I've been doing some research on how to paint steel because I want to paint an old case I was given. Although this case will only be for a server I'm assembling, I still want it to look good. Personal pride and practice for other mods down the line too you know. Anyway, all the articles I've read have been on how to use gloss paint and get that perfect shine...I on the other hand want to paint my case a flat black, but no one seems to write articles over painting flat colors. So, does anyone have any tips, links to articles, or just general information on how to get a perfect flat paint job? Thanks in advance, 29
Matt paint is much more forgiving of uneven surfaces than gloss, with a gloss panel you can immediately see any imperfection because it sticks out like a sore thumb, where as with matt paint the paint surface is irregular so (shallow) blemishes will be hidden. Having said that it wont hide holes, lumps or bumps. My method is as below; Sand up to 400 grit or so Prime in LIGHT coats allowing 30-60 mins between coats, 3-4 coats should do (filler primer is useful to cover small blemishes) Leave it at least over night, a couple of days would be better, even though the primer may look dry and even feel dry it isn't hard for days. Sand again with 600/800 grit, if you sand too early you'll just rub all the primer off and then you get to start again. Paint in whatever colour you prefer, again using light coats, I reckon it should take till the second coat before the primer stops showing through, that's painting black onto amber primer. Build up as many coats are required to cover the primer colour properly, 4-6ish. Try to leave it for at least a couple of hours before you handle it, nothing worse than leaving a fingerprint. The above method is what I've been using with Halfords rattle cans, it's given pretty nice results as you can see in my thread. A couple of other tips, try to keep the spray can warm when you want to use it, room temp or a touch higher is good so if you're spraying outside (like me) or in a garage try to keep the cans somewhere warm when you're not actually spraying. A cold can has a tendency to sputter rather than giving a nicely atomised spray so you get spots of paint rather than a smooth coat. Second, when the can says shake for two minuets its not kidding, get all the pigment into suspension so you get consistent coverage. Moriquendi
Bah, i painted my thermaltake armor flat black without any prep work, and it looks marvelous, only thing is no primer so it scratches easily, but i don't plan to mess around inside much. Couple coats of flat black and it's good to go. It looks wonderful, and no fingerprints like gloss stuff! Sorry this isn't a real answer. Just take your time, and thin coats is the key to a good paint job. Don't be afraid to try it with a spare piece of metal to get the feel on how to do it beforehand, nothing worse than screwing something up and having to start at the beginning agian.
Just throwing this out there, I want to re-paint my Fender Precision bass a nice mate/flat black (it’s a hot rod red right now but it’s in need of bodywork, filler, ect. It’s my workhorse of a bass. Full of dents, scratches, and chips. any tips?
If yall really want me to I'll be happy to. Haha. Its going to be nothing special though. Only a flat black case with a piece of clear plexi in place of the front bezel with a couple switches and fans added. Besides that, I'm not going to be doing much to it. If anyone is curious, the server is going to used for home filesharing, as a bittorrent client, an FTP server, and a VNC server. This way I can I access not only my files from work, but also my machine(so I can start downloading torrents or w/e).
