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RetroPC paint job Failure.

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First post, by Pabloz

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I had the front plastic of a retro PC Case (one of those with turbo buttons, cheap one that yellowed like cheddar cheese)

I was planning on doing a retrobright, but to be honest i did retrobright a lot of other things in the past using liquid hydrogen peroxide and even used some with salon cream 40% , for example:
A ps2 mose
A creative audio drive bay
A keyboard.

And they all yellowed again after 1 year, or year and a half, even if the plastic was kept with zero light with no direct contact with the sun. So retrobright might look good at first, the thing blows after some months. So i wanted to try something else because i was tired of retrobright, its too much work for something that will not last long.

So i bought spray paint. white spraypaint and proceeded to paint the retro PC front plastic.
The result was really bad because the color was so white, white as a t-shirt, or even more white than milk.

I wonder if someone here did a white paint job on plastic for a retro pc , and what color was used that works, because i think the true color is different, more like a mix of white and very light grey color, but you can´t find spraypaint of that particular color.

Reply 1 of 21, by tannerstevo

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I don't know where you live, but here in the U.S. you can take a side panel or some part that is the right color to an auto parts store that sells paints, and they can scan it with a laser and mix a custom color. It may not be cheap, but it is an option.
If you do this, make sure you tell them it is for painting on plastic.

Reply 2 of 21, by MCGA

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I've used Rust-Oleum Satin Fossil and another lighter color -- sorry, I can't recall which one -- and I'm still really happy with the results. When next to my beige speakers, monitors, keyboards, and so on from the eighties and nineties, it's right at home.

I like the Satin Fossil the best, since it's a darker gray-ish/beige, so more inline with the eighties multi-beige PCs. I'm going to paint the front bezel of my 14" CRT with it once I get some free time( I'm not a fan of bland all gray cases ). And as far as a paint, it goes on nicely(evenly with 3 coats), drys really fast, and has held up repeatedly to the weight and movement of my 17" CRT sitting on it.

Reply 3 of 21, by .legaCy

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I had the opposite experience,first i attempted painting plastic, it turned out not so good because of my skill, but after 6 months that thing became disgusting, idk what happened but it became a nasty brownish color.
With everything that i retrobrighted it worked pretty well, i have a microsoft keyboard that is holding on pretty well.

Reply 4 of 21, by wiretap

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As said by tannerstevo, the best option is getting a color matched to something you want. Take in a component to an automotive paint store.. they'll scan the color. My local automotive paint store (in the US) will do spray cans of the color you choose for less than $10 per can. From there, you'll want to lay down a light coat of plastic safe primer so the paint adheres good.. then do a few light coats of the paint, then use something like a satin clear coat. Always test the paint job out first on something you can throw away to see if you like the outcome.

Example of a build I sprayed with Honda Civic Si blue.. yes, I made a Hooli Box from the show Silicon Valley. 😜

ouG2Pggl.jpg

sCGm1B4l.jpg

qXnvR2dl.jpg

My Github
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Reply 5 of 21, by Shagittarius

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It's no signature edition.

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Reply 7 of 21, by gdjacobs

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I haven't watched the latest season, but I'm assuming the signature was the butt of some joking.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 9 of 21, by Almoststew1990

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I tried painting my case. I sandpapered it all off, applied undercoat and then did several coats of paint and still managed to balls it up.

Just bought
ZaU1rgDh.jpg

Cleaned
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Stripped
dirj70Ah.jpg

Undercoat
unHFSWoh.jpg
(pro tip, don't use red automotive undercoat before white paint!)

After
b1g9mWZh.jpg
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bFWL3tkh.jpg
LQC3DBPh.jpg

The inside looks good, the front panel is vert uneven. The paint is wearing down after about a year with noticable scratches and this was with decent paint. It doesn't quite fit together as well as it did before as it is all a couple of mm larger due to the multiple layers of paint! I kept applying more layers to try to get a better finish but it was just the very vibrant undercoat showing through.

Next time I'll use a white undercoat an only do two coats.

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I have a vacancy for a main Windows 98 PC

Reply 14 of 21, by retardware

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I once had a very nice 1970 color TV (even with ultrasonic remote control, which was rare luxury in 1970) that was in perfect technical shape. But its case was scratched and discolored, apparently because of an overly zealous housewife which cleaned it way too often.

I ended up removing the insides (aww... more than 30kgs), painting the whole case in red, reassembling and...
...it was BEAUTIFUL!

Considering to do similar with my 486 case...

Reply 15 of 21, by wiretap

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denforth wrote:
wiretap wrote:
http://i.imgur.com/ouG2Pggl.jpg […]
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ouG2Pggl.jpg

This reminds me so much of the Cobalt RAQs the boss decided to buy almost 20 years ago.

This particular net appliance I used the case from was a Bluecat Adonis 500 I picked up from ebay for like $25. I put my own components in it though -- I think I made it during the first or second season of Silicon Valley.

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Reply 16 of 21, by hwh

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I've never tried to paint a case, though surely the day cometh. One issue I noted is that of textured paint (for instance, a 5150, but cases frequently have some kind of textured finish on them). For this reason, I suspect touching up is less invasive than repainting, but I don't know much about quality painting work.

I never noticed issues with hydrogen peroxide treatment. If anything if you overdo it I would be glad to see a part return its original finish and aged color, but I am sure it all depends on what exactly you treated and how you did it.

Reply 17 of 21, by rkurbatov

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Does anybody know is there any paint on PSU and internal parts of the chassis originally? That matte gray aluminum surface, what color do they use for it?

During case/PSU restorations people usually paint it either with black paint (that looks good but is not original) or with somewhat silvery color that reminds me color of cemetery fence. Any hint on that? I'd liked to restore one or two cases as close to be new as possible.

486: ECS UM486 VLB, 256kb cache, i486 DX2/66, 8MB RAM, Trident TGUI9440AGi VLB 1MB, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, FDD 3.5, ZIP 100 ATA
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Reply 18 of 21, by wiretap

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It is nothing special. Just a flat gray primer/paint all-in-one, with anti-rust properties. The old computer cases usually didn't use aluminum since it was far more expensive than sheet metal.. Unless you had a really high end case of course.

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 19 of 21, by rkurbatov

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wiretap wrote on 2022-01-21, 18:56:

It is nothing special. Just a flat gray primer/paint all-in-one, with anti-rust properties. The old computer cases usually didn't use aluminum since it was far more expensive than sheet metal.. Unless you had a really high end case of course.

@wiretap, could you please provide an example? I don't need an exact match (though most of my PSUs look the same) but every time I look the restoration video they use either too dark shade of gray or something too glossy and too silver. Another problem with searching "paint PSU rust" is plenty of moders trying to turn ordinary case into the rusty/falloutish one while I need exactly opposite 😀 Maybe some known RAL color?

I wonder if somebody here tried to do what I want?

486: ECS UM486 VLB, 256kb cache, i486 DX2/66, 8MB RAM, Trident TGUI9440AGi VLB 1MB, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, FDD 3.5, ZIP 100 ATA
PII: Asus P2B, Pentium II 400MHz, 512MB RAM, Trident 9750 AGP 4MB, Voodoo2 SLI, MonsterSound MX300