Project: Chrome Dragon? *UPDATE* DONE!! NEW PIX!

*UPDATE*

K well this whole week ive been painting trying to get a mirror finish

Ive primed, sanded, primed, sanded, color coated, waited 2 days, sanded (took me 5 hours to sand and i just gave up on trying to completly flatten the crap so i went ahead and put on the 2nd color coat and it came out looking fine

SO i waited and hour and i put on clear coat (since im not suppose to sand out the 2nd color coat since im using chrome paint) and the first side panel turned out fine



not good but nothing really went wrong

But i read before putting on the clear coat on the can, it says not to put clear coat on bright coat paint (rustoleum has different types of paint) and the chrome was "bright coat" paint so i was like ****, and said how am i suppose to get a mirror finish since i cant sand down the chrome and put clear coat? so i did it anyways, and ya the first panel turned out fine



but then on the top panel and the other side panel WTF!









BUBBLES or somethin, it was perfectly fine with the chrome and i put the clear on, then looked back and was like WTH! this is bull ****, im really mad at this because ive put in a good 10+ hours into this and this is what i get god dammit.

So ya **** and i mean **** the mirror finish SOOOOO not worth it. Im not gonna go and waste another 30 dollars on paint and more of my time on this crap.

so what other methods are there of painting? just sand a bit, primer, sand a bit, then chrome paint? or what

Also how do i fix those dam bubbles, just sand it out so its a dull gray? should i try and sand the gray into a mirror finish? could i still apply clear coat to it (after its sanded down, or would it make bubbles again?)

wtf im so mad right now, please help me!

 

have you read the guides? What grit did you sand with?

 

i like to wet sand only a little bit and then polish it with polishing compound mixed into a slurry with water, takes some time but i think its alot easier than sanding all the way. those look like what are called "fish eyes" it happens when ur surface isnt clean

 

the bubbles?

i was sanding with 800 grit, in the guide it said to sand with 600 but i looked for it and the closest i could find was 800

 

for a chrome like finish, you would have been better off just removing all the paint off the surface of your case... Then sanding as high as the grit would go! From there you would be able to make it really shiney, and then clearcoated it. That's sort of what I'm doing, except im going for the "brushed stainless" look. I would just remove all the paint and try it that way... save yourself the time and use a palm sander.

 

ya i was gonna do that but i had one lil tiny piece of bondo

but ya


im about to rip out the little piece of bondo



and just polish it

would it still rust if i put on alot of clear coat? that would take forever to get the paint off, unless i use 80 grit sand paper but then there will be a crap load of scratches

if i took the bondo off it would look like this



ive done it earlier but i decided not too since the bondo but ya, would 80 grit screw it up? cuz it takes forever to get the paint off with 220 grit

im just scared of rust

 

220 shouldn't be that hard to remove all the paint, just takes time. If there are scratches you can use a higher grit, eg 320, and go opposite directions and keep going up in grit level and I think that removes any scratches or marks.

 

well heres some pics of my test polishing a while back, i used 80 grit at first to get the paint off

im gussing there was still scratches because i didnt sand enough in that area?















so ya should i just rip out that bondo?

 

I say rip out the bondo, the dragon looks good without the bondo there anyway. Polish away man!

 

thats what i thought as soon as i put the bondo on, i was like dam i wasted all that time bondoing that crap when it looked fine anyways

so i should just polish?

i forgot i have a few bondoed spots on the bottom part of the side, where i scratched with the dremel when shaping my window, but even so without the bondo i dont think u could notice it too much

anyideas how i can get it mirrory (the bondo)

 

No way I know of that you could mirror the bondo. Maybe you could do another cut out where the scratches are? Or just sand them and see if they come out? I say polish away then clearcoat.

 

but will clear coat totally protect from rust or what?

 

ok well what you think, this is my bottom panel after sanding the clear coat with 2000





what you think? paint or polish?

 

I reckon the polished surface will come out better than painted, it will look more 'chromy' than chrome paint ever will.

 

ya and witht eh chrome paint, supposedly you cant touch it too much which would suck

and i dont feel like buying uhh a different color paint

i still gotta paint my plastic stuff chrome though, hopefully if i use a clear coat from like 2 feet away it wont mess up the paint

 

*UPDATE*

K i poished my top panel (took from 3:00 to like 9:00) i had to take off the paint which was a bitch and took forever and i used paint stripper





i also painted my plastc stuff and let me tell you NEVER USE CHROME PAINT! it sucks, all this crap gets on it and theres all this over spray and you cant sand it since itll take away the chromeness it sucks ass

i have like drips cuz i had to apply alot of paint in the over spray parts so its crappy

 

you are supposed to sand it...and then polish it...

 

what are u talkin about?

 

ok i think im gonna go put a blow hole in my plexi, should i use a 92 mm fan or my 120?

cuz the 120 has leds, and my 92 no leds and i dont wanna put some on cuz i suck, but i do have a tight grill for the 92, the 120mm grill would be either a blue or a chrom/silver wire grill you know?

so i could do either of those but i can make a grill on the plexi, like instead of cutting a complete hole, i cut a design, but what? any ideas???

also would a 120mm fan right over my hsf screw something up? like screw with the air flow?

also when i get my a64, the cpu isnt in the same spot as my nf7-s, if i did the blow hole right over my cpu, on the a64 it would be like a lil above and to the left of the cpu, so should i just be safe and hit the hole around the bottom? by the vid card or somethin?

 

use the 120 fan, btw, kickass top <3 chieftecs.. im a sucker for them