Painting Advice? <how to?>

i know this is a notebook forum, but i plan on doing the same thing to my Compaq Presario V3000 anyways
so here i have a PS3 Sixaxis controller and i want it to be pearl white.
so as you can see from the pictures below, i have completely taken it apart and sanded it down.








feel free to add steps below but to my knowledge this is what i have to do...
1. sand it down (done)
2. primer
3. 1st coat
4. 2nd coat
5. lacquer coat

is that it? or am i missing something?
also for my laptop LID, how would i cover the logo indentation?

 

heres an update







and heres my notebook lid and display bezel

 

Nice, I like it!

 

now that i see the whole picture i think im going to redo the controller. anyways i messed up. the white was not what i was expecting. its more of a vanilla color than a pearl white.. im going to re-do it in blue, dark blue.

 

are you going to wet sand it and use a clear coat on it?

 

not bad but the lid looks to have some spotting of light and dark areas.. needs to be more even imo on plastics i recc a product called poly fill before applying the paint. i prep and paint plastics all the time as i am a custom car audio installer. i mold dash pieces everyday in cars and have to paint or dye them let me know if you have any questions. also make sure to not use to heavy of a grit paper it looks like you used a pretty heavy paper in the controller pics.

 

this is a piece i just finished in a mustang dash i molded his xm radio bezel to the factory dash and remotely mounted the circuit boards for it.. this is before paint i will paint it most likely tomm.. this is after the sanding and polyfill applied it make a perfect surface and the poly fill sands down super fast and easy:

 

that is def not a bad job. looks like the white had a bit of pearl effect to it which may be what made the off white look to it.. also i recc a prep sol when working with plastics to aid in the bonding of paints to them

 

Yeah, it kinda makes me want to run out and buy a gallon of vanilla ice cream!

 

oh yeah, forgot to tell you that was the first layer. i already put a clear coat over it. (done now) but how long should i let it sit? because its night time now and its cold outside.(which is where it is)

 

i think this will be the color of my 5791 soon.. :

 

i bought plastic primer spray paint so wouldnt that bond the paint?

 

when did you put the clear on and what type did you use. if its cold outside def get the pieces inside. you can turn the oven on a very low temp if possible and just jack the door open a bit and rest them there if needed that will help accelerate the drying. but yeah what kind of paint is it. and how thick did you apply it??

 

well they do work better than normal spray paint on plastics. but i ALWAYS use a promotion product... a plastic primer has added stuff to help aid in it being able to stick to plastics. but always make sure to either use a laquer thinner lightly to get all the oil and or grease off or use prep sol which is what i recc. you should be okay as long as you didnt apply it to thick without proper drying time between coats

 

hold up ill take a pic of the stuff in a second

 

yeah we have a self made "oven" lol for when its cold outside. we always leave the parts in there usually overnight if its damp or cold.. we use a simple plastic storage container setup (very large one) with a hole in the bottom for a spot/heat lamp. not perfect but for those days it def works much better

 

That bike is sweet, and I love the color. Looks like you've got some mad skillz with with plastic work as well, I'd love to see your new notebook done in that color.

 

lol i love my bikes.. yeah im still deciding on color my friend is going to shoot it for me at his body shop with auto paint.. his work is basically flawless..i do all kind of fiberglass, abs etc work all the time.. i can mold pretty much anything to anything... lol... ive worked on rockford vehicles, oz audio ones etc..

 

interesting. but usually how many coats should i do?
because im going to re-do my PS3 controller (RIGHT)
how many coats of primer
how many coats of paint
how many coats of clear sealer (Lacquer)
how long should i leave it before touching it?
and how long should i wait in between coats?

 

only apply enough primer to fill the scratch marks from sanding then sand down the primer with no more than about 600-800 do not overdo the primer it can gum up if not allowed to cure enough...you should have a even light coat not a thick coat. primer and poly fil are different animals poly fill is meant for filling high and low spots primer is made for filling very light marks or scratches not deep ones.

when painting start shooting off the side of the piece you are painting. never start or stop while over the piece this can cause spotting and or rougher areas.

apply usually around 3 light coats. never spray it on thick enough to cover the primer the first coat. just dust over it enough to get the color all over the primer it does not matter at this point if you can see some primer. continue with light coats till the primer is covered. now apply what we call a "wet" coat or one thats a bit heavier but not thick. this is just to make sure it has a gloss to it. it you are using clear the "wet" coat does not have to be very thick.

the clear top coat again depends on the piece. usually 2 coats sometimes three. never try to cover it thick on the first coat.

how long you let it sit will depend on a lot of things. how thick the paint is. temperature, humidity etc. i say to let it sit as long as possible overnight if you can, with a bit of heat applied if its really cold or get it inside where its warm..

i know im not being exact with any of this but paint is not exact.. how long between coats depends on how thick you have applied the previous one. most paints will tell to wait at least say 10min or 30min etc but not more than x amount of minutes.. the reason they say this is because if you wait to long the next coat will usually shrink or crack on you. not good

 

the lid looks pretty good man. if you really want high gloss.. you can always apply an extra coat of clear over what you normally would and wet sand it down later. sand with 1000 then 1500 then 2000 then buff to a shine this gets rid of that orange peel look or skin as some call it.. and will make it look like glass. you have to be careful here though as sanding and buffing can burn through clear very fast.the only thing i would have done is used different paints. i would have used specific plastic paint or dye's

 

also rather than using sand paper on plastics you can use a regular scotch bright pad the green ones.. with no soap added to them that works great ..

 

ic, but for the controller i messed up on, could i just put primer over the white paint? or should i sand the whole thing down again?

 

use a bit of thinner and get off what you can with that then sand down the rest the hard part will be getting into all of the detented arrows and areas like that. you can use a SOFT tooth brush dipped in the thinner for those areas.

be careful with thinner as if you rub to hard it will begin to eat the plastic. i would not paint over the white on there.. but you can try it. just that the paint will become pretty thick and may be a problem later

 

Nice machine and great color! Wish I could ride a sport bike; I can't fold myself into the riding position required.

@OP: nice work. I have a Shoei helmet which is almost the exact same pearl white color. Damn, now I want one the color of zfactor's bike, too. LOL

 

thanks my new zx10r will be in soon lol... we'll see is she is as much of a beast as the 04 was (yeah im keeping both).. the 04 is just wickedly wild on the road. the power band is simply wicked on the 04's.. ive heard the tamed them up a lot but hey its still a 1000.....lol

 

hmm, i have another question, and since your probably fixing up ur Sager also, i was wondering, some of my keys on my keyboard are starting to fade, not the white letters but the black keys are starting to look dull. would it be possible to use the clear lacquer on the keys?

 

you can but it will not hold up very well for very long. the best thing to do is get anew keyboard they are not usually that expensive...

 

interesting. but i have now seemed to put my notebook lid together. and damn, theres just one fatal flaw i over looked. over all the layers of primer, paint, and lacquer, it raised the surface that i was painting by a tiny bit, but that was the problem. i noticed that the area where the hinges are would not close all the way without chipping off the paint. damn, damn damn.

 

well heres an update on my notebook