I came across an old pair of Altec Lansings whose foam has disintegrated into nothing. I first dismissed them as trash but then did some research and found $30 refoaming kits. Has anyone here refoamed speakers and, if so, did you find the resulting product to be as acoustically pleasing as originally? Or should I pass on the project?
Refoam kits are hit and miss. How a speaker terminates at the surround will influence the middle range of the driver's frequency response. Repairing a small six inch driver isn't much of a challenge. Larger diameters increase the chances you'll not get the voice coil exactly centered in the magnetic gap. For most drivers I would pay to have a good shop do the repair.
Should you pass on the project? I suppose that depends on what the project is and what potential the drivers have. Old Altec drivers shouldn't be revered simply because they are old. Altec turned out a fair amount of junk along with some very nice product.
Not worth it. And if you do it, pay someone. Unless you've done a few yourself already, there's a good chance you'll mess it up. As Jan mentioned, getting the voice coil centered in the magnetic gap is very difficult. I generally find that if the foam on a speaker has disintegrated, it's a sign to just buy new speakers--anything that old probably doesn't sound that great compared to a decent quality modern speaker.