• 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.

Internal Case Painting

S

Suprnova04

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Messages
439
I want to paint the inside of my lian-li pc-60 black, but I'm not sure what type of paint to use, or what methods to use. By methods I mean like... how many coats, how long to dry, etc. Any input appreciated. Thanks
 
Your best bet with alu is to get it anodized or powdercoated. Metalcast paint might look good also, but usually just panting a Lian Li is a nono around here :D

If you do paint: Remember LIGHT COATS, and ONLY enough to get coverage and an even look. You cant paint the inside of your case like the outside, since you will have fit issues when you go to reassemble the case. I highly suggest drilling the rivits and fully disassembling your case to get good coverage and a much better look.
 
so i'm assuming the problem there is that paint doesn't bind well to aluminum.

Aside from anodizing/powdercoating, can anyone think of a way to make the inside of the case appear dark?
 
Check out my case I painted, used a can of grey primer 2 thin coats, then used a can of flat black bumper paint I had laying around 3 thin coats.

Pics Of My Case
 
Here's what I did to paint the inside of my Lian-Li:

1) sand all the parts with a medium grit sandpaper
2) re-sand using steel wool
3) clean everything VERY well
4) prime with a self etching primer (careful with this stuff, it's really toxic and smells awful)
5) apply a second coat of primer after allowing the first to dry several hours
6) apply three layers of Metalcast paint allowing the paint to try several hours between applications
7) allow all Metalcast paint to cure 24 hours before continuing
8) apply a clearcoat (I used one intended to clearcoat motorcycle helmets)

It looked great... I was very impressed with the results.

Well, that was until all the paint started chipping off whenever the part was even gently scratched. Whenever I screwed in a drive the screws ripped off the paint. Whenever I accidentally scratched across the surface while installing other parts it tore off the paint.

Now I'm sourcing a powdercoating company to do my next build.
 
speedx said:
Check out my case I painted, used a can of grey primer 2 thin coats, then used a can of flat black bumper paint I had laying around 3 thin coats.

Pics Of My Case
Click to expand...


that is the look i'm going for, for the inside of the case, however that's not aluminum is it?
 
BellaCroix said:
Well, that was until all the paint started chipping off whenever the part was even gently scratched. Whenever I screwed in a drive the screws ripped off the paint. Whenever I accidentally scratched across the surface while installing other parts it tore off the paint.

Now I'm sourcing a powdercoating company to do my next build.
Click to expand...

I guess that I'll stay away from this idea then unless i go for the powdercoating :/
poop. Oh well, thanks for the help
 
It's really not that bad... you'll just have to treat the interor with kid gloves. The biggest problem was that I often take out drives, etc from the case to replace them or rearange things, etc. If you're going to just build it and be done with it put everything together VERY carfully, put the side panel on and leave it. It'll probably still look acceptable.
 
this is my first real build and I don't want to have to baby it. I'll probably be inside the case a lot for a while.
 
Hrm.. to me it sounds like this is a good reason to pick steel cases. Or do steel cases suffer the same problem when painting the internals?
 
I don't think there are any problems painting steel... I really wanted this case for how light it is and the classy look. I guess i'll just avoid painting it :p
 
i'll go with BellaCroix on this one, with painting any aluminum you need to use a good etching primer if you do this well you can use pretty much any paint you want on it
 
We both paint and powder coat our aluminum cases at work.

http://www.cyber-case.com

And I have to say powder coat is the way to go. It will have a uniform thinckness to the coat, and it is very durable. Just make sure to mask inside all the holes. Powder coat becomes very hard when dry and it has a thickness so it will shrink the I.D. of the hole. And when you go to try and screw something in, it tends to cause the powder coat to crack and look bad.

We also annodize {SP??) at work, but I have to say, I like the look of powder coat much better.
 
where would i start looking for a place that does powder coating? I'm in a pretty small town.
 
The company I'm using is about 50mi away, I found them on Yahoo! Yellow Pages. Try searches for Powerdoating, Aluminum finishing, Anodizing, Custom motorcycle, etc.

I've found that the best responce you're going to get will be from comapnies that specialize in small production runs, particularly ones that have pictures of custom motorcycles on the page. A great many of the companies I initially tried to contact were light to medium industrial not not used to requests to powedercoat a HDD rack and motherboard tray (usually do runs of entire aircraft assemblies, etc).

If you find a company used to chroming, powdercoating, anodizing, etc motorcycle parts they're used to odd requests for custom, small-run work and are usually very accomodating and can help you decide what method will best suit your needs.

Anodizing will be much harder to source (and usually more expensive due to the process and materials required). I'm still looking to find someone reasonable to anodize parts of the interor of my next case (as I'd personally rather anodize than powdercoat) but most people I've contacted have a $300 minimum set-up charge as a starting point.
 
I painted my case using a textured, metal paint. Properly prepping your metal is the key although most people here prefer anodizing. I didn't have access to that so here's what I did:
  • Sand with fine grit sandpaper. This will remove the "finish" or any kind of substance the company might have shot on your case. It will also prep the metal.
  • Clean.
  • Apply a very light coat of Adhesive Promotion paint. This paint is usualy used on automotive parts but works great on PCs. It's vividly colored and should only be applied very very very thinly and sparingly.
  • Apply Primer. I preffer self-etching, high-build and sandable primers. Paying the extra buck for a good quality will go a long way.
  • Sand Primer with fine grit sandpaper.
  • Clean with tack cloth,
  • Apply several coats of paint
  • Let dry and clean with a tack cloth.
  • Clear if needed. I used a textured paint so I didn't.

Good luck!
 
I found a place about an hour from me that does powder coating. I am going to inquire more about the cost and stuff, and i'll probably end up going for it. Are there any precautions I need to take with this process? like anything I should tell them to tape off and such?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top