118MH cabinet restoration

[strategypaul]

Hi it's my first post here. I recently bought a Sunn 118MH cabinet. It sounds good but the cabinet is not in great shape. I could leave it as is for the road warrior look but I like at least touching things up if not taking them as close to original as possible. I build a lot of guitar pedals and have restored synths and such but this is my first speaker cabinet project. I went online to try and learn what sorts of coverings / stain / attachments this unit had / is supposed to have and am finding spotty information. Even photos are scarce! Can anyone help or share photos of ones that have a lot of their original finish? My questions:

- Was this originally a black wood stain, or was there some sort of outer covering material. I see photos with a tolex type of stuff and corner protectors on some cabinets, but not others. It looks like the folded horn area is not covered with fabric - it's wood stained or painted black (?) -- is this correct?
- If it has a covering does anyone know what sort? Tolex or something else?
- Is it correct they had rubber feet on the bottom and casters on the side?

I realize this is a bass cab but it sounds amazing with guitar too.
Thank you
strategypaul

[Isaac]

The cabinets were covered with Tolex, and had metal corners. The visible horn surfaces were painted flat black. In addition, they had fairly large rubber feet on the bottom, and removable casters on the back.

[strategypaul]

Thanks, this is really helpful!!! I think that restoring the tolex, corners, casters, and feet are probably all things I can do myself, TBD

[Ryan Phelps]

Just a side note: The Sunn tolex is unobtainium to my knowledge. Over 6 years ago I actually purchased some Sunn tolex (Fender era reproduction) from Conrad Sundholm. I think Conrad had access to purchase this tolex from Fender at that time. I built a missing amp back panel for a late 60's Sunn 1200S and the tolex was a virtual match to the existing amp tolex. And, no I'm not selling any reproduction tolex, sorry! I'm saving it for future restorations.

Also, if you are in need of Sunn corners, Reliable Hardware carries both the 2-screw corners, 3-screw corners and correct #6 X 1/2" truss-head screws. These are an exact match for the original Sunn corners. I've used these on several 60's era Sunn amps. No affiliation, just trying to help my fellow Sunn collectors!