The Realistic Mach Ones started pretty dirty and weather worn after a couple of decades in storage. The midrange horns were a little bit tricky to clean. I attempted to remove the horns all together, with the plan of submerging them and giving them a proper cleaning, but I wasn’t able to get them removed from the speaker box. I didn’t want to force them, it seems they were glued in addition to being mounted with screws.

I was able to clean them anyway. Once they were cleaned, I also used some ‘armor-all’ type plastic and vinyl polish to treat them. They came out great.

The wood certainly has some scratches and some water damage. I lightly sanded the veneer with some fine grit sand paper. Once wiped down, I applied some dark wood polish and the finish came out looking fantastic. It didn’t resolve the water damaged spots, but that’s fine by me.

The speaker grill covers are the last step, and they’re not completed just yet. I’ve ordered the fabric from Parts Express. I’ve chosen to go with a Fender tweed fabric, made famous by vintage Fender amps. I’m not sure it will work. It’s not ‘fabric’ in the sense that I can mold it around the grill frames — if I’m able to make it work, it will be through heat-molding them to the grill frames. We’ll see.

I’ve gotten rid of the old velcro grill mounts and replaced them with magnets. I’ve countersunk the magnets into the frames and they’ll be covered by the speaker fabric. I’ll need to add four metal washers, painted black, to the speakers to attract the magnets. It should be pretty sharp once it’s completed. Removing the old grill fabric was a pain.

They’re not quite complete, but I’ve still been able to enjoy them for the last week or so. They sound fantastic — I’ve been very impressed.