Painting GT AP-15s

Awesome, thanks!

I really appreciate everyone's help, thank you. Now off to build!

McMaster Carr is a place to buy any screw etc. You want the black oxide ones. Online, hopefully they do CA too.

I think the fans look very very good. Nice job! I understand the trepidation on not painting the blades. The light grey blades with the neon frames looks awesome!

Good Job!

Thanks Conumdrum! Much appreciated I'll keep McMaster Carr in mind for sure.

I'm going to go with pull on the fans for now and I might change them up later. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get the UV to shine on them from the front if I had them in push anyway. Short of setting up a spotlight from outside the case, I really can't figure out a way :-S Most UV fans are clear to let the UV light through...

Edit: Just had a twinge of guilt for taking all the credit. I'd planned on painting the fans myself but my dad offered to do them at his work as he had a spray room and the equipment to hang them and paint them. I probably would have eventually got them to look like that, but it may have taken significantly longer...

So I'm unhappy with how the paint turned out on my fans and I'm thinking of redoing them. Right now, the paint flakes off at the slightest touch and the fans themselves feel tacky and stick to everything. Some of the paint even came off on the radiators...

I was planning on stripping the paint and priming them with white primer, then airbrushing and sealing with a clear gloss acrylic to give them durability.

I've read online that a good product to use for stripping is Simple Green, though this opinion is not shared by everyone. My main concern is that it's not safe to use on the plastic that the fans are made from (PBT-ABS) but I've read varying posts on it being safe or unsafe for ABS plastics. There's a warning on the label saying not to use it on plastic instrument panels, but I figured that was because it could cloud them?

Would anybody know if this is safe to use, or if not, then a better product to use? Something that would be safe and wouldn't cause the plastic to crack. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

what I used krylon fusion for plastic for my ap-15 fans, work very nicely.

I use pine sol on my pastic and metal modles you just have to be very careful or else the pine sole will eat away the palstic. I have also used hot water, soap, and a scrubing pad/thing which also worked.

Yeah, unfortunately Krylon Fusion doesn't come in neon colours I`ve got a fluorescent green and fluorescent orange theme going.

Thanks for the suggestions briansun1. I should probably try the soap and water first. At least there won`t be a risk of melting the plastic.

also I agree that you should use white primer then color then gloss/hard coat...

skorpien said:

Yeah, I do know about those longer screws but finding them in black to match everything else is tough to do locally. Hmm...

I'm pretty over-radded anyway as is, so if there's any decrease in performance from having them as pull I don't think it'll matter much. I'll build it this way and if I don't decide to change it as I'm building I may rearrange things when it's time for the annual teardown.

PS - I'm using two loops (I know, I know), one for the CPU (Core i7 2600K) and one for GPU (single 7950 full cover block). Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but a 360 rad for each should be plenty, regardless of push or pull, right?

Click to expand...

LOL, 120x6 for that? Two loops, LOL? Yes, your fine. You can do the heatload calculations.

Heck you can run that easily on two 120x2 and fans at 800 RPM.

Yeah, I figured as much. I've done the heatload calculations and I know it's overkill, but I wanted to go all out... The two loops really is an aesthetic decision more than anything, but I am aware that one loop is better.