painting cdrom and floppy drives

[lil boi phreak]

i was just wondering who you would go about painting them. my case is blue and i want my drives to match. can anyone help? :wavey:

[Smoked1]

Sure I can help. Take the drive out of your machine. There should be a little hole on the front of it. Stick something in there and the drive should open. I use a coat hanger. Remove the bezel from the front of the tray and then take the bezel off of the other part of the drive. You should be able to do it by sliding the bezel. Some drives are different so you may need to mess with it a bit but you will get it. I used masking tape and a razor blade to cover up the LED part of the bezel but some drives make it easy to just remove them. Now you paint. It's pretty easy. Let me know if you need anymore help. This should get you started though.

hey cool...thanks for the info....i had no idea that the front face came off....thanks a bunch. ...one more question...is there a certain/special kind of paint i should use that will stick?

[Smoked1]

I recomend wetsanding it with a high grain sand paper and them spray it with some primer, then a few coats of car touchup paint. Wet sand the paint with high grain sand paper. Then paint it again. Then use lots of clear coat to give it a good shine.

[lil boi phreak]

excuse my ignorance ...but what is wetsanding? :blush:

[Smoked1]

Using wet/dry sand paper and getting it wet. I think a little bit of soap in the water helps too.

[Melvin Tong]

Actually, if you're going to be painting plastic or somethign similar, I would recommend vinyl dye. It actually seeps into the plastic and colors it. This way it won't flake off as easily and it won't make it so your buttons stick and wont' go in the whole way. Easy to use, can get it at any local car parts shop like pep boys. Don't even have to sand at all. You don't need to sand it down at all, but it will show scratches and cracks so you may want to sand those out if you have any. But other than that just spray away and you're ok!

-Sean-

[Aemon_]

omg. i didnt even think of that! here i am, fixin to dye the interior of my truck, with the vinyl dye, and i just really didnt even think of that!
good idea

later

[Smoked1]

I have never tried that before. I'm going to though.

[eviltechie]

acutaly you dont really need to wetsand it when you are just doing the drives

then use vasoline oil to cover the LED lights and the writings of the brands
or use masking tape to cover a larger area and x-acto knife the uneccesary parts

apply the color in thin, even strokes
after dried, clear the tape and the vaseline
then spray a layer of clear coat

as for the paint
i would recommend acrylic enamel blue #35-42181
a small spray can is enough

i read the directions from the May 2001 edition of Maximum PC magazine
the guide is just superb

[ModNoob]

Is there a way to paint a monitor? cuz a NICE @$$ silver comp doesnt look right with a white monitor. Could I use the vinyl dye? I gotta do some research

[Smoked1]

Good question. Please let us know what you find out.

[eviltechie]

monitor is the same

just gotta mask the screen well before u paint
and the ventilation wholes can be a problem

[Cyber Chris]

For the issue of the ventelation holes when painting monitors,

Just open the monitor and take the guts out along with th fromnt frame and mask the vent holes from the inside , put monitor back together and paint and clearcoat , when dry open and take off masking tape , hope this helped :biggrin:

[eviltechie]

well if the cover is taken off, there isnt much need for masking the inside
i think it would be best for the paint to go through once the cover is set on layers of newspaper or a sheet

because when you mask and paint, the paint will collect in those pockets once the tape is there to block
and things will get sticky
but yeah, take off the cover is the key

spray painting is fun but it takes a while to get used to
practice on old newspaper is a good way to familiarize one's self with an airbrush