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I finally got around to tidying up the schools sousaphones. I wish I had taken some before pictures! The horns are fiberglass. Portions were yellow, scratched, missing paint, dirty, scuffed, and just looked terrible. I took off all of the brass parts. Then I cleaned the fiberglass. Then I used some steel wool to clean up some of the heavy scuffs and so that the paint will adhere better. Then I did some more cleaning. Then I put on a coat of flat white spray paint as a primer. Then after that dried I put on a second coat of primer to cover up some of the heavy scuffs of oh so many different colors. The second coat of primer is drying right now. Tommorrow morning is when the first glossy coat will go on. So far its looking great. I'll be sure to get after pictures up once I am done and if I can figure out how to post pictures. haha if you can't tell, I am very proud of this!

You gotta do what 'cha gotta do. Congrats for hanging in there.

I had to borrow a fiberglass souzy once. I came home from the office to find my wife, sorry for me that it was such a bad horn, trying to clean the fiberglass and buff the brass lacquer. When I took the bell off and unbolted the valve block to finish cleaning it, the look on her face was priceless -- "You mean it comes apart? And I've been trying to get in the crevices the hard way all afternoon?" Her well-meaning efforts did not go unrecognized nor unrewarded.

Your wife is a SAINT! We hope you took her out for dinner!

That was just the first....

I finnished painting and re-assembling this evening and they are ready to go! One question that might lead to next weekend's project...... any ideas on a spray on thing that will make things shiney. I wanna get the inside of the bell a little more shiney. It looks pretty shiney and clean because I used a glossy spray paint to paint it, but a lot of fiberglass sousas have the inside of the bell a little shinier.

Pure speculation right here, but maybe car wax? Like Meguiars or any other high quality carnuba wax?

GelGloss. Made exactly for such, if the bell is the original fiberglass. I don't know how it would work over paint.

thanks! maybe I'll test stuff on some of the random sousaphone parts scattered around the band room

If I wasn't clear, I meant the GelGloss just for the fiberglass parts. It may be too harsh for the lacquered brass valve nest.

I knew what you meant

Any ideas on creating bell covers from scratch? Something simple...navy blue with a silver E on it maybe.......what materials? how to paint on it? any ideas?

You may want to contact a "Marching Accesories" compay(American Band Accesories comes to mind) and check their custom colorguard/tall flag section.
They can probably make up a custom round "flag" with the material,andletter/letters of your choice. You might have to figure out the mounting, or maybe they will add an elastic band around the "flag"
Just my 2 cents
Good Luck,
Dave Hayami

mTaUrBkA wrote:Any ideas on creating bell covers from scratch? Something simple...navy blue with a silver E on it maybe.......what materials? how to paint on it? any ideas?

www.mccormicksnet.com has proper bell covers starting at $22/ea... decoration extra. (They're under Band\Banners\Other custom sewnproducts) You might buy them plain and put the "E" on yourself... or get some enthusuiastic band boosters to help.