My old AOR AR8000 was getting pretty bad but still worked great. I found out they no longer sell replacement parts. Luckily, they still have some new style keypads but that's it. The thing was beat up, the lettering was rubbed off, there were heavy scratches on the display and the body too. I hated to let it just wither away since it still works so good. So, I decided to take a chance and try to refurb it myself.
I disassembled it to the bare boards and housing parts. I wet sanded it down and used SCRATCH OUT compund on the clear display window. I shot it with a coat of flat black after the housing was sanded down to get the gouges out. I took a pic of the labels and then got a model car decal kit by Testors at Wal-Mart. They have a white sheet of special water soluable printable paper in there. I printed white letters on a block of black background then fixed it with the spray on stuff in the kit. I put the labels on just like a model car. I used a fine brush to paint some flat around them to fill in the bit of white left on the edges. I drilled small holes where the volume dots were and filled them with white paint then installed a small blue LED in the top plate for an afermarket RX led that opens with the squelch. I finished it off with a couple of coats of semi gloss clear. The label was salvaged using UN-DU adhesive remover. That stuff will take anything off instantly and leave the sticker as good as new.
I was happy how it turned out. I forgot to paint around the top plate label edges so you see the square blocks but it's not enough for me to worry about.
At least this way I might get a few more good years out of it.
I disassembled it to the bare boards and housing parts. I wet sanded it down and used SCRATCH OUT compund on the clear display window. I shot it with a coat of flat black after the housing was sanded down to get the gouges out. I took a pic of the labels and then got a model car decal kit by Testors at Wal-Mart. They have a white sheet of special water soluable printable paper in there. I printed white letters on a block of black background then fixed it with the spray on stuff in the kit. I put the labels on just like a model car. I used a fine brush to paint some flat around them to fill in the bit of white left on the edges. I drilled small holes where the volume dots were and filled them with white paint then installed a small blue LED in the top plate for an afermarket RX led that opens with the squelch. I finished it off with a couple of coats of semi gloss clear. The label was salvaged using UN-DU adhesive remover. That stuff will take anything off instantly and leave the sticker as good as new.
I was happy how it turned out. I forgot to paint around the top plate label edges so you see the square blocks but it's not enough for me to worry about.
At least this way I might get a few more good years out of it.
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