Case Painting

Now that your case has been painted and has had time to cure you can now put your work back together and see what it looks like. Here all of my pieces which are done and not put together.

I put the front bezel back on along with the top of the case and I put my CDROM and drive bay covers back on as well. I then put my front USB back, my Compunurse, blowhole fan and painted grill, floppy drive, and a few expansion slot covers.

Here is a shot of the back side of the case, this will not be seen much but it still looks really nice.

Unfortunately I had to take my blue window out to paint which means I had to struggle to put it back in again. When I finally got it back in it looked killer! The black button for the blue cold cathode looks great against the blue.

Here are some shots of my case before it was painted, doesn’t it look very bland and unattractive?

Now, here are a lot of pictures of my finished case I think it looks awesome and unique. It looks a lot better than how the case comes from the store. I took some rub on letters which I picked up at my local art supply store and put CPU under the thermal probe which is touching the core of my Duron. I also have a shot of my blue cold cathode on inside of my newly painted case which you can see through the blue window.

Conclusion:
I hope this guide gives you the knowledge to paint your case. You should use whatever colors you like and that you think would look best. Remember to take your time and be patient while painting. I am a very impatient person and I wanted to be done overnight, but that is not possible if you want to get good results. This was my first time painting my case and I am very pleased with the results. If you have never painted your case and follow this guide then you should also have good results.

Painting your case can change a drab and everyday beige case into one which is unique and very cool looking. It is not a hard thing to do to paint your case, but it will take time and patients. Before you begin you will need to decide what colors you will be using and what you will be painting. For this guide I will be painting the outside of the case deep blue and all of the bays and accessories black. When choosing colors for your case its a good idea to use contrast colors, it will look a lot better. It is also important to use high quality paint, Rustoleum, and krylon are good brands. I will be using Painter’s Touch and which is made by Rust-oleum

what you will need:

• Gray primer spray paint
• Colored spray paint
• Clear coat spray paint
• 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 sandpaper
• Rubbing compound if you like
• Something to paint on

Here is a shot of the paint that I will be using, it is called Painter’s Touch and is made by Rust-oleum. I chose the colors deep blue and gloss black I also have a can of gray primer and a can of gloss clear. It is important as I mentioned before to use high quality paint when doing your case.You will also need sand paper, I will only be using 600 to sand the original paint, then I will be using 1500 to 1000 to sand the primer, 1500 to sand the first coat of paint, and 2000 to sand the second coat. You can also use rubbing compound at the end however I did not choose to do so. The far left sand paper is 600, the next to the right is 1000, then 1500, then 2000. I was out of 1000 grit when I took the picture.

The first thing you will want to do is remove all of the comments from your case and everything that you are going to paint. Here is my case taken apart and ready to begin (Front bezel not pictured) I also removed all of my drives, drive bay covers, expansion slow covers, basically everything.

After I removed everything I used some 600 grit sand paper to wet sand every surface of my case. I sanded the outside, inside, drives, drive bay covers, buttons, etc. The goal of this sanding is to get all the texture off of the case so that when you star painting it won’t be all bumpy. I decided to only sand it till it was smooth rather than taking all the paint off because that would have taken longer. As you can see in one spot I thought about going to the metal. I will be using my Logitech Z-560 box to paint on, your mom or wife will probably not be very happy if you get paint all over the ground.

Before I continue I wanted to briefly explain what wet sanding is, wet sanding is when you use wet/dry sand paper and have water pour over the surface of which you will be sanding. The water will act as a lubricant so that you do not put big scratch and swirl marks on your case. It is better to use too much water opposed to too little, what I did was I took a running hose and put it on the piece which I was sanding and let the water run over it while I sanded.

When you paint it is important to take your time and do multiple coats rather than doing one thick and heavy coat. You will want to hold the can about 6-12 inches from whatever you are painting and use a back and forth motion over the entire surface. Do your best to keep it nice and smooth and do not stop in once place, if you do so you will get a darker spot on your case. I went ahead and did a light first coat of the primer on all of my case, you can still see the original case color in the picture which is ok. Also prime your bays, drives and anything else that you are going to be painting in the same fashion.

Let the paint dry for about 10 minutes so that it is dry to the touch and then go ahead and add another thin coat of primer to everything. Continue to repeat this step until you have a good even coat of primer on every surface which you are going to be painting. Priming is very important and you should really take your time. Here is how your case should look after you have primed it. When you are done priming everything let it cure for 24 hours. Even though it is dry to the touch it does not mean that it is cured.

Now that your primer has had 24 hours to cure you will need to wet sand again. You will want to use 1000 grit on the primer, remember though you are just trying to get the primer smooth not remove it so be sure to sand lightly. You will probably want want to do another coat of primer and let it set for 24 hours again because you are most likely going to sand to the original paint in a few spots. If you do sand to the original paint you don’t have to do another coat but it would be the best to get the best end result. I ended up sanding down to the original paint in a few spots, but I just went ahead anyways.