Paint Job Questions

[musicknight]

I have a few ideas as far as painting my rig. I want to do sort of a car paint job with pearl emerald green paint with small silver glitter in it to kind of get that deep look to it with classy sparkles in it. I dont know, however, what a good accent color for the inside of my case could be. I am going to have a stacker and am going to cut a custom window into it. What is a good way to paint the outside of the case so that i can accomplish this goal. What is a good type of paint? Those of you who own a stacker, is it possible to sand it down enough to to get a smooth enough finish to leave a nice finish?

 

[dbwillis]

Id say you can sand anything down as long as you have enough sandpaper, time and energy.

Id check into some paint strippers, it may be a ble to remove the enamel of the current case, then youd have to do some handwork as Im sure the stripper would have a harder time in the corners and stuff.

For the paint, I know its hard to think so, but you could stop by an auto body shop and see if they could paint the case for like $50 or $75.
- there finish would be just like a car, deep, shiny and smooth
- Im sure you could pick from a variety of colors that they already have
- turnaround for them to paint it probably would be 2 days, maybe 3, your time spent would be more I think
- if the outside is emerald green, maybe flat black for the inside or maybe some speckle type paint?

(I had thought the same thing...paint my own case, but time and stuff wasnt there, $75 was easier for them to spray it for me and then just pick it up)\

 

[DarkenReaper57]

It took a very long time for me to paint my external watercooling box a mirror black finish. If I were to redo things, I would probably have taken it to an autobody shop or something and paid them to do it.

If you do want to do it yourself though, I recommend you follow these instructions:

1. Sand down the existing surface with 220 then 400 grit. There is no need to sand to bare metal, since the case manufacturer already has some good primer between the case paint and the metal.
2. Apply a few thin coats of primer until fully covered. You want to end with a surface that looks wet.
3. Sand with 400 till flat. You should see no divets and not see through the primer. Make sure there is a good layer of it when you are done.
4. Apply another coat and repeat 3 as necessary.
5. Apply your first color coat. Do several light coats 30 minutes apart. It helps to spray back and forth, going horizontally and slightly overlapping your sprays. Don't do it erratically. Once again, you want a finish that looks nice and wet when you are done. I find it much easier to avoid sanding through and getting a nice flat finish when doing this.
6. Let dry for 2 days before sanding.
7. Start with 600, then go to 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000. If you cut through, or see primer through the paint, repeat 5.
6. Get a good polish, such as 3M scratch remover. Apply as per directions. This is what works wonders and gives you a mirror finish.

The above gives you a nice mirror black finish. Here is an example of the results I got, but keep in mind this took a LOT of time, effort, and patience:

Good luck!

 

[Ski Me]

Darken is right it takes time and hard work to get a good paint job. You won't be able to get the pearl green color your looking for from spray paint cans because pearled effect can't be packed into a spray can as since it is in itself a separate paint. Or in simple terms it is too heavy for a aerasol to propel out of a can. But for a good finish sand, prime, sand, prime, sand, base color, sand, base color, sand, base color, sand, clear coat, sand, clear coat, sand, clear coat, sand, polish, glaze, stand back, admire.

 

[gregnash]

Dont know if this is true or not but watching some random car show one late night I remember the guy talking about doing the primer in a white. Supposedly the white will give lighter colors a more brilliant and brighter color.

Do all the steps the guys above talked about but instead of dry sanding, WET SAND THAT BITCH. I did it with a white primer coat and basically got it to where it was glossy and shiny (if you can call a primer that). Doing this gave me a very clean even finish. I plan on doing a few coats this way, currently I am sanding with a painters block and 2500 grit paper . Anyways hope this helps.

 

[hyobum]

Where do you guys buy your paint? Home Deopt and Lowes don't have a great selection..

 

[strikeout]

paints to get:

primer, silver base coat , candy green , clear coat - try to get all of the same brand

the best ones in a spray can will be most likely be found at an auto parts store like kragen or
autozone. Im not sure if you apply rubbing compound before or after the clear but that stuff really makes it shiney.

 

[Stu55]

Yes, rattlecan's take a lot of time and energy to get a good finish, I just did the primer on my case and got it painted 99' Chevrolet Black for free, but I guess you could just go somewhere, save yourself a lot of grief, much better finish from what you get from a rattlecan too.

 

[Skolar]

If you've got an airbrush lying around you could use some createx pearlized paint.

http://www.airbrush-depot.com/scripts/depot.exe?pgm=cx5300.bbx

It's the series 5300 stuff. Automotive use.

 

[batmanwcm]

DarkenReaper,

I'm looking at painting my case back with a smooth mirror finish, can you post more pics of your case?

 

[Qtip42]

Primer colors are dependent on what basecoat color you are painting. However if you're spray painting, you shouldn't bother caring. I mean why would you care about how the paint looks if you're painting with spraypaint. If you are using auto paint, then primer color matters.

 

[Qtip42]

DarkenReaper,

I'm looking at painting my case back with a smooth mirror finish, can you post more pics of your case?

have fun with that. Black is the worst color to be using if you're new to the painting thing. Buffing black is an artform unto itself.

 

[xrdotimcr]

have fun with that. Black is the worst color to be using if you're new to the painting thing. Buffing black is an artform unto itself.

I second that, and third, and fourth, and so on and so on. My first smooth mirrored attempt was on black, it came out like this, and this was weeks of wetsanding/painting, over and over.

Looks ok in that pic, but you can see it better in this one.

It's a serious pain in the ass.

Try something like blue or green. Not white, pain in the ass as well.

 

[][V][AGIC]

go to a car place like autozone, they have way larger paint selection than HD or Lowes

 

[DarkenReaper57]

DarkenReaper,

I'm looking at painting my case back with a smooth mirror finish, can you post more pics of your case?

I actually didn't paint my case. That was a picture of a panel on my external watercooling box, but don't worry, the process is more or less the same. Here is a link to the worklog. Lots of pictures are included.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=915156&page=1&pp=20

Wow, I really need to update this thing...

And yeah, black is very difficult to work with, as I said before. The key is to sand the primer FLAT...as in you want NO divets in the paint. If you cut through the primer, lay down another coat.

When it comes to applying the color coat, many websites say to use very very thin coats. I tend to disagree. While you don't want to hammer it on and get runs, you want to apply several reasonably thick coats. You also want to rotate the angle that you spray at after you go down the metal once. Try rotating at a 45 degree angle each time you complete a sweep. When you are done you want a finish that looks wet.

This way, you have excess paint to work with when sanding it completely flat. I had lots of problems with cutting through and hitting primer. Applying excess paint was the only thing that helped me.

Good luck.