Want to paint me e1705

I want to paint my e1705. Im about to go off to college in a month and half (ok, not half, but a very large portion) the student there will have Dell Inspirons and I want mine to stand out. ALso, if god forbid it gets stolen , it'll be a hell of a lot easier to identify.

1. If I paint my case does this void my warranty?

2. If I get a spare e1705 case and paint it, have to ship my Dell for whatever reason, change back to the original unpainted, would that void my warranty?

3. Is there a good guide on painting these things? I want ti to look professional and I dont want there to be dust bumps under the paint or weird paint patterns and I dont want the paint toclog up in the speaker holes or the little fans things next to the keyboard.

 

1. I think it depends on what you paint. If your just painting the screen lid, it may or may not void your warranty. But if you paint it in a way where you actually have to remove specific parts to paint it, this will most definitely void your warranty.

2. That’s a lot of trouble, and not sure how easy it would be to get a spare case, but I guess if there was no evidence that you did open up the computer (No broken warranty stickers, different types of screws etc.) then you should be fine.

3. Other people on this forum have painted their notebooks, I'd look around and ask questions.

If you want to customize your notebook why not get a Schticker for your notebook lid - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=59837

Any custom work done (besides Schtickers) your taking a risk with the warranty. So just be careful!

 

1. Yes in most cases it will void your warranty
2. I'm sure they wouldnt notice
3. If you want it nicely done its best to sent it to a pro which can cost a few hundred. Sounds like you've nvr done this before, so if you really want to paint it yourself, read the threads in this section and try practicing on something that you dont really need.

 

well in all honesty the only thing computer-wise I've ever painted was the faceplate of a custom made iPod 3.5 bay drive... thingy that I made. It doesnt look AMAZING, but it's not bad. I used to have a website that displayed it... but that seems to have disappeared as the host is gone...

[EDIT] http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1478277

 

I'd practice a bit first on something else that is kind of the same type of plastic. Quite a few people have used car paint. Not sure what type... but just look around in the forums.

 

yea... ill look into finding similar plastic things to test out.

 

If it does get stolen, I wonder if there are laptop chop shops...lol

 

in the regular world, im sure there are. But i dont think a college student is goin to know what to do with a 17inch painted laptop. I would imgaine iBooks and Mac Book Pros would be the most likely to be stolen cause they're so light.

 

You really think a laptop theive is going to care about weight? They will steal what ever they get their hands on.

 

i know, i was just jokin. besides, whats harder to conceal a 12" macbook or a 17" dell?

 

um...A 17" Dell most likely...

 

Exactly, which is why I want to paint mine. (sorry, just felt like I had to kind of bring the thread back to the topic)

 

get a lock for your laptop

 

theres a program which runs in the backround, and if you report the notebook stolen, the notebook will automatically send an email to you where it is. Called---LoJack or something like that

 

There have been a few threads devoted to this topic. I painted my Inspiron 6000 which is the same notebook, but a little smaller. Here is the link for that.


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=55096

By the way, I used Krylon Fusion. It is a paint formulated specifically for plastics. You can find it at Walmart for a couple of bucks. The most important part it to keep your environment very sterile when painting, and to take your time and do multiple coats. It is not that hard. You can also get paint that is textured. It basically feels like a very very light grit sandpaper. It is also excellent and concealing any flaws that may be in the paint. That is what I used. Hope that helps a bit.

Let me know other questions you might have. Good luck!

 

your warranty will go to hell!

 

yea... i think i'll wait til next summer after my warranty is gone and do that

 

try this http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=54808 i think im going to do it

 

Actually, some one else called dell (the thread is somewhere) and they said that as long as you dont damage it from the paint or open it up, the warranty is still fine. so you can spray the lid. i'm thinking of doing this myself.

 

That's right. I think that was me in the other thread.

I'm broke now, so no painting for me, but still sounds like a cool idea.

 

Want to be really careful if you try doing anything other then the lid without taking it apart, maskin is pretty easy, but getting strait lines can be time consuming and very frustrating(I know, I do that stuff all day long at work )

 

Well to do it "right", you need to pull the whole thing apart. This is because you will have to do lots of wetsanding among other things.

I suppose you could paint it without taking anything apart... but it will look much cheaper. If you do it this way, be sure to mask EVERYTHING off that you are not painting. The last thing you want is paint in your ports, etc. because you didn't want to take it apart.

 

i found a cool krylon rattle can that makes the surface like a chalkboard. i'm considering getting a quicksnap cover and doing that...

 

Huh? You mean you want to be able to write on your notebook with chalk? I have never heard of such a paint that you can use chalk on...

I used Krylon Fusion on my Uniwill in my sig.

 

yup a chalkboard with chalk. either way i'll probably buy a can of it to check it out chalkboard paint

 

Wow. Redefinition of the meaning of tablet PC. Wonder how well it adheres to plastic... Haha!

 

lol i dunno but it'd be cool to have it just for fun. i'll tell you how it goes.

 

Won't argue with you there!

**Are you drawing on your laptop.... with... CHALK???!!!!!!**

Haha.

To the OP: Paint your Dell with this stuff, take pictures, and contact dell. I bet they'd love it for their back to school computers. Haha!

 

haha I don't know how cool that would look though :/ but definitely sounds entertaining

 

The laptop would look incredibly ugly. But you'd look real cool taking notes on the back of your laptop screen during class.

If I were to paint a laptop with that stuff, I'd find something cheap on eBay for a few hundred dollars and paint it just for show.

I've got a new paint job in the works for the Uniwill in my sig. When I painted it blue, the cheap clear coat my dad picked up at Home Depot ruined my blue color coat. I'm going to get some Krylon clear at some point and redo the paint job. Might do it in black this time. Not sure.

 

if i did it, it'd be on a quicksnap cover for sure. maybe i'll do it if i have time before i take off for school. first i need to sand a new saddle for my guitar. hope the new paint job works out. btw, wal mart usually has cheaper prices on the rattle can paints.

 

Go to the local paint supplier and ask them in they have Bull Dog Adhesive, its supposed to make it so the paints will stick to pretty much anything, I'd sugest testing it on another piece of plastic of the same type.

 

Never heard of it. HOWEVER: I do know of some stuff called krylon fusion. This stuff sticks incredibly well to plastic. No priming, sanding, or anything. I used it when I painted my Uniwill laptop. Must say it works amazingly well.

 

This is true. I also used it to paint my lappy. Excellent, simple to use paint.

 

This stuff isn't a paint, its like a primer, you put it on first, and it will make the paint stick to the plastic, metal, wood, or pretty much anything else you are trying to paint. I use it when I am painting houses for various situations.

 

No it really is paint. Here is the link.

http://www.krylon.com/main/product_...lid=10&productid=1751&content=product_details

It says no primer required. If it were a primer, and priming was required, how would you prime a primer? You can't, because it is a paint!

 

Krylon fusion is paint. Haven't you ever seen the Krylon commercials on TV?

"NEW FROM KRYLON- A REVOLUTIONARY NEW PAINT SO ADVANCED THAT IT ACTUALLY BINDS TO PLASTIC AT A MOLECULAR LEVEL! TRY OUR NEW KRYLON FUSION!"

I think I would know; I used the stuff to paint my laptop. Regardless, how many primers do you know that you can get in all the colors of the rainbow? I can take a picture of all my empty rattle cans from when I painted the Uniwill in my sig. It says paint all over it. Not a primer.

If you want to paint a plastic laptop, Krylon Fusion is definately the best way to go. Once it has hardened for a week, it is nigh impossible to scratch or chip, even around the edges. I took a razor blade to the edge of my test piece and I couldn't get the paint to chip. I gouged the plastic before the paint came off.

 

syndrome was still talking about bull dog or something rattle can primer

 

No, he was clearly talking about krylon fusion. His response was to what lmark84l said. Lmark84l was commenting on my use of Krylon Fusion to paint my laptop.

Syndrome said that the stuff Lmark84L was reffering to was primer, not paint. Therefore, Syndrome effectively said that Krylon Fusion is primer, not a paint. Which it clearly is not. Just look on Krylon's website. In the first sentence, it says that it is paint and that primer is not necessary.

 

it starts at post #32, clearly he understands that fusion is a paint which is why he says "it" referring to bull dog, isn't a paint.

 

He never said he understood fusion was a paint. By the way the post tree works, he is responding to krylon, calling it a primer.

But I do see where syndrome could have made a mistake. I think he though lmark84l was talking about bull dog, when in fact he was talking about he used krylon fusion to paint his laptop like I did.

Enough arguing, let's wait for syndrome.

 

Well as long as everyone is on the same page it is all good!

 

while we wait for syndrome, anyone have experience with Krylon fusion on metal? or would i be better off using bull dog or some other primer first I have an external hd that i want to paint the top of.

 

Never used it on anything but plastic. I remember when I was looking at paintjob articles, almost everyone that painted their metal desktop cases used some sort of primer before painting it.

I would suggest using a good primer designed to be used on metal.

 

that's what i figured, well i'm off to wal mart to get some primer, a can of gloss black, and a can of triple thick krylon clear coat

 

Yes I know that Krylon is a paint, sorry if you misunderstood me I was tired when I wrote that, because I had been painting(Yeah, with real paint ) for about 10 hours that day. Even if Krylon doesn't require a primer, I would test it with a primer an a simmilar type of plastic before I went ahead with painting my laptop. You should be able to figure out what type of plastic is is by reading the abriviations on the plastic; probably on the under side of the palm rest or something like that. And if its not there then I'd probably say its a polypropylene or something of that sort(which is a very common plastic).

 

Know worried, just making sure everyone knows that a primer is not required. I would also reccomend trying it on some similar plastic. I have painted the white trim on my lappy with no problems, but it is always good to test. I didn't test with a primer though because it isn't needed. All you need to do is spray on multiple light coats and you will be fine. Yes, real paint will get to your head, that is for sure. Ha ha! Reminds me of one time when I was using acetone to clean up some paint and got a big noseful of it. I could feel it coming out of my lungs for days. Bad news...lol....

 

Partially agree with you there.

Yes, YOU SHOULD DO A TEST JOB ON A TEST PIECE FIRST.

But no, I would not recommend using a primer under krylon fusion. Any other type of paint, I would, but not krylon fusion. Reason being, krylon fusion is designed to bind at a molecular level to PLASTIC, and not to primer. I'm sure it will work with primer, but you will get a much more durable paint job if you do not use primer. I would, however, recommend that you sand off any paint already on the plastic, but it is not necessary.

I sanded parts of my laptop down to the bare plastic, and other parts not really at all. There really isn't a noticeable difference. But I feel that the paint adhered better to the bare plastic than to the stock paint.