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Part One covered the procurement and impressions of this fine amp.  Part Two here will cover disassembly, issues and points of interest, and the cosmetic modifications to make this ugly beast a thing of beauty. 

The original beast:

Improved:

And so:

Here's how I got from A to B:  disassembly!  Remove all the screws.  You'll end up with the head, the main chassis, and the back and front grill assemblies.  Don't lose your parts!

The first bit of ugliness emerges - the power transformer is quite tilted.  It looks as though this was done on purpose,  but I've no idea why you'd do such a thing.  I don't like it.

Blurry, but you can tell the switch isn't in straight either.  No help for that, but I'm not happy about that, either.

A view inside the now-stripped chassis.  Note the foil around the top portion of the amp.  Great idea - cuts noise and hum substantially.  This amp is VERY quiet as regards noise.

The inside of the amp chassis itself.  Good constructions, no problems here, and this is where problems can make a difference.  The rest is, fundamentally, just aesthetics.

The round brown objects are the ceramic sockets that the tubes fit into.  Much better than plastic sockets.

Removing the front panel needs a LONG Phillips #2 screwdriver.  Hard to get in there otherwise.

The front cover comes off:

The red vinyl is glued, with a few staples at the edges.  The piping, however, is wholly stapled on:

Reverse side of the front panel (note red vinyl at edges).  You can plainly see the three pegs of the Epiphone logo.  Find a small awl or screwdriver and you can pop that logo right off.

I take off the corners and find a nasty surprise - the amp corners weren't deep enough, so they ground the corners of the amp cabinet off with either a disc sander or actual grinder.  Not pretty.

And more:

Every corner.  I bet every one of these amps is like that.  This is why making prototypes is so important - you can fix the problem before it hits the assembly line.  My next step was to peel off the vinyl, not too hard to do.  Here it is on my floor with all the amp parts:

And underneath - particle board.  HEAVY particle board.  Oh well, the amp costs $99.  

And the date of manufacture:

Time to break out the chemicals and sandpaper.  You need to be careful with chemicals on particle board, as it's held together by glue and you don't want your board melting away.  I used "Goo Gone" and a large amount of heavy-grit sandpaper.  And safety equipment is a must!

My "workshop in a closet":

Sanding.  I'll tell you straight up right now this wasn't worth the effort, although the end product is beautiful.

Primed with charcoal primer, color coated with Rustoleum "Antique Bronze" and then clearcoated:

From the top:

Looks pretty "vintage" now, wouldn't you say?

This was fun.  It looks gorgeous and sounds good.  I'm a happy guy.

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