Painting my case interior black - a few questions

[felinusz]

Can I use normal, matte-black spraypaint for this job? I am worried about flammability, and the danger of having hot elecrtical stuff in there surronded by spray-painted walls. Is there a specific paint brand that is better, and more durable/heat resistant?

Will this look O.K. (I can do a good, clean job of it in any case)? I am planning on lighting the interior, so the black paint shouldn't retract from the look too much, and I want it to put more emphasis on the individual components, some of which will be sprayed lightly with red UV reactie paint, for highlights.

And a quick aside about lighting - Do both "UV Cold Cathodes", and "Red Cold Cathodes" put out UV lught? or does only the specific UV cathode make things glow? If I have a tub of each inside of the case, will the purply "UV" Cathode interfere with the Red Cathode's look?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Nightingale]

First off any spraypaint will work. Heres what I would do for the interior 1)Clean inside very well with some degreaser and get any machine oil off the aluminum/steel 2) Spray with self etching primer 3) Apply a few coats of color 4) Spray with a few layers of clear coat. The clear coat will make it less susciptable to scratching the color coat from components. Now for the Cold cathodes the Black light CC will give off a purple glow but I would think it would blend in with the red if you have maybe 2 reds and 1 UV blacklight. Also when painting the case its best if you can take the case apart by drilling out the rivets and just riveting it back together after your done with the inividual pieces otherwise if your not super super careful its very easy to get runs. Plus I found that when I put the side panels and drives back into certain parts of the case the components wouldn't fit right due to the extra layer of paint so it scratched off those areas but thats hidden stuff that you won't most likely see just a little FYI. Hope this helps ya

 

[felinusz]

Thanks Nightingale! Exactly the info I needed

Infortunately, I cannot drill out all the rivets, because I don't have a clue about how to re-rivet everything!

I can remove some parts, and spray them seperately though - do you have any suggestions towards preventing runs, to keep everything smooth looking?

The case is a Chieftec Dragon Full-Tower in Black (Pretty Generic - but I have high hopes for it... ).

 

[Nightingale]

Just do thin coats especially on the starter coat you don't really have to cover everything real well with the first coat and hold the can about 6" above the surface. Riveting isn't hard just get a rivet gun, place rivet in the hole where the old rivet used to be and use the rivet gun to secure the rivet in the hole and your done. A rivet gun costs no more then 20 but can usually be had for cheaper and a box of rivets ( I believe 1/8th rivets) costs maybe couple box for 100 or so. All this can be had at your local hardware (lowes,homedepot, etc). Oh and I have a chieftec dragon as well that I painted up with metallic black and gold interior. I didn't completely disassemble the case and I got runs myself (on the interior the exterior came out great and has a near mirror finish) but I was rushing because this is my only pc and I hate not having my lovely system even if I can use my moms crappy IBM 550mhz AMD.

 

[felinusz]

So if I am really careful, and really take my time it should turn out O.K.?

Another quick paint-related question - UV reactive spray paint, will it look alright sprayed over the black coat, with clearcoat overtop of it?

I would like the interior to be black, with a very subtle red glow - if that is even possible (modding noob here!)

 

[Nightingale]

It shouldn't confilict with the black and clear coat as UV paints are clear (or atleast I thought they were lol might want to read the can).I just thought of this if you don't want to go through all the trouble of painting it you can call around to powder coaters and get it powder coated as this is a very durable way to go and shouldn't cost to much (probably 50ish). If thats not an option there is anodizing as well which is also durable and should be cheap.

 

[felinusz]

Cool! How do I go about Anodizing, or is there a type of specialty place that will do it for me?

How would I find such a shop/service locally? I live in Toronto (a big city, so someone must be able to do it!).

Powdercoating sounds like my best bet, if I can find someone with the tools, and skills neccessary. I am willing to pay a little bit for a really good, professional job.

 

[OKJEFF4]

If you don't want to use rivets, use screws. That way, if you want to do it over, you can.