How can I safely paint the chassis of my computer? I don’t like putty. What kind of paint should I use? I presume you remove the casing first rather than doing it in situ. Anybody have any experience with this?
Depends on how professional you want it to look.
I ended up with a phalo-blue computer in college due to a mural-painting accident.
It was acrylic paint and although you could see all the brush strokes, it looked really cool. And it didn’t affect my computer’s performance.
I liked it so much that I painted my typewriter the same colour.
I haven’t done it, but once when I was looking into it, I found this site:
http://www.other-space.com/color-case/
And heres a forum for computer case customization:
Case and Cooling Fetish
Looks like its just a lot of sanding and spray painting.
Good luck.
http://peripherals.about.com/compute/peripherals/library/weekly/aa041500a.htm
Also, I remember seeing a link somewhere to a bunch of examples of creatively painted cases. Have fun.
I’ve wondered for years why one of the case vendors didn’t just spend an extra fifty cents in production costs to offer them spray painted in various colors. You would have thought it would have been a cheap differentiator. Of course, now, they are offering them with colored plastic panels, though the better cases still seem to be the traditional beige spray painted sheet metal.
I painted a Godzilla on the side of my ex’s tower case once. I used model airplane enamel to get a high gloss effect, but plain old acrylics (the type that can be bought in little bottles in craft stores, like Apple Barrel or Plaid brands) should work fine too. I’ve used them on other metal objects, and they adhere well. They’re considerably less expensive than model enamel, and you get a wide range of colors. (I wouldn’t suggest using tube acrylics, especially if you’re new to them, because the paint can be “chunky” and hard to mix) As long as you don’t paint over the vent holes in the case, you shouldn’t have a problem. I personally have never used spray paint on a case, but I have seen it done, and again, there should be no problems, as long as you’re careful with the vent holes. (And yes, obviously, you should remove the case to spray it. 
)
Vera
What type of case, Matt? desktop? Anyway, there are usually 6 screws on the back that take the case top off. Take it off first & use metal spray pt. Some cases you can easily pull the front panel off too! Unplug the computer first 
One problem would be the drives. Floppy and CD drives must be accessible (exposed), and usually only available in beige. Do people paint the drives too when they paint the case?
i’ve airbrushed my old comp. a little sanding on the outside (case off first), and then a light base coat of acrylic, very watered down, then i hand painted some of the more detailed stuff with enamel paint used for airbrushing nails. worked great. i still have it around here somewhere…
hey, i hear if you paint red stripes on the sides it makes your computer go faster 
(applause)
If you want a PC that isn’t beige, there is a whole line of 'em for sale by Apple.
Better OS, too.
:ducking the flames, backing out the door quickly: