Painting Tips

~This was originally penned by John in August of ’04, and was posted to the MacMod website as a general aid for those wanting to paint macs. Read on, and enjoy!~

Detailed herein are observations and opinions on the painting of Mac’s. This covers sprayers, airbrushes, compressors, masking, priming, painting, clear-coating, aerosols, enamel paints, water based paints, and safety.

Okay, so you want to paint computers. That’s easy enough. But you want to do a good job, you want it to look professional, and you want to be proud of it. That makes it a little more complex, but not impossible. What I’ve tried to do here is outline all of the basics that I’ve learned from trial and error, in hopes that others wont make my mistakes, and messes. Lets get to it!

Tools

As an artist/craftsman/painter, you’re only as good as your tools. If you buy and use crap, that’s what you’ll make. So, be smart about what you use, and you’ll go far.

Respirators

First and most importantly, you will need to breathe when working. What you wont need to do is breathe dust, metal particles, paint fumes, sanded Bondo, and all of the other stuff you’ll generate while working. The best way to keep your lungs and nasal passages clean is with a good respirator. Now, when I say respirator, I don’t mean those little paper/foam cups that go over your mouth and nose. Those things wouldn’t filter coffee. What you want to do is head out and buy a good quality OSHA/NIOSH certified respirator. These will usually run you about $20-$30. They’ll look like a small-scale gas mask, and have interchangeable filters. A good mask will filter out about 99% of everything, leaving you to breathe easily and cleanly.

I can’t stress the mask paragraph enough. It is essential. If you want to learn from experience, spray for an hour in your garage with spray paint and no mask, get high from the fumes, and then go blow your nose. You’ll be amazed that your boogers are now the color of the paint you sprayed. Once you’ve been there, you’ll be a happy, respirator wearing fool. So, buy one! Don’t cheat, just do it. You’ll thank me!

Sanding

Before, during, and after you paint/work on a surface, you’ll need to sand it. Sanding is essential for removing “hills and valleys” in your surface, removing an orange peel effect from painting, and for getting things to a point where they’re clean enough to prime and seal. So, don’t think you can skip out on the sanding.

There are many electric and air powered sanders out there, and they do a lot of good things. But there’s the potential to wear your surface too much or to burn through your paint. So, consider sanding by hand. For prep work, usually 500-750 grit is good. It’ll get your surface clean and smooth. Once you’ve primed/sealed your surface, give it a light sanding again, so you have a smooth surface to paint. Otherwise, your paint wont look super awesome.

After paint is applied, if you’re working with enamels, you may choose to wet sand. This smoothes your surface and cleans it at the same time. You can use a 1000-2000 grit here, depending on how your paint surface is, and how smooth it is.

Always remember, when sanding, take your time. Don’t rush through it, don’t press too hard, and be patient. It’s always better to remove too little paint, than too much.

Also in line with sanding, you may want a good rubbing compound. A rubbing compound is basically designed to polish out the swirl marks from very fine sandpaper, and other associated swirls and stains on the top surface you’ve got/created. So, just like it takes out the swirls and water spots on your car’s finish, once you sand your creation down with 2000 grit sandpaper in order to get that super smooth, just like glass finish, you have to make it shiny. This is where rubbing compound comes in.

Its a simple matter of taking a clean cloth thats moist, a pea sized drop of rubbing compound, and some circular rubbing action. I tend to work in circles, out from the center. As you work, you’ll notice that your surface goes from being dull from the sanding, to being shiny, from the polishing. Of course, be aware that the more you polish your surface, the more you wear down that top coat. If you start to see color on your polishing cloth, its time to let off. You may need to re-clear that section, as you may have polished through the clear-coat. So, bear in mind that while you need to put some “elbow grease” into this, just like sanding, too much pressure, can give you too much of a result.

Masking

When you paint your surface, you may have places you don’t want the paint to go. This is easily remedied with masking tape. There are many types of masking tape out there, so the trick is to try and find one that you like, that covers your surface. The important thing to remember is that masking doesn’t have to look pretty, as long as it does a good job.

Should you decide that you want to work in a two tone fashion, paint flames, or do something a little more creative, you will want to step up to artists masking film, otherwise known as frisket film. Airbrush frisket comes in sheets and rolls and is a pliable plastic with an adhesive backing. It typically comes in either a gloss or a matte finish. The beauty of it is that you can apply it to your surface, draw on it, cut out bits, and then spray over it. Its perfect for flames, and other such masking needs.

Painting

If you plan to use aerosols, you can skip to the next section. If you plan to use something else, read here.

Airbrushes/Sprayers

When you watch the custom bike and car shows on TV, you’ll notice real quick that those guys are not using aerosol paints. They have large vacuum spray booths, heavy gauge compressors, and a myriad of spray guns. When painting computers, you don’t necessarily need all the stuff the pro’s have, but emulation if a form of flattery. So, consider what the bad boys use and ponder that as a starting point

If you plan to shoot one-color jobs, you need a general-purpose sprayer. You’ll also need a general-purpose compressor. Head to your hardware store and be prepared to spend about a hundred on the compressor, and about 60 on the spray gun. When buying your gun, look at the different types. Look for a gravity fed gun (the cup is on top), and check to see what you can adjust on the gun. A good gun will let you adjust airflow, paint spray pattern, and paint flow. Figure that the more you can tweak what’s coming out of the gun, the better you can apply your paint. What you want is a decently atomized mist coming out of the gun at a decent pressure. You don’t want it to spatter or blob, so being able to tune your spray is important. When in the store, look at what’s on sale, look at what’s expensive, and find a decent middle ground. Warning, do NOT skimp. If you buy a cheap gun, you’ll regret it. However, if you buy a really expensive gun, you may be wasting money you don’t have to. Head middle of the road and you’ll do fine.

Airbrushes are somewhat similar. But much more precise. Unlike the larger sprayers, airbrushes are designed to shoot much smaller amounts of paint in order to complete lettering, pin striping, detail work, and some smaller masking work that a larger gun isn’t suited for. In this arena, you get what you pay for. There are a lot of different airbrushes out there, and they all work a little differently. Personally, I’ve found that Iwata makes the best. They’re not expensive to get started with, and they do insanely detailed. Go Iwata and you can’t go wrong.

Paint

Aerosols

Aerosol paint is cheap, readily available, and does a pretty good job for the most part. However, not all spray paints are created equal. The red sold at the hardware store is a much different red than the one sold at the auto parts store. Both are paint, but both are designed for different purposes. Automotive aerosols are designed to give that automotive finish when clear-coated, and to harden differently, since they’re going to be exposed to the elements. They also have a better drying time. Skip the household paints, and go straight to the auto parts store and save yourself a ton of time. You’ll be happier.

When working with automotive aerosols, you will need to prime your surface. Auto grade sandable primer comes in cans in various colors. If you apply this to your sanded surface first, you’ll do a lot better job. So, whatever you do, don’t skip the primer step.

Enamels

For years, the majority of the automotive world has worked in Enamels and Urethanes. These are heavy, hardcore paints. They require mixing, reducing, and usually have an entire process to working with them. They also require mineral spirits to clean up. If you have the facilities to work with the enamels, run with the stuff from House of Kolor. Their stuff is the best.

Non-Enamel Pants

The auto industry is slowly moving towards non-enamel paints. Water based appears to be the way things are headed. Water based paints have a much lower VOC (volatile organic compound) level, clean up with water, don’t produce fumes (they still produce dust, you still need that respirator) and they heat cure. This is what makes them best if you work in a small space. (Like your wife/mom’s garage)

Water based paints come in a myriad of colors, and are usually ready to spray out of the bottle. All you really need to do is to prep your surface, load up your gun, spray your color, heat cure the sprayed surface and then layer on another coat. So, unlike most enamels which need a 15 minute flash, you can coat and cure a water based paint, and go straight to the next coat. Once you’re done, you can cure it, and then clear it. This can really speed up the process, and keep the mess down.

Of all the paints I’ve played with, I consider the Auto Air paints from Createx to be the best. They offer pearls, flakes, sparkles, tints, transparents, and true candy colors, all with a minimal learning curve. The paints are also available at most art supply stores. If you want to get a compressor and a gun, and shoot some truly wonderous colors, the Auto Air colors are the best.

Clear Coat

Typically, true automotive clear coat comes in a tub, you mix it with other binders and such, spray it, and then bake it. In your garage, this isn’t easy. So, you pretty much have to go aerosol. Head to your local auto parts store and look for the Plasti-Kote stuff from Valspar. They make an acrylic enamel with the name “Crystal Clear” that’s a gorgeous clear coat. It will however, scratch like anything else, if you aren’t careful. Valspar also makes an acrylic lacquer. This will form a harder dried surface. But be aware, it doesn’t stick to everything, so read the instructions.

Everything I’ve detailed above has come from trial and error in my years painting Macs. I don’t pretend to know it all, but I’ve been around this block a couple times, and have made my share of mistakes and messes. Please learn from mine and do a good job the first time. If you rush yourself, use cheap materials or do a cheap job, you will get poor results. Remember that the computer you are painting is a thousand dollar machine. Likewise, it may be someone else’s. They would want it back in at least as good condition or better. So, don’t tackle a project that is beyond your skill level, and do a good job at what you do decide to tackle. You’ll be much happier with the results.