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Case side panel design:

ShepsCrook

ShepsCrook

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I've watched everyone and their mods, painting, and whatnot and now I want in.
So I've chosen a simple design. I know tribal designs are so 3 years ago, but I still like the simple yet cut look of them..

Case of choice:
Antec Performance SOHO II (Charcoal Grey)

The only question is, if I use Dupli-Color MetalCast red, and an Acrylic White, should I do the design of the red first and do the oven baking method before I put the white on? Or should I put the white on except for the area where the red will be and then put the red in. Or lastly, should I put the white coat down, then put the red coat ontop of the white?

titan.jpg
 
Basic rule of painting... put light coat down first, put darker coat on top. unless you're planning on creating a reverse stensil for the image, you're better off just painting the whole thing white first then putting the red design on top.
 
Well, I don't mind doing the stencil. But I'm just wondering which will produce the best results. I just got done stripping the first side panel tonight. The Airplane remover stuff didn't work as well as I had hoped. Had to actually use some elbow grease.
 
Paint white first, apply red vinyl sticker next + printing and pinstripes, then clearcoat everything.

This only applies to car paint :D


OR

if you insist on rattle can......paint white (i hope you prepped well so the paint will stick), use frisket stencil film (after you print and cut your logo out)http://cgi.ebay.com/FRISKET-MASKING...268603183QQcategoryZ28111QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem, paint the red, clear the entire thing.
 
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I'm using these paints:

Dupli-Color MetalCast: Ground Coat
Dupli-Color AcrylicLacquer : White
Dupli-Color MetalCast: Anodized Red
Dupli-Color AcrylicLacquer : ClearCoat

I also picked up Dupli-Color Textured Metalic for some other ideas.

The original ideas was to use the Textured Metalic and have the Anodized Red for the stripe and tribal symbol. But I changed it to white to stray away from a grey case, which was the cases original color. :p

Thanks for the info Qtip
 
edited my first post with more helpful info. Read above.


edit: are you painting on bare metal or a previously painted surface?
 
I used a paint remover called Airplane something which I picked up at Autozone. It did a decent job of softening up the paint to which I used a paint scraper, and then steal wool to remove what was left. After which I followed up with a quick rinse off, 800 grit sanding, 1000 grit sanding, 1500 grit sanding, then 2000 grit sanding. Then lastly, I used the Scratch Remover compound (3M) and rubbed down the whole panel.
 
I would rather use Airbrush, but since I'm on a slight budget, I'm stuck with Rattle Cans. I'm moving to Houston TX with my g/f and her 3 kids so $$$ is everything at the moment.
 
k well lets assume that you're going to put some tape on this paint (even after you bake it). If you don't self-etch it, the tape (or that frisket film) will possibly take the paint off.

So try this. Get some SEM self etching primer (rattle can is about $12). Spray a light coat or two on bare metal. Paint the white as you would any rattlecan job. Let it dry for a while. Apply that frisket film after you've cut the red area out. Airbrush or rattlecan the areas you cut out w/ red. Remove the film and any masking and finally clear the entire thing.
 
So basically, with your method, I'm painting the whole thing white first after using the SEM paint. What does the SEM do?

I probably won't use the Frisket film, but will try to find something similar at a local shop like Office Depot, or Staples.

My original idea for doing the shapes, was to go to Office Depot, buy some of that sticker printer paper, the kind where you print out your design on a sheet of this sticker paper, then you cut out your sticker (using an exacto knife), and stick the shape onto the case... Spray the case with the white paint, then use the rest of the sticker sheet, cover the white (after it's dry), and use the anodized red and spray in the open section of the symbol page minus the cut out to fill in the red on the case.
 
Self Etch primer adheres to bare metal 100x better than regular primer. Thus your paint job wont easily peel or flake off. If you are doing logos on top of the paint, you'll most likely have to apply tape or masking (I.E. fisket film or office depot equivalent) to the paint so this will keep the paint from lifting up and ruining the entire job.

However I will say that normal sticker paper might leave a residue on your paint so I'd use the frisket instead. It's made especially for this kind of thing so it wont ruin your paint job when you take it off and the paint wont get under the stencil either (which ruins the lines of your cutout).
 
how's your dremel skills?

Cause I was thinkin... that logo would look slick cut out with some red plexi behind it instead of painting it on. Throw a couple LEDs into holes drilled in the sides... just something to think about.
 
Thanks for the help with this. I'll have to find some SEM. I wonder if they would have that at Autozone. Something to check out this morning I suppose.

My Dremel skills? Haven't tested this out yet. That's why I'm starting this project with simplicity... painting.. :) This computer will be sitting in the boys room. He's only 8 so I am not going to put a huge amount of work on this. But I still want it to look cool.
 
ShepsCrook said:
I used a paint remover called Airplane something which I picked up at Autozone. It did a decent job of softening up the paint to which I used a paint scraper, and then steal wool to remove what was left. After which I followed up with a quick rinse off, 800 grit sanding, 1000 grit sanding, 1500 grit sanding, then 2000 grit sanding. Then lastly, I used the Scratch Remover compound (3M) and rubbed down the whole panel.
Click to expand...
FWIW: 300 or 400 grit sandpaper on the original paint followed by any cheap grey rattlecan primer would have accomplished the same prep job, with a lot less $$$ spent (which you said was important to you), *way* less elbow grease, and no toxic stuff.

Your description above reads to me like you were trying to get a mirror finish look... which would be cool except you intend to paint over it. Now you're going to have a hard time trying to get special primer to adhere to this mirror like bare metal surface.

Here is a good tutorial on case painting. Yeilds excellent results... if you can hang in there for the long haul: Linear Case Painting 101

Edit: If you use the Friskit stuff (or whatever it's called) please PM me and let me know how things went. I'm doing a similiar fine detail paint project coming up and am anxious for a guniea pig :)
 
I did go a little extreme with the sanding of the case. I want to make my first major attempt at this nice. I had all of the sand paper and whatnot already available so price wasn't an issue. I picked up a lot of this stuff a long time ago. Anything new would cost me more. Such as me springing for Anodized paint.

But I can easily undo my somewhat mirror like finish with some 800grit sand paper to make it a little rough again.
 
I don't have any experience directly with the MetalCast, but have used X-Metals on two projects. They both use the same concept to come out to a similar finish. Either prep down to bare metal or use the metallic base coat, followed by the anodized look top coat. I've worked with purple on bare metal and red on the special base coat. They came out to completely different looks. I like the real bare metal surface better, since the top coat color really picks up variations in the metal. I applied the top color directly to bare metal sanded w/400 grit and cleaned with rubbing alcohol.

But that was on the entire case. In your project, you want that finish on a small area. Here's the deal... if possible, don't bother wasting the MetalCast base coat on the entire surface. I don't know what it'll do to gloss white. Try to prime the entire panel (including the area under the stencil) in regular primer, then paint the entire panel in white. Allow drying time, and lightly sand with 1000 grit to remove nibs and recoat if necessary. Then use the Friskit stuff to get your stencil area exposed while protecting all of the other paint. Apply the MetalCast base coat to the stencil area, followed by the red MetalCast top coat. Then apply a nice hi-gloss clear coat to the entire panel.

Best of Luck!
 
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