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Paint the inside-case? Recommendation?

I

ind0mi3

n00b
Joined
Feb 26, 2004
Messages
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I have this idea of spray-painting the inside case and PSU (what is it called? skeleton? :eek: ) just because the clear-window panel somewhat shows everything inside, and I don't like how it look lighted or dark. My case is black, standard silverish inside, with LED fans along with UV-sensitive cables. IMO, the silverish color doesn't fit in there. So, I want to paint the whole thing black, is that recommended? What's a good spray-paint to do the job and where can I get it?

- TIA -
I am sorry for the messy description, hope people can understand it - my EnglisH shucks :eek:
 
Well, personally,
I paint all of mine white, I have for quite awhile.
It looks clean.
White also reflects heat, shows dust right away
(So I can clean it) and if you watercool, it makes any leaks instantly apparent. This is why most Cleanrooms, and Race Car Interiors are usually white. It's also good for reflecting light.
Black absorbs heat, but it does look nice.
Just something to consider.

But you're right, bare metal looks unfinished. My 2cents.
 
I tore mine case down to the chassis, had to drill out a bunch of rivets which wasn't a real big deal. Do all your cutting at this point like fan holes etc. and make sure you get the case clean by cleaning it with acetone or alcohol even zippo lighter fluid works. I personally like using the acetone. I painted my case black and used an epoxy based spray paint. You can get that paint at any hardware store even wally world I believe carries it. The epoxy is good for painting metal surfaces, it's less prone to scratch but it does take longer to dry than regular spray paint. Just remember to take your time when spraying apply light coats, you should never have the entire piece coated within the first few coats. Good Luck & have fun............
 
Great, thanks for the replies and info - just what I needed to hear. Now to get the paint and can't wait till another sunny day comes ;)
 
if you're worried about it, then just scratch some contact area for metal to metal.
 
Ok, wouldnt absorbing heat be more desireable than reflecting it back into the case interior? I would have thought you wanted as much heat absobsion into the metal of the case so that you can also use your case as a giant heatsink. Painting both inside and outside would also add twice the amount of layers heat would have to go through to be disapated by the metal case. I painted the outside of my case with 4 coats of v-dye and 3 coats of clearcoat and my case temps went up a few degrees C. I would think doing the same thing to the inside would case temps to raise a little more.
 
I've seen multiple threads regarding heat and painting the insides of cases. Black is the full spectrum of light and absorbs all radiant heat or "light heat" you know how it gets hot on stage? Well thats all those lights shining on you. Now white, absorbing no light waves making it white or the absense of light, reflects radiant heat. So really, unless you have a really hot light in you case its not going to matter. Its not going to affect heating because its not really imparing the cases' ability to cool, the case itself really not contributing that much to cooling anyhow IMO. Personally I'm going to break my case down a paint the inside chassis with that spray on truck bed liner stuff. I've heard that it has some sound dapening properties so I figure its worth a shot. If not the inside of my case is gonna have a really neat texture to it.
 
Originally posted by jpnelson83
Personally I'm going to break my case down a paint the inside chassis with that spray on truck bed liner stuff. I've heard that it has some sound dapening properties so I figure its worth a shot. If not the inside of my case is gonna have a really neat texture to it.
Click to expand...

Wow, that actually sounds like a killer idea. You mean that "LineX" stuff right? Can you buy just a little spray can of that stuff? That would look pretty sweet if you ask me. Although I look at that and think "blanket", wouldnt that tend to be thermally insulative. *shrug*
 
I've seen it in a spray can before. My senior year of high school I did all the video stuff for a beach retreat for my youth group and we sprayed a projector stand with that stuff to give it some grip and it worked great. We also sprayed it on a table thing that we were gonna use for our sound board but it was to small so we went and stole a folding table from the mess.
 
Originally posted by jpnelson83
I've seen multiple threads regarding heat and painting the insides of cases. Black is the full spectrum of light and absorbs all radiant heat or "light heat" you know how it gets hot on stage? Well thats all those lights shining on you. Now white, absorbing no light waves making it white or the absense of light, reflects radiant heat. So really, unless you have a really hot light in you case its not going to matter. Its not going to affect heating because its not really imparing the cases' ability to cool, the case itself really not contributing that much to cooling anyhow IMO. Personally I'm going to break my case down a paint the inside chassis with that spray on truck bed liner stuff. I've heard that it has some sound dapening properties so I figure its worth a shot. If not the inside of my case is gonna have a really neat texture to it.
Click to expand...

Like I mentioned above, I have LED lights - does it matter that much? Also, sound dampening sounds cool, so where do I get such spray-paint?

Xeese, I am really sure what you mean by powdercoat?
:confused: Thanks for all the input, guys.
 
LED lights shouldn't matter that much and I've regularly seen the Truck bed liner stuff at Home Depot with all the other paint stuffs. I'm sure you could go to Lowe's or some other such place and find the same stuff.
 
Powdercoating is a protective coating. It is applied with a an electrical charge difference between the metal surface and the powder. The powder is then heated until it exxentially melts to form one solid surface. The UFO cube cases are being sold with a powder coat option. This guy did the powdercoat on my NeXT cube. Just email him and he will give you a good deal on doing just the frame. With the higher durability of powdercoating and the time savings, I prefer to have my parts powdercoated instead of painted.
 
Done! Couldn't find the truck liner at Home Depot, so got epoxy instead. Now my back aches from sitting and bowing too long doing the sleeving :eek: It came up pretty nice, if anyone want to see it, I'll post the pix here, but please tell me where to upload the pix.

Thanks for all advice, info, and inputs`- :)
 
Originally posted by ind0mi3
Done! Couldn't find the truck liner at Home Depot, so got epoxy instead. Now my back aches from sitting and bowing too long doing the sleeving :eek: It came up pretty nice, if anyone want to see it, I'll post the pix here, but please tell me where to upload the pix.

Thanks for all advice, info, and inputs`- :)
Click to expand...

Upload your pics to www.theforumisdown.com and hit the "Upload" button at the left.
 
I always wondered if painting the inside of your case made things not fit back together again.... and drives not sliding into place. Does that happen or is the paint coat thin enough where it doesn't matter?
 
It has happened on several cases. Removing rivets, to get a good coat on all of the pieces can result in difficult reassembly if there is multiple primer coats, color coats, and clearcoats. Similar roblem reported on a case that was powdercoated related to where the PCI card slots were.

Some things that will help - put some 6-32 by 1/2" screws through any screw holes such as the backplane to keep the threads clean - just throw the screws away when finished. (note Lian-Li does not use 6-32). Limit coats of paint in areas where there is a joint, or paint the frame partially assembled.
 
Originally posted by FluidG
I always wondered if painting the inside of your case made things not fit back together again.... and drives not sliding into place. Does that happen or is the paint coat thin enough where it doesn't matter?
Click to expand...

I did have to re-drill the holes where my rivets came out of but it's easy to drill out paint. I did have to do some enticing to get the drives to go back in. The paint scrapped off with a razor blade so it wasn't too bad. Also if there any holes with threads you may want to cover them or you will be re-tapping those out to. It's all easy to do it just takes time.
 
BuMP ~ I want to post some pics of my completed PC, but forumisdown.com is really down :( Any ideas where else I can post pics for free? - TIA -
 
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