Painting peripherals silver?

[DerProfi]

Does anyone have any experience with painting the bezels of CD, DVD or floppy drives silver? Perhaps you know of a web site that might offer some tips?

I'm totally smitten with the Lian-Li aluminum mid-tower case (maybe because it will match my new espresso machine <g> ) but the thought of ugly beige bezels next to shiny polished aluminum is enough to stop me from picking one up. Unless.....I could get the beige stuff closer to a metallic color. Surely someone out there has done this, but I just can't seem to locate any info.

Suggestions?

 

[BLoop]

Check the tutorial at Gideontech.

 

[mikee]

You can see what the guy did to match his peripherals to the Lian-Li here:http://www.hardocp.com/stuff/momsbox/index.html. I personally am too lazy to paint my drives to match my Lian Li. I don't think it looks that bad anyways.

 

[DerProfi]

Thanks Mikee. Looks like the guy at hardocp didn't even use spray paint, and was instead able to pick up a &quot;paint pen&quot; and just WRITE the color on. That sounds like it's right up my alley!

DerProfi

 

[crash2much]

DON&quot;T USE THE PAINT PEN!!!!!!!!!! I did it and regretted it. It builds up to quick, and stay tacky for ever. All the bezel come of real easy, usually all ya need is a pen to push in the plastic tabs that hold them on the drive. Max PC had an article on painting your PC, nothing tricky but some good advice was in it. Basically it said;
1) wash the parts to be painted with dish washing liquid(unlike acetones, it will remove your fingure oils without melting your pieces
2) use automotive primer
3) Use automotive paints, not generic spray paint or modeling stuff
4) Clear coat it
I'll tell ya , the automotive paint really does make a difference, tends to come out with alot of dept. And it drys quick, in case your like me and can't keep you hands off it.
Have fun

 

[sparkle]

yeah, actually rustoleum makes a cool metallic silver. Can't remember the name off hand, but it has metal flecks in it that makes it look real shiny. Use clearcoat and your good to go. I'll try to put up some pics of my case with this paint on it when I get home tonight.

 

[DerProfi]

Well fortunately I didn't make it to Wal-Mart yet to pick up the paint pen, so now I know better. Thanks crash2much! I'm looking forward to seeing your pix sparkle.

 

[crazycanuck]

If you really want to you could use the original drive covers with the exception of the fdd. You will need to paint the fdd bezel as I did. Cheap paint or not cheap paint it didn't matter just clear coat it. Prep the plastic before you paint by cleaning it thoroughly.

Here's my no paint solution to not painting the CD-ROM and CD-RW. Note this is a PC-30 (the smaller brother to the PC-60)

Silver Drives - An Idea

 

[DerProfi]

Interesting stuff, crazycanuck, thanks for the tips. What interests me most is the fact that you're using the PC-30 (aka the mini-30 I think). Where did you get it? That's the one I wanted, and not the too-large PC-60. Also, did you need any special tools to make the ventilation holes on top? The bezel as CD-RW/DVD cover would almost work for me, if it weren't for my slot-load DVD.

 

[crazycanuck]

DerProfi,

The case is the mini tower version of the PC-60. I am the wholesale distributor for the product in Singapore and that is how I get them. I know there are a couple of places in USA that sells them. www.pcmods.com is the first one that comes to mind. Don't know if they have stock but they do carry it on their web page.

The vent holes on top were made very carefully with a standard hand drill. Care a patient must be taken when drilling to ensure nice straight lines of holes. I was actually going to work on a slot in version of the bezel cover since I have a Pioneer Slot in CD Rom drive. Decided to put it aside for now as it was easier to mod the tray loading drive. I think it also looks cooler.

It makes a great LAN box so I now call it the LAN-Li (versus Lian-Li).

 

[Liquidh2o]

Hey crazycanuck, very nice case... noticed you mentioned that you're a wholesale distributor.... I'm pondering going into business selling cases (but they'll have an added twist to them ) and i'm curious to see how much those cases go for wholesale price? I'm going down later to get my business liscense, next step would be finding a wholesale distributor that sells cases (gots to be metal, the front panel is the only exception to that, but if it was metal too, all the better =) )

anywho... if you wanted to quote me some prices shoot an email my way to michael.taylor@edwards.af.mil =) thanks!

 

[DerProfi]

Thanks again, crazycanuck. Only thing preventing me from ordering right now is the fact that www.pcmods.com basically wants as much for the PC-30 as www.mwave.com wants for the full PC-60. Ouch!