OK here’s the deal. I’ve been wanting to spray paint my tower as well as keyboard. Before i go ahead with this i was wondering if there’s anything i should know before hand, and whether anyone knows of any sites that may have some examples that they have done.
thanks
~Methos
MaximumPC magazine has a monthly feature called Rig of The Month where users build their computer in some special way. I don’t think there’s too much of a chance you’re going to hurt anything if you use ordinary precautions.
E3
just remember masking tape is your friend you can never use to much!
If you spray paint the keys your keyboard will most likely die.
Take everything electrical out of your computer, a metal shell should be safe to spray paint. Disassemble your keyboard and pop off all the keys. You can paint them individually without worring about the dried paint gumming up the action. As long as you seperate and stick to only what you need to, your computer should be fine.
One thing you should know is don’t use spray paint. Use vinyl dye, available at auto parts stores. Unless your computer case is aluminium of course, but I’m assuming we’re talking about your standard beige box here, which is plastic.
-fh
Uh, actually your case is powder-coated steel on the top and sides; only the faceplate is plastic. As Mirage said, dissemble your computer and cover the ‘working bits’ with a lint-free cloth or static-free plastic. Then take the parts of the case outside and paint 'em.
If you want to invest a little more work and money, you can get neon light tubing for the inside of your case and put a plexiglas window in–that looks cool, especially if you tend to be on the 'pute at night.
Have fun!
Well, that’s not necessarily true. Both my computers right here have actual plastic on the top and sides. A lot are like you describe though, but still equally unsuitable for spray paint. It never quite adheres and tends to rub off on everything. Looks, well… crappy.
-fh
It did something similar to that (I put 6 very bright blue LED’s inside) and it looks really good. It took me probably about 4 or 5 hours to do between cutting the hole, mounting the window and setting up the lights. Then I moved, and now my tower has that side facing a wall. I’m still trying to decide if I should move my computer desk so that I can see the lights again.
ahh sweet, thanks for the help fellas
Go to link below for much, much, much, more than you every wanted to know about this subject.
Nonsense. Spray paint is the way to go (Done it myself, with monitor bezels).
This guy (Who’s almost obsessed, if ask me) has one of the best step-by-step guides I’ve seen.
*I should have read all of this thread before I submitted my above post, but hey, I’m a busy man.
Again, if it’s done right, it’ll look terrific. I’m sitting here looking at twomonitors- a twenty-one incher and a seventeen incher- that have both been painted from their original standard cream color to black. Following the directions as laid out by the guy in my above link (And yeah, I know he’s talking metal, but it works with plastic the same way too), you can get results that match those of the manufacturer (Well, maybe not that good, but good enough that you can fool anyone that looks at it).
With mine, and one’s I used to do at a previous employer, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. Take your time, follow the guys instructions, and it look just fine, even on plastic.
Yeah, it will look great if you wet sand the case, apply primer, sand again, apply paint, wet sand again, apply paint, sand again, apply rubbing compound and then gloss. But that’s a bit more involved than just spray paint, isn’t it?
For the time and expense involved, it would be easier to just buy a plastic case and vinyl dye it.
Time? Took me about half an afternoon. Expense? Maybe twenty bucks.
Since the guy in my link is a) fairly obsessed about how it’s going to look, and is going to try for perfection at all costs, and b) is talking about painting metal and not plastic, I didn’t have a problem skipping some of his steps.
My steps (After a trial run on an old bezel)? 1. Clean thoroughly with denatured alcohol. 2. Wet sand with very fine paper- something like 1000-1500 (?- Don’t specifically remember the grit). 3. Apply a generous layer of matte black automotive spray paint, making sure not to ‘puddle’ it in spots and keep it all even. 4. Wet sand again with highest grit paper, making sure to hit the burrs. 5. Apply yet another even, but thorough, layer of paint, making sure to hit the nooks and crannys, but not too much.
Again, time? I dunno, maybe part of an afternoon. When it was all said and done, it had to have been one of the easier things I’ve done on my own, and the payback was awesome-- the things look great.
Keep in mind, this was all in response to this line from you, “Both my computers right here have actual plastic on the top and sides. A lot are like you describe though, but still equally unsuitable for spray paint.”.
Again, not true. With only a smidgen of effort, not only can it be done, relatively easily, but it can look terrific too. Don’t steer the person away from it when it’s entirely possible to do it.
add some flashing LEDs for effect… make it look like a christmas tree or something… then upload a picture of the end product, so we can all see how the ethos of the SDMB can convert a boring white tower into a beautiful computer for Methos.
What can I say? I disagree. In my experience it isn’t easy or cheap and the results aren’t very good looking. Anyway, either way I think methos has the information he/she needs.
yeh I would love to see some examples if any of you guys/gals have done this
Cheers
Here are some examples.
I have no affiliation with the site, I just caught a link to this coffeemaker yesterday 
-AmbushBug
OK, well, I’ve never seen an all-plastic case and I did a lot of shopping around when I built my machine this past March. All I can say is, “ya learn somethin’ new every day”!