Case Painting questions?

[OneOfTheseDays]

After reading through several How-to's on case painting, i've decided to first try it out on an older ibm aptiva case that's no longer in use. I don't have access to an orbital sander and really do not want to sand the whole thing by hand either. My dad has a detail sander, and this should work fine right? I tried it out on the case using some rough grit sandpaper that came with it. It didn't scrape the paint off to bare metal and it left the case looking quite ugly if i might say. It seems uneven and some spots are sanded more than others. How am i supposed to do this with a detail sander? or should i just sand the whole thing by hand?

 

[Lizardman]

Just sand the whole thing by hand. Its not necessary to sand down to bare metal. One word of advice though is do many coats of paint and do each one lightly. I recommend doing at least 7 light coats then 3 coats with a clear finish spray. This way if the case is scratched it will still show the color you want and not metal or biege color.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

k thanks for the advice, one more question. What kind of sand paper should i start with? Also, what is wet-sanding, and should i do it?

 

[Jeff7]

I just bought a power sander from K-mart for about $15; it worked fine - was good to have it, because it helped me to smooth out the uneveness in the surface. If you're not that concerned with that, then hand-sanding should be fine.
For sanding the first time, 220 or 320 grit should be fine. If it's ugly at that point, that should be fine - it'll be ready for a coat of primer then.
Wet sanding is when you run water (sometimes with soap) over the surface that you are sanding. I did it on the driveway, with the hose running lightly over it. For wet sanding though, you'll of course need sandpaper approved for it; otherwise, the glue holding the grit on will dissolve. I think silicon carbide is that stuff to look for.
Wet sanding helps to prevent scratches - it just allows for a shinier sanded finish. After that, try out some good rubbing compound on the final paint coat.
Hope that made enough sense; I'm about due for some sleep now.🙂

Oh yes, if there's an Ollie's, or some cheap/surplus-ish store in the area, check them out. K-mat had fine-grit paper, for about $3 for 1 1/4 sheets; Ollie's had 2 full sheets for $1. 😀

 

[5489]

i was also going to paint my case, any more suggestsions?

would you use regular paint or spray paint

 

[4dm]

has anyone had any experience going to a professional auto paint shop and seeing if they could paint the case for you? I would love for my case to have the qulity of paint job that a car has. I dont really like the quality of the common paint mods I have seen.

 

[Lizardman]

Use spray paint.

 

[MassiveUnit]

First of all, a "professional" paint job still isn't as good as an ameture job that is done with a spray can and sandpaper and dedication. Just look at any car finish real close, you will notice that there is a slight rippling in the paint. This is called orange peel. If you sand between coats like this article describes: Getting That Mirror Finish. With a spray can.and then use rubbing compound and new car glaze then you will have a finish that is better than a "professional" paint job will get you (although you could also sand down a pro paint job...it's simply cost prohibative for most people). If you do it right and HAND SAND the entire thing between each coat (assuming you aren't doing a metal flake paint) and follow that guide, you will be fine.