70's faceplate change

[Denton]

Old Ampegv4.com viewer.. Glad to see a new site! The spam was horrible.

Anyway, I just scored a 72 V4B for CHEAP and just had the local shop fix some extra mods that were done to it (back to stock). It needs a new faceplate and knobs, so I was fixing to place an order to Fliptops. To install a faceplate, what is required? Do I have to remove the control pots or anything like that? Or is it a simple procedure?

[Hangman]

Welcome to the new forum! the spam at the old site was really out of control. we were getting dozens of spam posts a day, and upwards of 50 "new users" a day. most of whom were spam bots. I only had the ability to erase users and posts one at a time there... which made it impossible to keep up with all of the junk. Here i can delete spam posts and users in bulk.

anyway...
The pots and switches will have to come off, and then the faceplate slides out.
its not a huge ordeal, but it can take longer than you might expect.

[beedoola]

Welcome to the new forum! the spam at the old site was really out of control. we were getting dozens of spam posts a day, and upwards of 50 "new users" a day. most of whom were spam bots. I only had the ability to erase users and posts one at a time there... which made it impossible to keep up with all of the junk. Here i can delete spam posts and users in bulk.

anyway...
The pots and switches will have to come off, and then the faceplate slides out.
its not a huge ordeal, but it can take longer than you might expect.

Steve, when I recently worked on a V4 I got, I removed all the panel switches and controls and the face plate was in there pretty good, it didn't seem like it wanted to budge. Is there any trick to getting it out/ you ever seen anything that were stuck in the slot and which required some force to get it out?

Also, have you ever tried silk screening a new faceplate/seen it done? A friend was suggesting I might try it as most of the ink on my faceplate is coming off.

[Denton]

I replaced mine with a fliptops version. It took some force to get mine off FYI

[Hangman]

the ones that I have done were all later era magnavox face plates. The later era ones are more of a plastic laminate of some sort. They slide right out. The earlier aluminum ones are probably more difficult to get out.

[bax]

Sometimes spray cleaners that people use on the pots get in behind the metal face plates, cooks from the heat, and makes them harder to slide out. With a little persuasion, it will loosen. A razor blade inserted under the plate from the edge can help pop it free.

I noticed that the reproduction plates that fliptops is selling are much thinner than the originals. Cost cutting I suppose. I don't think that it affects how the amp looks when it is installed though.

[weezykid]

With my early V4's/v4b's there were a few 1/4" (i think) screws that need to be removed on the inside before removing the pots and switches. Once they are removed then you can pull out the pots/switches and then slide out the flaceplate....

I used a Fliptops plate on my current V4B and it fit nicely with very little (if any) play....