One of the best custom paint jobs on a CF-28 ever!

This isn't my auction but I found it while I was looking for something else.

Suffice it to say, the pictures have inspired me.





What do you think?

 

looks a bit tacky imho...

and the gloss black fails.

 

WOW! Just a bit garish for my taste. Why did he have to use red? I didn't know pimps used Toughbooks, GPS tracking of the girls maybe?

 

The problems with that flashy paint scheme is that it can scratch up easy
And I think it’s a bit excess and will become hard on your eyes after a short period of time
If you spend extra money on buying a custom painted Toughbook ,or if you spend your time on customizing your Toughbook with custom paint make sure you can live with it for years after
The Notebook Cosmetic Modifications and Custom Builds section on NBR are filled with ideas on how to paint
Most of us here are far more conservative in our ideas
Rather than paint and decals, we like to add hardware options to Toughbooks
I do like Silver Trooper's work on this post though

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5294705&postcount=35


Alex

 

make 'em smarter rather than prettier? haha

 

Well... You know what I think about painting Toughbooks.... But that is so gross.... Looks like a 12 year old painted it... But with the professionalism of at least a 14 year old.

Yuck

I just looked it up... The guy has a 93% feedback and is claiming it as a "Movie Prop"....

Yeah.... How about "Welcome To My Nightmare!"

 

Oh Rick....you have such a way with words......Love it!

 

I think that if the PeaceKeepers from Farscape used a laptop instead of a pulse pistol; this would be the one...

mnem
Don't move! Or I'll fill you full of... little yellow bolts of light!

 

I like the decals on the palmrest. I've seen a similar thing done with something a bit more grippy though but I can't think where. I suppose any old sticky backed plastic gripper cut to size would do though.

 

I think it looks good. For me though I like the basic look.

 

​

Couldn't resist!

 

haha nice.

the red is so bright

i agree about the texture below the k/b, except if its only for show. if it actual performs a function then its good, otherwise get rid of it

 

[/url][/IMG]Hi
I know the cf-48 isn't all that ''tough'' but it is a great laptop for the money, just a little plain, so I tried to spruce it up a bit,

 

Heh -

Don't put that thing down in the yard! You'll never find it until you hit it with the lawnmower!

mnem
Gimme fuel, gimme fire...

 

LMAO, But serioulsy I have to agree with Rick on this one, The Toughbook comes with a great paint job that can't be duplicated with rattle cans. The best thing that I have found to repair paint chips on the toughbook is a metallic silver sharpie paint pen. The repair is almost invisible and you can't beat the price.

 

I've been experimenting lately with Testor's paint for small paint chips. Trying to fill a long scratch would make it look even worse so if they are that bad they get thrown on the parts heap. Thankfully I've had very few really banged up 29s.

Testor's Aluminum and Testor's Steel are the closest matches. I just starting trying to find the right combination and will only try it on spots the size of a match head or less.

As far as covering any missing black areas (IE, where it has spent its whole life rattling around in a Gamber-Johnson dock) the black Sharpie is the obvious first choice but, 1. it wears right off and 2. it has a purple cast to it and doesn't really match.

Don't get me wrong... I have painted a few Toughbooks in my time per customer specs. I even pulled the panny logo off the lid and had it replaced with the customer's company logo. That was a surprise and he flipped when he saw it. I took those to my local custom auto body shop and had them sprayed and baked after first removing all the rubber/plastic.

I just think the garish, loud colors look more pimpish than cool... And you KNOW that the mass production type sellers on ebay do not prepare their base properly. If they did... They'd be asking 3X what they are asking now.

Keeper... That is actually one of the best camo sprays I have seen... And I've seen quite a few. You can tell you took your time. You either were a masking fool or disassembled the whole thing. Good job! If you're going to paint a Toughbook anyway... Camo would be the only acceptable spray pattern in my view as it seems to jive with one of its intended markets. Anything else is kind of like a soldier going into battle carrying a BB gun while wearing high heels and drinking a "spritzer"... Something just doesn't seem right about it. But to each, his own!

 

Yes, agree it looks good Keeper


Alex

 

hi everyone;
thank you for comments, thought I would share new discovery, painting these laptops has only one critical drawback (well as far as my limited exp. can tell) that is it scratches way to easy, the only way to insure a durable finish is to use hardener in the paint, well when you have 5 kids ect... you can't afford duracoat gun paint or hardener from automotive paint store (90.00 in my neck of the woods), so I researched the composition of the hardener (I love the INTERNET) and found the main ingredient is cynoacrylate
so i bought a tube of super glue and dissolved 2 drops in about 4 oz. of acetone and mixed about 8 drops of that with my camo paint in my air brush
bottle and shot a cf-28 base..... well it dried to the touch in about 10 min. and in a 1/2 hour you could sand it with dry wet/dry 800 and it didn't ball up or clog the paper. this is the first test so the possibilities are endless, oh and
one other thing you have to use your glue/acetone mixture right away it gets foggy after about 10 minutes
P.S. DON'T BREATH FUMES CYNOACRYLATE CAN CAUSE PERMANENT LUNG DAMAGE.

 

Interesting.... Please keep us posted. This has great applications other than Toughbooks!

 

Keeper -

In my experience, epoxy resin finishes can be much more economically obtained from West Marine; there are several varieties that can be shot with VERY good results from a standard Detail Spray Gun available from Harbor Freight for $10. (I have USED this combination to touch-up collision damage many times when I worked at a boat garage in Crystal River, FL)

Just a suggestion for future experiments...

Keep up the good work,

mnem
Pssst...Pssst...

 

Just another thought, check the Brownell's catalog, they have epoxy based finishes that are used to custom finish firearms that have aluminum alloy parts

 

Was that CF-29 used to run the light show at a disco club ??

The only parts I don't like are the appliques, the colors, and the overall look - the computer underneath is nice, though...

Now, that camo CF-48 is more my style...

 

Dear god, that hurts my eyes. That poor TB will never be the same. The camo is awseome. It is so easy to tell when someone spends there time on something.

Here is a good idea if you have the time and are willing to put in the extra effort. Take the parts to a good auto body paint shop. You will need to find a color. The painter, if he is good, will know exactly what type of paint, and such to put in the paint. Then have them bake it just like they do with cars once they have been painted. Your options are endless. You can do a more dull color, the have him apply a low sheen of clear on it. If you were to ever scratch it you can then buff it out just like your car. Always tell the painter you want a jar of the paint he used for touchups.

Rick, what's up with that comment about Gamber/Johnson? Mine sits in there tight as a drum. It does not have any move to it all all. I am not sure about the older docks though. Gamber makes some incredible stuff, I like how they over build everything just like the Tb's are. Browse thru there site sometime, they have ALOT of stuff on there that is very useful.

 

The paint KLonsdale refered to in Brownells is a good choice. It is Alumahyde II (sp) and hold up very well to rough treatment for the cost. It is around $10.00 a can. I'm goint to paint the silver on my CF-29 coyote brown soon. The TB stand out a little too much. I'll throw up some pics for Ricks viewing pleasure....lol

 

I may try and powdercoat one of my junk CF-28's and see how it comes out

 

I have powder coated several with great results, the only problem though is you have to be real careful and know what you are doing, as stated on here before the magnesium cases are explosive and also create out gassing that can ruin the finish product....

 

Well... they aren't explosive in the strictest sense of the word... Now if you grind it into shaving and set a spark to it.... 3k degrees burning white hot... I've done it with the frnding on some of mine.... Heck... If I could find one of those long flints.... I'd saw up all the CF-28 carcasses I have into strips and glue the flints onto them to make fir starters....

 

Better yet, get a pile of mag shavings burning and then toss water on the fire! (Please stand back and wear goggles when you do!!!) Oh how we love things that go BOOM!

 

I think it's effin gorgeous!! just supurb looking!! To bad it's a CF-28 and not a CF-30...

 

Uh Rob, just which one are you looking at? Did you miss your meds again?

 

The original magnesium with the relief texture on the cover is what made me take notice of the toughbook to begin with. It would be very hard to improve on it in my humble opinion. It looks as tough as it is

 

I only wanna redo my black one because its dulled worse in some spots then others. I only have one all black CF-28 and shes my baby. Best part is they dont reflect/shine/glare etc at night for people to see

 

Speaking of all black CF-28's, was the MKI the only one that came in black or did either the MKII or MKIII? For you grand masters of the Toughbook world, what was the story behind the black CF-28's? Anything special, other than just being black? I have always been curious about the black ones, but never really heard the facts behind them.

 

I have several normal 28's, and there are some subtle things i have noticed. For example the other three have an empty mini-pci port under the hard drive, where my black one has two ports and both are in use for two conextant cards...i assume audio since they do audio but havent checked it out.

On the back the black one did not have the passthrough antenna hookup, but i was able to remove the plug and add it. It also had a plug where an antenna would go and no "front panel" next to the handle. I acknoledge all of these could be present and probably were not in the ordered configuration.

I know there is more but i cant think of it right off. I can tell you beyond a doubt that mine is a MKII and the black pant is factory. So at least one (lol) MKII was available in black. They should all be black.

 

Mmmmhmmm... nothing in the world like encasing a 38W CPU in a fanless solar oven, then sending it off to the Middle East with our soldiers counting on it every day...

mnem
Of course it would still be useful; just think of it as a very expensive frypan. :wink:

 

Let the troops have their silver, us SF guys will take the black

 

What, and give up the wrist computer?

mnem
*TapTap* Why is my CALENDAR counting down...?

 

You mean this one?

 

Naaahhh... I was thinking more of THIS ONE...

What use is a wrist PC without good old plasma-hydrogen power plant? And don't forget the tri-laser guidance system...

mnem
Can you say "BOOM" boys and girls?

 

Man, how I loved that movie! Jessie Ventura with a minigun, bodies ripped to shreds and a nuke going off at the end! It just doesn't get any better than that!

 

Yeah...

Some of AHNOLD's best work there; though I have to admit I kindof liked Danny Glover's "everyman" approach in the sequel. I think it really was a better movie all around; better character development, more involving plot, and it took a cue from Aliens for that "gritty edge" that helped redefine the action adventure flick from then on. Plus, I'll take any chance I can to see Gary Busey get smeared; he's one of the guys you love to hate...

mnem
"If it bleeds, we can kill it."

 

Hey Alex, I am working on a CF-M34 that I think you will like. Probably won't be done until after Thanksgiving as I will be out of town all next week. Stay tuned....

 

Alex, almost done! Since you liked the CF-28, I think this one will be just as good, if not better!

 

Goody Goody



Alex

 

OK Alex, are you ready? Hope I do not disappoint....

 

I'm Ready lol


Alex

 

Can I go to sleep now? I have been upwaiting for you to show us the pic! SHOW IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I went a bit smaller this time, and I limited the amount of black. I think it came out a bit more polished this time. Hope you like!

 

Nice work
Looks better than the dark standard finish


Alex