• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Flat Back & PC Case Interior

P

P4rD0nM3

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 5, 2007
Messages
1,544
Hello. I wanted to ask any professional or near-professional computer case painters here if it's safe to paint the interior of my computer case with Flat Black Automotive paint.

I have several Flat Black spray cans lying around my garage because I use FB to hide wall love-taps from the track.

Just wondering if it's safe or will it hurt my system in the future?

Looking into painting it close to a week or hopefully less than a week (Any recommendations/tips is appreciated). I'll apply 5 coatings (Is that enough?).

I'm currently reading this article.
 
From my first hand experience with case painting, I've done a couple interior paint jobs and all the computers still run strong. The paint wont have any affect on the machines performance.

I usually wait a couple days to let the paint smell to subside before throwing everything back into it.

And becareful when placing your hardware back into the system, most likely the paint will scratch easily.

Good luck and have fun with it
 
Thanks guys.

I did paint a sample set without prepping it. Painted it a small two hard drive holders to check if it sticks. It did stick though even without prepping. What is the best grit for aluminum?
 
just make sure to use primer for it if you want it to stay better...also sanding is important to most people...
 
personally i did the frame of the case without sanding because there were more nooks, crannies, and other small areas that i didn't want to haft to deal with sanding, on the outside though i went down to 600 grit and have heard of people using 1200, with a flat paint you could probably get away with 300 if not 150
 
I've been bugging Arcygenical for case painting help and from what I've picked up, you dont have to sand your case, use a regular self-etching primer. It's hard to find (I've gone through almost all my local retailers and none have any) but saves you sanding time and provides a more even/consistent result.
 
oneil said:
I've been bugging Arcygenical for case painting help and from what I've picked up, you dont have to sand your case, use a regular self-etching primer. It's hard to find (I've gone through almost all my local retailers and none have any) but saves you sanding time and provides a more even/consistent result.
Click to expand...

Correct. For the inside of a case, sanding is NOT necessary. It's almost impossible to sand the inside of that surface anyways, with all the nooks and crannies.

If you're painting an ALUMINUM interior case... get a good ALUMINUM (sometimes an ALU laqueur primer)... Normal primers just don't cut it. This type of primer will be the key to your success.
 
Thank you. Yeah I was wondering how in the hell will I sand some of the corners and holes. Any brand you recomment? Or since it's flat black, any will do.
 
P4rD0nM3 said:
Thank you. Yeah I was wondering how in the hell will I sand some of the corners and holes. Any brand you recomment? Or since it's flat black, any will do.
Click to expand...

Different folks like different brands, in rattle-cans I tend to gravitate towards Dupli-color; big thing to remember is dont mix paint types, if you use acrylic primer use acrylic paint, if you use laquer primer use laquer paint, (they tend to not play nice if mixed.)
 
Ive always wanted to get an aluminum case and have it anodized.... Seeing as I have a friend who does electroplating, anodizing, and powdercoating, it think something like a custom yellow anodized case would be awesome.
 
P4rD0nM3 said:
Thank you. Yeah I was wondering how in the hell will I sand some of the corners and holes. Any brand you recomment? Or since it's flat black, any will do.
Click to expand...

Tremclad and Rustoleum are great for me, and they respond REALLY well to baking.
 
Having read that aluminum is hard to paint effectively, I got my case powder-coated. Looks great and has been quite durable over the years.

It has a subtle texture to it as well, which shows up well in the camera flash:
inside-light.jpg


For my Lian-Li PC-6085, I had to drill out four rivets to get the bare case frame. One of my friends decided that he would need his case power-coated too, after seeing mine, but then he took a careful look at his Lian-Li PC-V1000 and realized that he would have to drill out a LOT of rivets to get it ready for power-coating. He changed his mind.
 
Here's What My 2nd Computer Looks Like With a Semi-Gloss/Flat Black Paint on the interior. And it is VERY True that not using primer scratches easy, I'll Never Take my Hard Drive out Again!

SuperGreenTowerBuildup2.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top