Hi BIG GEOFF,
I agree, Imperials are so massive that they are a great opportunity for some nice decoration.  I like their proprtions too.
I think an Imperial would look nice with the styling the Brunswick company put into bowling alleys in the 1940s & 50s.  A two tone veneer with the two colors put together in a scalloped pattern would look nice, or a pattern to create a crown like the emblem of the Hallmark greeting card company.  This crown could go on the side down low with it's points reaching up.  
To do a two tone pattern I would start with a single sheet of veneer and cut out the pattern with a knife instead of a saw so no wood is removed, then stain the two pieces their separate colors, then put them back together by gluing them onto the MDF.
The two colors could be wood tones, or rainbow colors are also available as wood dye. from Woodcraft http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=5522
I wish these people had a color chart:  http://www.woodfinishsupply.com/PLaniline.html perhaps they would send a person one.
I like aniline dye for it's clarity.

Cover all the panels with synthetic leapard or tiger fur!!!

We used black metallic hammer paint on our Imperials and they look superb (roller brush), More photos soon. Just about got them sorted - a few surprises too! Stay tuned.

Gary

If you wanted to do a lot of work and spend $50-100 you could line the entire outside and on into the mouth as far as you can see with .25" plywood.  Or even half that thickness.

This would increase overall strength and if you cut the pieces you could make it look like it was contructed from solid wood instead of mdf or plywood.  You could make it look like you spent over $1000 in wood alone.  Also, by lining the inside of the mouth and the outside, it would appear as though it was made of wood almost 2x as thick as the mdf you used (.75" mdf, .25" outer lining, .25" inside mouth makes the panels look like 1.25")  In reality, only a couple of the panels will be lined inside and out but the mouth area will be the only point of reference as to the actual thickness of material used.

The extra lining in the mouth would decrease cross sectional area but only by a bit so it should not be significant.

well thats easy and natural looking.
I use plywood sheets and cover it with 1/4 veneer and solid wood trim pieces. done alot of this for stuff other than speakers, but it applies to speakers.
I bought a bunch of thin veneer 1/8 or so and wanna try my hand at that.
its cherry wood and I have to play with some stain on the pieces first.
I would go lighter in shade myself..
pick a wood that goes well with the wood you already have in the room.
My best advice is not to mix wood types. Some woods work well togther and some look like 43LL.

have a go and send some pics

Isnt that the stuff they spray on pick up truck beds?  Hard as anything  though. .  I decided i wanted something modern and durable since it gets moved alot from my basement to my garage to outside, and it doenst really go in a room with other nice furniture in it so i dont think im going to go with the wood look.  I just need to find something that can be pretty durable yet good looking.

[quote author=Jet-Lee  link=1142910082/0#6 date=1142949825]
When I build a full-size imp.....that's soo what I'm doing. [/quote]


My mate who is a bassist has all his amps and stacks covered in white with black splaters fur. its awsome. I was thinking of covering my WO is something, hmmmm ides.


Oh, big_geoff what horn have you used on the top?

Quote:


  Well, you see, when i was buidling my imperial, it was towards the end of last summer, when money was running low because i was working less and school was comming up and i had spent a lot on the 6 damn sheets of mdf and the two 15's used in constructing my imperial.  So i just picked up one of these http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=264-225 (it was cheep and would hopefuly get the job done until i got more money again... the new girlfriend 6 months ago helped drain my money once again,  :'()  I believe i got this horn with it http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=270-099.  I'm not too sure if its a good horn/driver or not, i just needed something at the time to pick up some HFs.  It sounds fine to me, although i havent listened to better horns than this.  I was planning on possibly purchasing a better driver in the next few months and making a wooden horn for it.  Or i might just put all of my money (once again) towards another imperial.  :-*

Just out of interest what frequencies have you guys crossed over at? I didnt realise the imperial had such a wide freq range.

I did the same and was very pleased with the results

if the imperial does get moved a lot, then i would consider covering the outside with automotive carpet, and putting metal corner guards on over it, then painting the horn mouth flat black.  This will make it look VERY Pro, and add some acoustic dampening as well.  The only downside is that carpets generally a tad more pricey then paint, but then maybe not as much as rhino lining.