Reconing and refoaming speakers

Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

I keep reading about refoaming and reconing speakers, and I would like to explore this activity with others. I have seen several speakers with the foam surrounds cracking and missing. Clearly this material has long-term reliability problems.
When I look at used speakers to buy, I tend to eliminate anything with foam surrounds for this reason. I have bought a lot of Klipsch and Altec stuff (K-Horns, Model 19s) partly because they have accordian fold woofer surrounds (cloth?) that seem to hold up well. Or, I will do rubber surrounds that seem not to have rotted or come loose (KEF and some others).
My real question is whether these refoaming jobs have a chance of being a fully accurate, correctly-functioning replacement for the originals? I think, if surrounds from the manufacturer of the speaker are available, and the reconer is factory trained or highly experienced, it may be possible to get a factory-equivalent refoaming job done. I wonder though whether the materials, especially the foam itself, that is sold will fail quickly no matter how well the job is done due to age. Third party, Parts Express-type, kits seem to me unlikely to restore factory-designed conditions.
Perhaps I am being too exacting. Restoration of rotted out surrounds will restore some kind of performance to be sure, and maybe that's fine for many listeners.
I have similar questions about reconing. How can one be certain the cone material is identical to that being replaced?

Edits: 07/23/16

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Parts Connexion

Topic - Reconing and refoaming speakers - George S. Roland 07:19:46 07/23/16 (8)

RE: Reconing and refoaming speakers - MannyE 21:13:50 07/24/16 (0)

RE: Reconing and refoaming speakers - merdy 12:12:29 07/23/16 (0)

RE: Reconing and refoaming speakers - Lee of Omaha 09:22:47 07/23/16 (2)

I thought the same thing - cloudwalker 11:46:55 07/23/16 (1)

On the subject of switching from foam to rubber - MannyE 21:10:30 07/24/16 (0)

RE: Reconing and refoaming speakers - 6bq5 09:21:19 07/23/16 (0)

RE: Reconing and refoaming speakers - R Browne 09:03:42 07/23/16 (0)

RE: Reconing and refoaming speakers - Awe-d-o-file 08:46:58 07/23/16 (0)

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