Painting a Fiberglass Sousaphone **UPDATE**

[TubaTodd]

I have a sousaphone that is a bit "long in the tooth" that was donated to our band program. I would love to paint the body of the thing myself. Does anyone here have any experience with using hardware-store-quality spray paint on a fiberglass sousaphone? If so, how did it turn out? What brand/type of paint should I get? etc.

Thanks!

IT'S DONE!!!! CHECK OUT MY POST ON PAGE 2

[TubaTodd]

Bloke,

Thanks for your reply. What type of paint are you suggesting? Rustoleum? Krylon? Enamel? I need to figure out which one to purchase. I'm hoping to paint the body a satin (gloss if I have to) Red and the the bell in 2 tones. The outside of the bell will be a matching red with the inside being gold. We really want to have the sousaphone painted in school colors (red and gold).

By the way, I played this sousaphone for the first time tonight. It sounded GREAT. I never in a million year, thought it would sound so good.

[TubaTodd]

Whatcha got?...an old 36K Conn?

Nope, it's an Olds. I'm not sure of the model.

With the gold, you might consider TWO cans and TWO people: One person painting for 10 seconds or so at a time, and the other person shaking the alternate can to "switch off". With the gold paint, buy the most expensive brand...and the one with the glossy gold cap.

Can do! Should I put a primer on the tuba BEFORE I spray the color on.

[kegmcnabb]

Thanks Bloke,

Great info! I have been considering painting my Conn. Your comment on primer seems right on, however, there are a couple of places on my horn that are worn down to the fibreglass itself. Will I need to primer these spots so the paint will stick?

Thanks,

[RyanSchultz]

When I was in High School we took our sousaphones home and spray painted them. We didn't do anything special, just detached the brass part, cleaned off the bells and sprayed. They all looked great. We just picked paint the color of the school colors and away we went.

Luckily our director was *pleasantly* surprised.

[TubaTodd]

Well, the Lord has blessed our band program again. Our color guard coach's husband (whose son is one of our electric bass players), teaches autobody repair and auto paint. We mentioned that our sousaphone needs some fiberglass repair and a paint job and she said her husband will repair the fiberglass and put on a automotive quality finish in the school's colors.

The sousaphone was patched by a music store several years ago. They did a lack-luster job. The fiberglass has no leaks but the quality of the work is questionable at best. I am hoping that with his fiberglass expertise, he will do a GREAT job!!!

One concern we have is that the fiberglass seems rather fragile. I tried disconnecting the valve section from the fiberglass and the brasses seemed stuck. I am afraid to use ANY force. I'm afraid that that the fiberglass will tearup near the contact points. If worse comes to worse, we can have him mask the brass and paint the body.

I will see about posting before and after pictures.

[TubaTodd]

That scares me bloke. I'm hoping with Curtis' expertise in autobody and fabrication, that he can repair/strengthen the connections where the brass meets the body. As for the braces themselves, they seem to be in decent shape. I have one brace that needs to be soldered and I know that is something he can do easily.

[TubaTodd]

THE SOUSA IS DONE!!!!!

OMG!!! Curtis did an amazing job refurbishing the fibreglass on the tuba. All of the cracks have been expertly sealed. The 2 huge HOLES that were cheaply patched with tape, have been replaced with smooth fibreglass. When he was done he painted it with a pearl white auto paint and put a automotive quality coat over the paint. The workmanship is AMAZING!!!!!

I wish I took some "before" pictures, but alas I didn't. The body was cracked patched and cover in masking tape with 20 years worth of names on it. Here are some pictures of what it looks like now. Click on the thumbnails for larger photos.


The valves and slides weren't refurbished, BUT they work VERY well!!!


To the left of the "OLDS" brace was a HUGE hole that was cheaply covered with tape. Looking at the tuba with my own eyes and feeling the finish, you would NEVER know that the hole ever existed.


Here's the whole thing. Curtis sprayed the bell with a gold outline to blend with the valves and to feature one of our school colors.


Another shot of the tuba.

This was the first time Curtis ever worked on a sousaphone. Wow....what a job!!!!!

OHHHHH.....by the way...Daniel, our high school tuba player, LOVES IT!!





So.....What do you think BLOKE??

[Tubaryan12]

let me pop you collar because you tuba has been officially PIMP'D

[TubaTodd]

let me pop you collar because you tuba has been officially PIMP'D

You bet it's PIMP'D! I was thinking of taking a picture of our tuba player wearing the sousaphone and holding a sign that says "I've been OVERHAULED"

I truly wish that I had "before" pictures. I sent my mom pictures of the sousaphone. It was her hard work that led to the donation. When she saw the pictures, she said should couldn't believe her eyes. Before all of the work was done, the fibreglass was U-G-L-Y!!!! Now it looks like it rolled out of the factory. If anyone in Alabama needs any fibreglass sousaphone restoration, give me a call and I will put you in touch with Curtis.

[jmerring]

Congratulations are in order! It looks absolutely stunning

Didn't that process make a horn that was already non-resonant and make it play even more dead?

[TubaTodd]

Congratulations are in order! It looks absolutely stunning

Didn't that process make a horn that was already non-resonant and make it play even more dead?

Well, the fiberglass on the sousaphone was SOOOOO terrible, that there were holes....not cracks....holes that were patched somewhere in the instrument's 25+ year life time. These patches were REALLY poorly done. The work that Curtis did on repairing the holes was superb. You can NOT tell, that there were ever any holes. The structural intergrity since the repairs has improved GREATLY. The paint itself doesn't effect the resonance. The slides could probably stand to have some dents removed. I think the dent in the 3rd valve slide might be enough to make it a little stuffy. I have a feeling I will have the thing "Stofer-ized" (Lee Stofer) during the off season.

[TubaTodd]

So.....What do you think BLOKE??

I think it's gorgeous...' looks like the finish you would expect on one of those snazzy european fiberglass sousas or tubas.

I have one Olds fiber sousa that I've had in pieces in a box for a long time. The three body-mount studs are very solid, but I'm almost afraid to do a restoration and sell it, because those studs (once most any high school kid gets it) and the fiberglass in which they're imbedded is so old and (likely) brittle, I figure it will have a practical life of one marchin' band season...I've kinda been waitin' to fix it up and sell it to some (likely gentler) adult end-user.

The fiberglass on this sousa was extremely brittle. The joints where the valveset and tubing attaches to the body was very brittle. (You had warned me about that.) When Curtis took the sousa apart (something he had never done before) he reinforced ALL of those connecting posts with NEW fiberglass. When I sent the sousa to him, it felt really delicate. I used to pick it up and it would rattle and make a creaking sound. When it came back from the repairs, it felt REALLY solid and much more durable.

Yesterday, the sousa made it's debut at our school's pep rally and football game. At both places it performed very well.....ahem...so did Daniel...our tuba player. Our football team did well too. We beat our big rival (from a neighboring town) for only the second time in school history and first time in 5 years. We won 32-6.