Amp rebuild for a student

[ChuckO]

I am giving lessons to a 7 year old little guy. He is awesome, super enthusiastic and always practices. Currently he is using a small acoustic guitar amp with a six inch speaker.

I remembered that I left a washburn Bad Dog 30 bass amp at my parents house, so I decided to see if I can dig it up and give it to him. It has a few issues that I am trying to fix, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Issue 1 - Torn tolex all over. I removed all the tolex and sanded and sprayed a few coats of spray on truck liner. Solved.

Issue 2 - No handles. I took one the the wifes old belts, cut it up and screwed it to the top of the amp. Solved.

Issue 3 - Some time in the the past, in all my infinite wisdom I removed the back of the amp. The question is, Should I fabricate a new back panel from some plywood or should I leave it open so the little guy can store his cords in the back?

 

[B-string]

The remaining issue #3? Is the amp inner chassis exposed? If it is in any way make a rear cover, if you are giving bass guitar instruction make a back cover. If the amp is not exposed and you are teaching guitar (skinny string things) leaving it open is not a big deal save the possibility of small fingers or cord plugs damaging the speaker cone.