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Paint Your Case

One of the best ways to improve your case's looks without spending huge money is to spray-paint it. Getting serious with spray-paint is more about patience than money, but your case will still look like a million dollars.

Getting that show car shine on your case is a great way to grab serious attention. In this chapter, I will reveal the secrets to getting your case to have the gloss of a new BMW, but for the price of a used Geo.  Professionals use compressed air and special equipment to paint.  But you can get results that are just as good with a "rattlecan" and some sanding techniques.  First we will cover the proper techniques for surface preparation, and paint application.  Then we will deal with applying the clear coat and finish the sanding.  You can paint your case according to this chapter and have a great looking case, but by adding the finishing touches you can have the show car look that will turn heads.

 

Your total budget for this project will be under Forty dollars (and you can do just the first portion for fewer than twenty).  You'll need:

 

  • 1 can of primer
  • 1 or more cans of spray-paint in your choice of color
  • 1 can of clear coat

 

For surface preparation, you'll need a sheet each of 220, 320, and 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, and a sanding block.  For finish sanding, you'll need a sheet each of 600, 1000, and 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper, a wire brush, paint stripper (both for correcting mistakes), plus rubbing compound.  The rubbing can be found in any automotive supply store.  You'll also want two or three clean tack cloths.

 

When you select your paints, choose a good quality spray-paint for automotive applications. Auto parts stores are the best sources because you can usually pick up your sanding materials at the same time as your paint.  Use a primer and paint from the same manufacturer for the best results, and never mix lacquer with acrylic enamel, pick one system or the other. I chose to use enamel for this project.  If you're not after the show car look, and just want a rugged paint job, epoxy paint is available for extreme ruggedness.

 

Don't skimp on the paint, because in this project the labor will be vastly more intense than the material cost.  As you can see, I spared no expense--I went for the automotive gray primer.

 

You might have heard the key to successful painting is preparation, and if so, you heard right. Sand down the existing paint (usually a powder coat finish with a light texture on most cases) to get as flat a surface as possible before applying our paint. To remove the beige paint, start with 220 grit, which is fine, but has a good deal of cutting action. Sand your panels fairly aggressively in a north-south motion, but lighten when if you start to cut through the beige to metal. We don't need to remove the beige, but we do want the texture gone. Then move to a 320 grit and sand east-west with a light pressure. This will remove the scratch marks from the previous sanding, and smooth the surface.  You will see the results by your own reflection on the surface.

Sand the bezel (façade of the case), both because we want to get rid of the texture, and because the raised lettering by the buttons will get flattened when we finish sand, so removing it during prep avoids having the old color show through. So get rid of the raised lettering or symbols on your bezel if you have any.

 

And the final key to prep is cleanliness. Leaving an oily fingerprint on your panel can keep the paint from properly adhering; so can dust from sanding or just regular old crud that blows by. So work in a dust-free area as much as possible, and wipe down your sanded work piece with tack cloth before applying paint or primer. Care taken here will pay of in the form of a durable, chip-resistant finish.

 

For each panel you're painting (plus the bezel), take them to this state of smoothness first. Primer won't fill scratches unless they're very, very fine, and the application of your color coat will make scratches pop out like neon signs, so don't take shortcuts on preparation. Wet sanding keeps the sandpaper from clogging with paint particles. To properly wet sand, all you need is a shallow container with about a gallon of clean water to which you've added a couple drops of liquid dish detergent. If you have running water, that works well also.  Rinse away the entire paint residue and wipe the work piece with a clean tack cloth, then set it aside to dry thoroughly.  You may find that a spray bottle with the same clean water/dish soap is easier.  Either way, choose your method and stick with it.

 

Apply primer to your newly prepped surfaces. Pay attention to the edges, and to any areas where metal shows through the beige. Those are spots that will tend to wear, especially when you sand between coats.

 

Continue to apply thin coats to the work pieces until you've covered them completely. You'll see a flat, matte surface at this point. Let the primer dry (usually you can sand within a half hour, but check the directions on the can) and wet sand your primer coat with 400 grit and light pressure. You'll almost certainly cut through the primer, especially around the edges. So after sanding we'll do a second primer coat.

 

Applying the second coat is the same technique as the first, but now you'll see the cut-through areas, and you can direct a little extra primer towards them. Again, sand this coat with 400 grit. This will remove any overspray (paint particles that dry in midair and fall on the surface), and flatten out any dust nibs or stray insects that would mess up the flat surface.

 

Now break out the color coat and go insane!  No, actually, you'll want to apply thin coats again, just like with the primer. Mistakes in primer are easy to sand out, but with the color coat, things like drips or scratches will be much more work to fix. So be careful to get the edges of your work pieces, and thoroughly coat them with several thin coats, leaving a finish that looks "wet." You'll still see some "red" texture; this is inevitable when using rattle cans. But our next steps will be to sand the red peel flat, and apply a couple clear coats to add gloss and protect the color coat.

You can see we're quite glossy, but not yet getting mirror-quality reflections. That's because the slight texture in the surface distorts the reflections (we're missing the flatness). So we need to let the color coat cure for a minimum of two days (some paints will continue to harden for up to a month actually, but usually you can sand within two to three days) and then go back for the fun part, finish sanding.

 

You can certainly stop here and have a really nice paint job. The time we spent on prep will make this a very durable finish, and it sure looks better than factory at this point. But in the next part, we'll finish sanding and apply a clear coat (and sand and clear coat and sand and...) to get the ultimate finish on our panels.

 

Anyone can spray paint their case. It's not too hard to get a decent looking paint job from ordinary cans of spray paint. But to get a truly extreme paint job, the kind you'd see on a show car, you'll need to apply some clear coat, and a healthy amount of elbow grease. Fortunately neither one is very expensive.  I was looking for a “cooling lava” look.  I wanted the case to be mostly red, but with hints of black.  This would give the appearance of molten lava with cool spots.

To briefly recap how we got to this state, it was removing the existing paint with 220 grit, applying primer, sanding the primer smooth with 400 grit, applying a second coat of primer, sanding that smooth with 400 grit, and applying a color coat. Every time we apply paint we pick up an "orange peel" texture. That's inherent in using a rattle can to apply paint. Our main job in sanding is to flatten the surface. The better you flatten, the more convincing the mirror look becomes. So our next step is to sand our first color coat with 600 grit to flatten and prepare the surface for the second color coat. Unlike primer, a color coat needs to cure two to three days before being sanded.
 

If you cut through the color coat a little like in the bottom of the previous picture, that's fine. Try to use that as an indication to back off the pressure on your sanding block. 600 grit is very fine, and when the surface approaches flatness, you'll feel the work piece "grab" your sanding block. If you keep up strong pressure at that point, you're likely to cut through. Low spots will show up as glossy black pits against the matte where you've sanded. You'll need to dry the work piece to see these, but they show you where you need to sand further. Work spent flattening these will pay off--otherwise they'll show as dimples in your finish.

 

Once you've flattened everything down, apply your second color coat. Don't worry about dust nibs or small bugs that land on it. These will get sanded smooth later--you'll mess it up more by trying to fix these while the paint is wet. Make sure your second color coat is even but thick. Concentrate on areas where you cut through the first color coat. This picture shows the orange peel texture that you just finished spending all that time removing. You'll need to repeat the 600 grit sanding step for the second coat, making sure to not cut through to primer. Don't over apply the paint; it will be more likely to drip or form blemishes.

Again, allow your color coat to cure for a minimum of two days before you sand. After sanding the second color coat, you should have panels with a uniform matte finish, with no glossy pits. There will be visible fine scratch marks from the sandpaper. If you get any deep scratches, they will show through to the finished surface unless you take the time to fix them now. Unfortunately, that usually means sanding them out, and that can put you back all the way to applying primer again. So watch out for grit or debris on your sandpaper.

 

You could buff this finish out to a decent gloss. But by applying a clear coat, you'll deepen the gloss significantly. Apply the clear coat to the work pieces generously. Don't over apply, but build up several thin applications to a wet, glossy coat. Orange peel texture will be noticeable, and dust nibs will seem to be magnetically attracted, but don't worry. Again, we cure this coat for two days, and then we repeat the 600 grit flattening-out-the-orange peel routine. If you cut through the clear coat, a second application is necessary, plus the two day cure before you sand again. By now you see this is not a technique for the impatient. But once you finish the flattening, you get to move up the grit scale again to scratch removal. Lightly sand with 1000 grit and then 1500 grit (and 2000 if you have some) to remove the scratches left by each previous step.

All that sanding work was very, very tedious, but it pays off right now. If you did a good job with the previous steps, the application of rubbing compound won't be anywhere near as difficult as if you cut corners. By now you've got a good six hours into sanding, so I know that if you're with me here, you're going the distance. And I promise that the last couple steps are a little less tedious. To buff out the fine scratches, use a high quality rubbing compound available from auto parts stores. Apply it per the package directions, but fundamentally you rub the scratches out, leaving only a faint haze. Use only a clean, soft cotton cloth for this step.

 

This is the payoff! You'll see the gloss emerge as you remove the compound from the panels. The matte finish is replaced by gloss with only a faint haze. There are swirl mark removers and glazes available where you get your paint supplies to remove the last traces of haze. You can apply these right after compounding. If you want to use an automobile wax, wait a month for the paint to fully cure first. But with the hand glaze applied, you'll have the show car look that will grab serious attention.

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