Painting a pc case--suggestions needed!

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sunny27

sunny27

Stig's Indian Cousin!!!
Galvanizer
Hi!
I got hold of a Chieftec BB02 B B B case. I intend to paint the exterior in black/silver automobile paint and the interior in red/black automobile paint.
I can't paint it at home - don't want to clean up the mess! Extremely lazy!!
If I plan on giving it to my local garage - will he paint it and for how much?
Can the Plastic panels be painted as well?
 
Yes and yes although I suggest you remove those plastic panels and get it painted from the garage and get the metallic enclosure alone powder coated which lasts longer, appeals better and lends a good finish.
 
I believe the metallic enclosure you are referring to would be the case interior. Can anyone tell me the amount I should be looking at so that I don't get ripped off and can haggle a bit.
 
About 600~700 bucks for powder coating it black and may be slightly different for other colors.
 
^^ So for 600rs, I can have the interior of my case painted? What about the exterior-how much would that cost me?? Can the plastic front bezel be painted? Obviously the leds/power button,etc will be masked or dismantled.
 
See, I had a CM690 before and had it powder-coated black in and out for ~700 INR. I had removed all the plastics before that including the rubber foot.

Essentially, in powder coating, the case is first prepared for the process by sanding/sand-blasting, then the powder is applied using one of the several processes and then the case is exposed to high temperatures in an oven so the powder melts and evenly applies to the case. So if you have any plastics/rubber materials such as foot or clips etc. these may melt during the process. The shop owner will warn you prior to that generally.

Besides, be warned that the holes may shrink a bit after it is powder coated. When I tried screwing the spacers for the motherboard, I found it a bit hard to screw them. But the finish is top notch!
 
^^ You powder coated the exterior of your cabinet as well ? All that cost you 700rs---that's acceptable! Did you powder coat you cabinet at a garage? How do I go about painting the plastic front bezel?
 
Nope I did it at a workshop where they do powder coating for grills, gates, windows, stanchions etc. Search your locality, enquire with the hardware store/paint stores/engg. workshops. They might give you some pointers. But why garage? Garages dont have powder coating machines AFAIK.

The front bezel can be painted using the spray painting machine or can. Although for the paint in the can to stick to the surface, you will have to sand the surface.
 
^ I am getting an used Chieftec BB02 BBB and its got some rust in certain areas which i shall clean with ip alcohol and scrape it with sand paper. I am primarily planning to paint the case to make it look like new--powder coating sounds perfect. But it would be great if I could paint the case front bezel as well. Any normal spray painting can will do the job or any automobile paint will do?
 
Bumping the thread with a quick query-- I am unable to find anyone near my house who powder coat's stuff and can't go 30-40km to an industrial estate to get my cabinet powder coated. I went to a garage and spoke to a guy who paints cars--he suggested going for black matte finish on the interior of the cabinet - he will use the same spray gun used to paint cars. For the exterior he's shown me some very high quality Dulux silver bronze car paint used to paint a Mercedes C class. I love the colour and its finish!! For the plastic front bezel he's suggested applying a sort of Plastic primer used before paint is applied to the car's front and rear bumpers which makes the paint stick better and give a better finish. He won't be using sand paper to sand the surface he said. And then some high quality paint to finish off the plastic bits. All this will cost me 300rs.

Now;

[1] Will spray painting the interior of the cabinet with a matte black coat be harmful to the motherboard?

[2] Will there be any rise in temperature?
 
I don't see any reason why a matte finish paint will affect your motherboard and system temperature.

Even though that guy won't use sand paper, using sandpaper(or sandblasting) before painting would be better. Sanding is done so that the colour(paint) won't peel off.
 
If your cabinet has rust on it you'll need to get sand-blasting(much better than sanding) done. After that get a primer coat on it using a spray-gun and finish it off with the powder paint-color of your choice(matte/metallic/glossy finish).

All this will cost around Rs.1400(max.).
 
Like aman.pitbull suggested you would need to sand the case after you remove all plastic housing and then a primer coat is needed before the powder coat.....

First Sanding ( I did it myself before but is takes a lot of time and mostly its not done properly )
Then primer is needed as direct paint wont stay....
I need to get powder coat done for my case mod too... We can find one together in SG Highway area and get the job done....

Need someone one who can sand the case, apply primer and powder coat the case..
 
^^^ Excellent! we should team up on this project then! I have heard of steel/ metal fabrication workshops on the right hand side of the SG highway towards Gandhinagar once we cross the Sola overbridge and approach Gota.

Btw do I need to sand the entire case for automobile paint finishes ? As for the plastic front bezel-does that have to be sanded as well? What grade sand paper do I need to get?
 
Updating this thread - After a lot of headaches I decided to ditch the Chieftec case painting/ modding project and turned my attention to my Ultra VFM Gigabyte Luxo X 142 case. I tried spray painting it which resulted in the paint peeling off - even after I read many DIY projects online - I wasn't happy with my shoddy case painting skills so I decided to head to the nearest Automobile accessories shop and get hold of some high quality vinyl sheets to make some decals.

Sheets bought - White glossy(rs.25), Red glossy(rs.25), Blue Non-glossy(rs.25) (The total investment was rs.75) the Number 27 you see on one of the side panels was cut out by a shop which did number plates for cars and cost me rs.10. I spent rs.85 in all and am happy with the results. The racing stripes have very nicely hidden the shoddy paint and paint removal job. I don't know what to do with the blue vinyl sheet so do give me suggestions.











 
Some more custom cut vinyl stickers! The ones with text were done at the number plate wala.

The AMD and Gigabyte Logos were made by me - cut using a simple steel ruler, a protractor, Rs.5 coin and a simple blade.







The total cost of the logos which have text/numbers cost me rs.80.
 
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