Beogram 4000: Exchange of Black Painted Plinth with a Teak Plinth from a Beogram 4002

The Beogram 4000 that I am restoring right now came with a black painted plinth. Not sure why some people have the need to mess with a piece of iconic industrial design, but I guess "before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes" (Steve Martin - the quote actually goes on: "That way, when you do criticize him, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes.'...an important point if you live in a country that has more guns than people...;-).

Anyway, here is a picture of the sad state of affairs:

As usual this plinth also had cracked guidance washers:

I removed the plinth. For this one has to remove the keypad since one of the bolts that hold it down is underneath.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to just take a plinth from a 4002 and bolt it into the 4000. Due to the slightly different sizes of 4000 keypad and the small aluminum panel that sits behind it, the metal fixtures that are glued to the plinth on the right side are different. You can see this here:

The top fixture is from the 4000, the bottom from the 4002. At the front of the plinth another small difference can be noted:

The tabs that hold the keypad down are a bit wider spaced in the 4000.

This means that the fixtures need to be exchanged. Removal is pretty easy since the glue gives when heated to moderate temperatures. I resorted to wrapping the plinths in aluminum foil and 'baking' them on the lowest setting in our oven (~85C) for half an hour. After taking them out, it was straight forward to remove the metal fixtures on both with a paint scraper that is pressed in-between the wood and the metal and then moved along until the parts are separated. The glue can be removed with Goo-B-Gone (thanks for this tip, Sonavor!).

One the parts are separated the most difficult part of the procedure begins: Butting them back together in a precise and straight way. This is critical, otherwise the plinth will not sit straight and of course that would be un-Beolovely!

In the past I used industrial strength adhesive tape for reattaching partially delaminated fixtures from plinths, and so this was my goto here, too. I put strips on the wood and trimmed them with a razor blade to match the footprint of the wood parts:

The key to attaching the fixture to the wood is to align it perfectly with the milled out groove that is in the lower part of the plinth. It turns out that the aluminum panels of the Beograms have exactly the same height as this groove, and so can be used as a 'natural' guide for reassembling the plinth!

I used the small aluminum panel of the Beogram and borrowed one from one of my 4002s to cover the entire right side of the plinth. Then I removed the tape backing on the front (and left the backing on on the side that no gluing wold occur while I aligned the fixture at the front) and pressed it in:

The Aluminum panels kept the fixture at exactly the same height front and back, ensuring a horizontal alignment.

Then I removed the tape backing from the strips on the side and pressed the fixture in:

Then I clamped everything together and let it sit for a while to ensure that the bond was solid:

Then it was time to bolt the plinth into the 4000. For this I used new 3D printed guidance washers:

They are available via the Beolover Shapeways store if you need some.

It is a good idea to get one manufactured in black to be mounted in the front center spot. This washer can be seen through the crack between the plinth and the aluminum panel if it is white.

This shows two of them installed:

Below the keypad -

and center front:

When I took out the original plinth, the mirror came off from the keypad cluster:

I am glad this happened so I had a chance to glue it back on in a lasting way with a couple dabs of epoxy:

Without this mirror in place it is impossible to see the strobe markings underneath the platter that are illuminated by the wonderful fluorescent orange bulb that is run at the AC grid frequency.

Allright, here is an impression of the Beogram with the new plinth on!

Beolovely! This looks so much better than the 'black ops' version! All that is left are a few final adjustments, and then it will be time for a first spin! I am looking forward to that! Playing a 4000 for the first time is always a special moment!