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Dura Tex refinishing questions

ultra60

ultra60

Supporting Member
Sep 16, 2010
1,566
1,954
Herndon/Chantilly Va.
#1
A search for cab refinishing led me to a product called Dura Tex. I have a couple low end EV subs that the carpet covering is in bad shape. I'm interested in recovering, etc.

EV claims the cabinets are made of "Road Wood" whatever that may be. Does anybody know if the Dura Tex will stick to surfaces such as OSB, particle board, or this supposed road wood?

Thanks.
 
#3
Road wood is their name for OSB, you will need to do a good job of surface prep. and it will take 3 or 4 coats to look convincingly good. Don't underestimate the amount of time and effort required, the prep will not be easy!
 
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#4
Those EV Road Wood cabs are heavy. I have a couple. Although the material is a chip composite, they are built very well can take abuse better than any other OSB type cab I've used.

Yes, Duratex will stick to it. Leave it rough enough for the coating to bond to it. I use 60 grit with a random orbital sander, but 120 or so is fine.

They recommend Bondo if you have to fill the wood, I prefer an epoxy such as Quikwood.
 

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#5
Surface prep is key. Don't overwork the Duratex when applying it because it will get coarse instead of just textured. Like Agedhorse said expect to spend more time prepping than applying, but it will also need many coats. The Elmer's wood fill in the tub does a great job turning the chip-like panels smooth. Glop that stuff on like spackle and any OSB panels can be brought back to smooth... Let it cure fully though, then sand smooth. One good coat of Duratex with a smooth roller helps with covering the lighter wood so you don't need as many coats once you start texturing. Good luck. Be careful not to tear up chips when the last of the carpet comes off.
 
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#6
Dura Tex recommends using drywall mud for surface prep. However, I've seen at least one thread on here where one of the Greenboy builders advised against it and recommends wood filler. Like any paint job, the better your surface prep, the better the final result.

In my limited experience I used the sheetrock mud. Roll one direction only. If you do multiple coats I would probably use a short nap roller for the undercoats. The DuraTex roller leaves a pretty aggressive (rough) finish.
 
#7
Drywall mud is water soluble, moisture will affect it once dry, and has zero impact resistance. Possibly the worst choice for filler that I can think of.

You will need an epoxy or urethane based filler-sealer that bonds aggressively to the wood surface, yet is sandable. The body fillers are a decent approach.

Don't underestimate the work of prep, the end result depends very much on this.
 
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#8
Don't use sheetrock mud. Ask Duke about the pitfalls of sheetrock mud. I've done about 300 cabs in Duratex. I've talked with the engineers at the company a lot.Use Bondo to fix any big problems. Roll your first coat of Duratex with a 4" 1/2" nap roller.Then move to the foam roller. The key is to not try to roll the whole cab surface and then go over it to lift the texture. Do a couple of surfaces. The longer you wait between applying the Duratex and then going back to get your texture is critical. I'd experiment on a spare board. Too soon and you get too little texture. Too long and it's like course sandpaper. If you experiment first you'll get a feel for the timing.

a trade secret

Often times I'll get a cab finished and notice that there are some flaws in the Duratex. For really small ones I'll use a small brush, dab some on and the wait to use the brush to dab at it to lift the finish and match the texture. On a larger area---let's say I notice a dent. (it happens). I'll sand the area, fill and sand with Bondo, and apply Duratex with the roller. I was told that there was no way you could do that and not have it noticeable. True. Enter ArmorAll. I use it on every cab. As long as you match your texture pretty well the ArmorAll will blend it perfectly.
 
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#9
I used the "orange peel" finish technique to smooth out my duratex and I was very pleased with the results. They have directions on their site but you basically just rip open some plastic shopping bags, crinkle them up, and press them onto the wet duratex. When you remove the bag it leaves a nice smooth almost leather-like texture.
 
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#10
Once you put ArmorAll on the cabinet, you will not be able to do any (successful) recoating because the silicone in the ArmorAll greatly impacts adhesion.
 
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#13
I wouldn't use spackle for anything but repairing drywall defects or other gypsum based products. WAY too soft with poor adhesion.

There's a right way to do every job, but that takes understanding both the problem as well as the processes involved.
 
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#14
Yes, I agree about Spackle. I use wood filler. You might want to sand the wood filler pretty well and maybe a light coat of primer. Un- sanded wood filler can get mighty slick. PL adhesive gets very slick as well.
 
#15
agedhorse said:
Once you put ArmorAll on the cabinet, you will not be able to do any (successful) recoating because the silicone in the ArmorAll greatly impacts adhesion.
Click to expand...
Not true in my experience. I go over the area lightly with either xylene or denatured alcohol. I've done repaiirs or touchups or complete recoating on MANY cabs that I'd previously treated with ArmorAll. Never had a problem.
jimo said:
I think Dura-Tex recommends using "Spackle" for a filler.
Click to expand...

I've talked to the engineers at Acrytech MANY times. They suggested Spackle because they knew that the Duratex would adhere well to it. Unfortunately the Spackle doesn't adhere well to the surface underneath and if you bump the area it'll crumble. Acrytech is worried about adhesion and fear that adhesion to another type of filler (like Bondo) wouldn't work. If that filler is properly scuffed up---no problem. There are more than 100 cabs out there with epoxy outer coating that I've made. I contacted Acrytech to see if they thought it would work. They weren't sure---they said just sand with 60 grit to give a good surface.
I've never had a single problem. Perfect adhesion. Never had a cab returned with Duratex delaminating. Another top cab maker followed their suggestion of Spackle. He had cabs returned with the Spackle fallen off. And he wasn't using a lot. Just to smoothe rounded edges after routing. As long as the surface is properly scuffed, most fillers will work fine.
 
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#17
Of course, if you are able to thoroughly clean the surface with an appropriate solvent that actually binds with the silicone rather than just smears it around, adhesion will be ok, but solvent options are more limited in CA where CARB has placed limitations on what solvents can be used without controls and/or permits. Xylene is one of those CA restricted solvents because it's benzene/toluene based and derived. Doesn't mean that it's not available, but that it's difficult to source or may be formulated differently for CA. The same thing is true of Lacquer thinners, I can no longer get anything but CA formulations which are distinctly different.

On very convoluted (textured) surfaces, it's also difficult to remove adequately because residue will remain deep within the texture.

Where the adhesion issues will show up is under abrasion tests where both downward and sideways force are applied simultaneously. These are the types of tests I apply to all coatings to minimize the possibility of coating failures in the field.

The thought of using spackle or drywall mud, or anything like that is frankly absurd. the strength of any coating is governed by the toughness of the base material, base material uniformity, base having adequate porosity and mil thickness of the coating. The difference in force toughness between spackle and either the underlying wood (birch) or bondo is like 100x weaker. This is rule number one when it comes to finishes is a properly suitable base. (I spent a lot of time in the metal and wood finishing industries years ago)

IME, the difference between a true catalyzed polymer and Duratex is pretty huge. Unfortunately, so is the cost and difficulty in application (to do it right).
 
#18
staccatogrowl said:
I have a Duratex cab that has many flake-off areas on the front and back edges, with the largest being about 2" x 1/4". The area beneath the Duratex is white, and beneath the white is wood. Is this an easy repair? Sand the area, dab some Duratex, let dry?
Click to expand...
This is a good example of the base coating (white stuff) being inadequate for the application. The problem is not the bonding between the Duratex and the coating but the coating itself failing . When a coating is too weak, the coating itself between the Duratex and the wood breaks down. The only way to fix this for good is to strip off anywhere there is a coating failure... and there may be more coating to fail in the future that you just can't possibly see.

Usually, it's more costly to refinish a cabinet properly than to do the finish on a new raw cabinet. The strip/prep work is very time/labor consuming. The other option is to touch up every time you get these dings, which may be a better use of your time and effort actually.
 
#19
As far as catalyzed finishes, I used to greatly prefer them. They are way tougher than Duratex. I've come to like Duratex a lot because of the ease in touch-up and repair. Once you get the technique down on some scrap. it's pretty easy for a novice to do a professional looking repair. I used to think that I should get into Tolex (which I will eventually) but with Tolex---if you bash it or scrape it your s%@t out of luck. You have to redo the whole cab. With Duratex and a little Bondo you can have a new looking cab in an hour.
 
#20
There is no question that Duratex is way easier to use (and to clean up, and touch up), IMO that's its number one advantage. Since I come from the touring audio products world, Duratex just won't hold up... and its not even close compared with catalyzed finishes though both look good when new.
 

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