How Do I Paint My Case?

[jfespinoza]

I know most Cases are powder coated when built so they are hard to chip and scratch. I've seen some cases painted some sweet candy colors out there but how do they do it? what type of paints do they use so they don't scratch real easy? I know that rattle can paint scratches super easy.

 

[Arcygenical]

ANY paint can be good (within reason of course, no 99c specials!) with the proper prep work. prep is more important than actual painting.

Sand ANYTHING metal you wish to paint, 220grit sandpaper. The better you sand, the better the primer will adhere.

Spray the entire metal portion with a good self-etching primer. This is a must! Traditional primers just ARN'T good enough for this job!

Sand the primer with 1000 grit sandpaper (wait 4-5 hours before sanding) until it's smooth, and spray another coat. The 2nd coat should fully cover any spots that the first coat missed. Sand this with 800 grit sandpaper, after a good day of drying.

Now spray with colour! Light coats. It should take about 5 full coats to fully cover it. You don't want it wet with paint, but "sprayed". Almost like the spraypaint tool in MS Paint doesn't just paint a circle, it paints pixels at a time, eventually filling the circle in. After each layer of colour (5 or so) sand with 1000 grit paper lightly, so it's smooth.

After the entire thing is the colour you want, sand it once again (1000grit) and spray with colour one more time. Here you can either BAKE the paint in an oven (as low as possible heat, after it's been airdrying for an entire day) or leave it for 3 days to fully cure.

sand it with 2000 grit sandpaper after baking, and spray with a clearcoat of your choice. Krylon makes a great "triple thick" clear gloss coat which you can use. Use clearcoat like you did colour coat (so, not all at once, but in multiple steps) but use half as many coats (2-3 thicker sprayings each time, rather than 5-6 thinner ones).

let this dry for at least a week, sand with 2000 grit paper, and polish it up with a polisher of your choice.

Phew, alot of work, but hot damn it's worth it. As I said, BAKING the paint before clear coating produces an incredibly hard finish!

 

[stoney_titan]

ANY paint can be good (within reason of course, no 99c specials!) with the proper prep work. prep is more important than actual painting.

Sand ANYTHING metal you wish to paint, 220grit sandpaper. The better you sand, the better the primer will adhere.

Spray the entire metal portion with a good self-etching primer. This is a must! Traditional primers just ARN'T good enough for this job!

Sand the primer with 1000 grit sandpaper (wait 4-5 hours before sanding) until it's smooth, and spray another coat. The 2nd coat should fully cover any spots that the first coat missed. Sand this with 800 grit sandpaper, after a good day of drying.

Now spray with colour! Light coats. It should take about 5 full coats to fully cover it. You don't want it wet with paint, but "sprayed". Almost like the spraypaint tool in MS Paint doesn't just paint a circle, it paints pixels at a time, eventually filling the circle in. After each layer of colour (5 or so) sand with 1000 grit paper lightly, so it's smooth.

After the entire thing is the colour you want, sand it once again (1000grit) and spray with colour one more time. Here you can either BAKE the paint in an oven (as low as possible heat, after it's been airdrying for an entire day) or leave it for 3 days to fully cure.

sand it with 2000 grit sandpaper after baking, and spray with a clearcoat of your choice. Krylon makes a great "triple thick" clear gloss coat which you can use. Use clearcoat like you did colour coat (so, not all at once, but in multiple steps) but use half as many coats (2-3 thicker sprayings each time, rather than 5-6 thinner ones).

let this dry for at least a week, sand with 2000 grit paper, and polish it up with a polisher of your choice.

Phew, alot of work, but hot damn it's worth it. As I said, BAKING the paint before clear coating produces an incredibly hard finish!

Thanks for the info! Might have to do that to my emachine case.