Painting drive bezels

BDRBDR
edited November 2003 in Hardware
I'm being a cheapy here and thinking about spray painting an old cdrom and floppy drive silver to match my new Raidmax case.

These are old drives, so I can't mess them up too much by trying.
Any tips or tricks for spray painting drives?

Comments

  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    If you can find it in a matching color, use Krylon Fusion paint... it bonds to the plastic and is then very scratch resistant. And be more careful than I was... I wasted a 48X CDRW and a 52X CD-ROM somehow... the CDRW would keep opening after I put it back together, and the CD-ROM didn't want to open at all!
  • edited November 2003
    Just clean them real well with some rubbing alcohol and use even coats...several light coats beats one heavy coat.
    I used some of that spray touch-up paint to do mine and it came out great, you can sand them with some 1000 grit wet/dry paper to make them really slick looking.
  • BDRBDR
    edited November 2003
    Ok, I'll look for Krylon Fusion then.
    I figure by taping off the delicate parts and using very light coats, it should work.
    I saw an article of this once, but I don't remember where.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Yes, if you're just taping it off you shouldn't have a problem. I removed the drive faces and I think that's what caused my issues. I found the Krylon Fusion at WalMart, but they didn't have the full color selection that Krylon makes the paint in.
  • edited November 2003
    If you open the drive tray and lift on the lip it'll come off then you can just carefully remove the face from the drive...it makes life much easier and you can remove the light lenses by scraping the melted plastic off the pegs holding them down then after the face or bezel is painted a dot of plastic model cement will hold the lenses on quite nicely.
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    removing the drive tray lip and face plate are pretty easy to do. if you forget to open the drive tray before disconnecting the power just use a paperclip in the small hole to open the drive tray.
    i usually lay the pieces on newspaper. clean em, spray even side to side. start spraying before the piece and end spraying beyond the piece so u get even coats. remember a couple of thin coats works much nicer than a thick blochy coat that will probably run.
    sanding is an option, if ur going for a more professional look. spray, wet sand, spray, wet sand, clear coat if u want voodooPC style ;)
    one other thing if the faceplate has a clear lens for the LED, make sure u put a small piece of masking tape over it. or when u re-assemble u might be wondering were ur cdrom led went....

    fc
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    make sure u use primer....make sure u give it a ****ty first coat...very light....almost non existant...just spray it voer the first time...let it set for a day...then the second coat...make it more complete...set for a day...then the third should be the last and final coat...and make it set for a day...also do this sumwhere where dust doesnt fly about conatantly
  • WuGgaRoOWuGgaRoO Not in the shower Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    updates?
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited November 2003
    I've painted a drive bezel before. All I did was take the face plate off and prime it and then paint it. Then I reattached it to the drive. No way to mess up the drive because the drive was in the house and the bezel was outside. :)
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