• 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.

Re-painting aluminum?

R

Ryun

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
259
I just finished my SG02 mod (seen here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1633940) but the only aluminum case I could get was white.

I was able to get a black faceplate from silverstone, but I couldn't get a black, aluminum lid so it's currently white with a black faceplate. I called around to some places to paint it for me but the best I could get was $100.

I've googled some things in the past, but they were always about painting steel. Could someone give me some pointers as to how to remove the original white paint and steps on how to paint the aluminum lid black?

Links to tutorials are fine, but tips would be most appreciated. Thanks!
 
Leave the white paint on, scuff it up with some 400 grit. Then light coats of whatever color you want.

If you want to strip it bare you have to get some stripper such as "Aircraft Stripper". Use that to get to bare metal. Then some self etching primer such as made by SEM. Then light coats of whatever color you want.
 
Yea, leave the paint on and just sand it up some. Painting on aluminum is no more difficult than painting on steel in my opinion. No way I would pay someone $100 for it, that is just ridiculous.
 
Yeah, $100 is pretty crazy. Honestly, with the factory white powder coating (more likely than paint), just roughing that up and doing light coats with a rattle can, you're going to get totally acceptable results. Just make sure you clean the surface before spraying. Use basic good spray painting technique and you'll be happy. I've done many a spray paint case mod any no one was the wiser. :)
 
Hey, thanks for the replies everyone, and yeah, for $100 I can buy a whole new case for that.

The one thing I was concerned about just painting over the the white paint like that was that the heat transfer of the aluminum may be stymied more (plus the added coat of paint will make the holes ever so slightly smaller). Maybe I'm looking into it too much.

On the other hand, I do have 2 aluminum white lids (the other from a failed modding attempt) so maybe I can try both methods. If I screw up the more "extreme" process, no harm done. ;)
 
I can honestly say that taking it down to the bare aluminum will gain you nothing. Just fyi :)
 
Ryun said:
Hey, thanks for the replies everyone, and yeah, for $100 I can buy a whole new case for that.

The one thing I was concerned about just painting over the the white paint like that was that the heat transfer of the aluminum may be stymied more (plus the added coat of paint will make the holes ever so slightly smaller). Maybe I'm looking into it too much.

On the other hand, I do have 2 aluminum white lids (the other from a failed modding attempt) so maybe I can try both methods. If I screw up the more "extreme" process, no harm done. ;)
Click to expand...

You're looking into it too much.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top