1.3 ohms on the Fluke. Still playing with setting them right as I have them wired into a factory Bose premium system and I believe the BoseAmp DSP is keeping them restricted but that's another issue all in itself. Any comments on the surround repair, and/or the Bose system tap and possible work around are welcome, criticism included.


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## JD Moriarty

I have used Fabritac and Ailene's Tacky Glue with awesome results. They are both intended for permanent fabric bond including machine wash and dry. They are both flexible. They can withstand heat and moisture and tumbling about.


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## DasFriek

This may sound dumb, but my new favorite glue for many occasions is ”Alien Tape” i havent found anything from 3m bond like this stuff is.its kinda thick so id look on Amazon for a different Chinese made copy that’s thinner and then lay some type of weaved carbon to place on top for add strength.
black electrical loom tape fits upper layer very well.


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## leightoncash

I'm curious how 3m black weatherstrip adhesive would work. it's very sticky, very flexible, and dries like butyl rubber. If I had a tear to fix, I would try it first.


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