Looks awesome! Is the MDF going to be painted black? This case looks sick, I love the way its coming together. The way you're putting so much quality time into it, I bet it'll be functional for as long as a normal case. I hope my case comes out as clean as this...
My final yellow objects were these little brackets:
Its a good idea to find ways to hold objects so that you can paint multiple sides simultanously.
These brackets hold the windows below the motherboard tray:
Another painting tip! If you are doing a lot of rattle can painting, put out the $3 for one of these handles:
Otherwise you will wake up the next day with a spasm'd finger.
Also, as soon as you are done spraying each time, wipe off the nozzle and/or have a little dixie cup of paint thinner. If you come back the next day and use a can with a crusted nozzle, it will spit instead of spray and then you'll have to sand off globs of paint.
Also, floss your teeth.
Next I painted the ends of my CCFLs. Never done this before, so I wasn't sure how it would work out.
First, I taped off the tubes.
I sanded the plastic, then sprayed some sandable primer, then flat top coat.
Looks great!
Next I decided to embark on painting a lot of the black metal brackets and such.
Since I do so much modding, and I'm frequently painting small brackets and such, I threw together a rolling cabinet/spray paint unit. Its a simple A frame out of 2x4 with some mdf shelves.
This facing side has a large area covered with disposable contractor's paper. And brackets to hold 3 long bars. From the bars I use some spool wire to hang all the widgets that I can fit. I can paint one side, then flip the long bar, and paint the other side.
Here's a full load, letting me paint some 8 items simultaneously:
These guys have all been sanded, cleaned, then sprayed with self-etching primer. My understanding is that self-etching primer contains a zinc coating, which seals bare metal best.
Getting back to my point about proper prep:
After my first coat of self-etching prime, a single light pass with some 220 grit sandpaper, and suddenly the paint came off in a rough thin edge.
It is CRITICAL to get rid of all these rough catching points at this stage of the game. If you don't sand this down now, all subsequent coats will have no adherence, no matter how many coats you put on. Then, when you are done with your top coat, the first jar or rub, and the paint will flake off down to bare metal.
After the self-etching prime, laid down a coat of black sandable primer:
I am going for a flat black look to all these parts--some people call that "primer black", but please don't ever make the mistake of actually using black primer for a "primer black" look. Primer is meant to be sanded down and covered over. And so it scratches very easily and comes off as powder to even light rubbing.
And so, on top of the black primer, I used a flat black top coat:
The result, a light-swallowing black flat finish of a bunch of brackets.
All the steps will pay off because this paint is on there hard. If you could actually feel these pieces, its like the paint has been integrated into the metal like anodizing. Nice and chip resistant, knock on wood.
That station is sooo cool, I would love one of those if I had a big shop. You really went the hard route for painting, I always go the easy route and just sand, wipe down, and spray. Your results are better than mine lol
Okay, time to start in on some of the main panels.
This is what I'm starting with:
As you can see its a very rough surface with multiple patches of bondo. I've forgotten if I've mentioned it, my method for filling in drilled holes.
First, the backside should be plugged with something to be a backer.
I actually used a 2 material approach. Wood filler fills in holes well without shrinking, but when you sand it, it tends to break away a lot. Bondo shrinks a lot, but it sands much more finely.
If you just use bondo, it may shrink into the hole, and then you have to second coat it.
Instead, I plugged the holes to the surface with wood filler, then I skimmed over the top with bondo, feathering down the edges of the patch.
Let it dry, then sand it flat.
After getting everything patched up, I then hit my first panel with 220grit sandpaper. Then I painted my first coat of hi build primer-filler:
A couple of things you may notice.
First, one coat of primer is definitely not enough. The paint is differentially absorbed by the wood surface and the bondo patches, so I wanted the primer thick enough so that it was completely uniform.
Second, once again I thought about how to paint both sides simultaenously--the panel can be either side up without paint touching the table.
So I sanded the primer with 220 grit and laid 2 more coats of hi build filler primer until the surface was completely uniform:
Next I painted one coat of white primer, mostly so that I could confirm the surface was completely uniform, as well as getting a sandable layer of white over that gray primer.
Next came a massive paint session, wow make sure your paint location is well ventilated.
I sprayed 4 coats of glossy white followed by 4 coats of clear gloss, each about 3 minutes apart.
Then I let this dry probably 4 or 5 days.
After that drying period, I sanded the clear gloss coat with 220 grit, then 400 grit, then 600 grit.
And I sprayed another 4 coats of clear gloss!
So then I was ready to polish my main surface up! My plan:
220 grit,
400,
600,
800,
1000,
1200,
1500,
2000
Then buff out with 3m rubbing compound.
For those familiar with such a process, this is essentially "lapping" a heatsink or an IHS (minus the rubbing compound), something I've done many times in the past:
On the other hand, this is a several square feet of surface painted onto waterabsorbent wood. I was headed to disaster......
Foreshadowing something? I am hoping that nice paint job didn't get messed up in the final stages... The paint looks great man. I am a lazy painter... I usually paint things that have already been painted before, so I just sand down to primer, clean the surface, and do 5 to 7 coats of base color, and I usually don't bother with clear. That is why your paint looks so much better than mine xD
When you finish with a glossy base coat or clear top coat, it looks glossy from a distance. But unless you sand a polish it, it will have what is known as an orange-peel effect.
In this pic, you can see the orange peeling effect on the right half--the left half I've started sanding.
In order to get a perfectly flat non-orange peeled finish, you have to go through a progression of increasingly fine sandpaper, as was my plan above.
However, this fine sanding requires wetsanding--having to continually wet/wash the surface (I use water with a few drops of dishwasher fluid) to wash away the sanded particles off the surface of the sandpaper. With finer sandpapers, just one or two passes without wetsanding, and the whole sandpaper surface will get clogged with sanded paint particles.
However, while wetting the surface of this panel, moisture actually got underneath the paint down into the mdf itself, which caused the mdf to swell in several places (especially around any mounting holes).
Thus, as I continued to sand, at these lifted spots, I sanded right through the base coat into the gray primer layer. Notice the thin rim of gray primer showing thru around the mounting hole:
Once you burn thru your base coat into prime, you're done. There really isn't anyway to recover from this situation.
So, I sanded everything back to down to gray primer--yup sanded away some 7 coats of paint.
I then painted (with in between sanding) white primer:
Then 4 coats of white base coat, and 2 rounds of 4 coats of clear coat!
This time I had to come up with a new gameplan to wetsand the surface. I did 2 things differently:
I taped all my eges and I plugged all my holes with good ol' simple plumber's putty:
Then I sort of did semi-wet sanding. I used as little water as I could, and a heck of a lot of paper towels.
Here is a pic after I finished with just the wetsanding, and no polishing whatsoever:
And after some polishing compound and elbow grease:
Wow. That looks absolutely amazing. You are a much, much, much more patient person than I. First screw up like that and I think I would have fallen in love with the orange peel -now intentional!- effect.
Wow! That's a perfect gloss white now, I would have dealed with the first mistake =P I would have the patience to start over. Awesome build! Now the final assembly
I have to say, this build has overall whooped my behind, which is why it has taken sooooo long. Every step of the way it fought me. But I'm stubborn, and I promised myself once I'd do a super hi quality paint job.
Honestly, in the future, I would consider sub'ing paint out.
Here is the very rough looking start to this panel:
After sanding and cleaning, it took several coats of hi build primer:
Check out how perfectly smooth this panel is--this is what you want for a base to your paint job:
I will make a critical note about painting MDF:
MDF is extremely absorbent, especially any cut edges. When you paint an edge, the fibers will soak in the paint solvent and swell, giving the funky texture you can see above. Repeated coats and sanding will eventually seal the edges and it will look fine, but it will take some patience.
Generally for most projects you are going to want to use a nice thick paint with a paint brush or roller on MDF.
Panels make their way through prime:
Then white prime, white base coat, and clear glossy topcoat:
When you are done with your paint job, and it comes time to remove masking tape, remember to score with a utility knife and straight edge along the tape edge.
If you don't, then the tape will pull up a rough fringe pattern instead of a nice solid line.
It's best, whenever possible, to remove masking tape when the paint is still slightly wet.
This panel is done. Being an interior panel I'm fine with the glossy but orange peel'd finish:
This panel, however, is getting the full polish, and so I've started with some rough 220 grit:
So I began my final assembly. There was a bit of concern as my paint job added probably 2mm in thickness to everything, so I figured there would have to be a lot of adjusting.
The 4 large MDF panels compromised the major structure and they actually went together just like that!
Next I installed the major front panel because I wanted to make sure the structure was still square and my panel gaps were still okay.
First I put together this set of top brackets that hold and support the panel:
I've been following this build from the beginning xD and I am glad to see it finally getting finished up. That paint looks amazing, you'd never know it was mdf. Really awesome build Navig.
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When will this thing ever get done? I've been waiting patiently forever xD
