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Guide: Painting acrylic

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creepy

Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2003
Location
tn
Due to some technical problems I dont have many pics ;(. I had roughly 80 pics throughout the process of modding my case and they all got cleared so bare with me on the lack of pictures.

Heres what youll need:

400 grit sand paper
1000 grit sand paper
Plastic primer (I used rustoleum)
Paint (I prefer krylon or rustoleum) the rustoleum seemed stronger and sprayed ALOT better, worked in cold weather, dried A LOT faster,and more
3M rubbing compound
Turtle wax
Rubbing alcohol & soap
Patience for things to dry


I cannot stress how important the primer is. This is what will make or break the project. If you paint the acrylic w/o using primer and put so much as 4 coats on each side you will still be able to see through the acrylic when held up to light and its possible it will have a cracked spider webbed effect to it. The primer is VERY important. One thing you must keep in mind here is the primer is acting as a cover coat not just a coat to help adhere the paint so you dont need to use one coat and make it light as possible.

The first thing you want to do is take the piece of acrylic youre going to paint and using the 400 grit sand paper wetsand it all over. You want the acrylic to go from a nice clear able to see through look to a milky dirty color you cant see through. See the pic below.

Not sanded: http://img73.exs.cx/img73/1908/dsc010011lg.jpg

Sanded: http://img146.exs.cx/img146/3416/dsc010023jx.jpg

After the sanding is done wipe down the piece with alcohol and let dry. Once done wash it off with a good mix of soapy water and rinse off VERY WELL then let dry. After it dries prime the piece you want to paint front and back. From experience you definitely want to use many light coats instead of one or two heavy ones.

After first coat of primer: http://img92.exs.cx/img92/7716/dsc010030ri.jpg

Give the piece about 3-4 light coats of primer. After the primer is COMPLEATLY dry wetsand it really good using the 400 grit paper. If any of the primer sands through to the acrylic put another coat of primer and repeat the sanding. After youre done sanding wash it off with water to remove the dirty water and primer you sanded off. Once dry it should be VERY smooth. Let it dry COMPLEATLY if you do not let it dry this will mess up your paint it will cause odd looking ripples in it which arent fun to get out. DO NOT use a tack cloth as well it will cause problems with the paint. After the piece as dried its onto painting.

When you spray the primer if there are some places on the part that it seems to not want to stick to and creates a crater dont worry about. Let the primer dry then come back and spray a good glob of primer on the area and let dry then sand down. This problem happened every so often due to the oil on the acrylic which hopefully the soap and alcohol will take off.

Give the piece 3-5 decent coats of paint or however many floats your boat. I highly reccomend using the rustoleum paint. It worked a lot better than the krylon fusion for me. It sprayed smooth, was able to sand in 30 min, is stronger, had less run/overspray/etc. After the paint (all coats) has dried COMPLEATLY. Wetsand using the 1000grit paper. You want to check your paper quite often to be sure the paint isnt building up on it if it does it will cause the paint on the part to get some pretty bad scratches. After wetsanding wipe off with alcohol the part will then have a dull look to it.

Then using the rubbing compound take a old towel and following the directions rub the part a total of 2-3 times. Then repeat the process using the turlte wax. Final product should look like below if not better.

Pic 1: http://img140.exs.cx/img140/7716/dsc009590el.jpg

Pic 2: http://img142.exs.cx/img142/1977/dsc009922bd.jpg

Those two pics are with black krylon fusion paint. The three pics below are with metallic black rustoleum.

Pic 1: http://img168.exs.cx/img168/7702/dsc001169ve.jpg

Pic 2: http://img40.exs.cx/img40/6351/dsc000977ru.jpg

Pic 3: http://img110.exs.cx/img110/7193/dsc000653sx.jpg

AND heres a pic of what I started with http://img19.exs.cx/img19/3268/y0hdsc00161.jpg

If you want more pics and to see more etc check out the thread here
 
I have a green res just like your green acrylic case....

I am alos tempted to paint it black to match my new pc case...

Its a personal preference but I think it looks nice black...

I might leave a tiny bit on the side clear so I can see how much water there is but thats it...

 
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