After a decent level of success with my first vinyl dye attempt, I am putting together a new mATX system with a specific color scheme in mind. I'm going to be installing the GTAP15's into the Soldam 300 that I recently acquired from a fellow OCN member. Here is the mod log of my Noctua Vinyl Dye project :

First, I heated up the rear of the chassis with a hair dryer to make the adhesive soft and allow the noctua stickers to peel easily. These are a little different than the GT's as there is no actual clip to be removed. It is a tiny magnet that holds the impeller in place with simple magnetism.



Chassis without the blade installed :


Blade taped and ready for dye application :


Since the Noctua's are a much darker color, I figured this project would take significantly more time to apply many layers in order to get the desired look I was after. I took several snaps at different points to show how many passes this took to reach the final product. I was very cautious to not overspray the blades. Here is the first blade after a single application :



Same blade after 3 coats :



Blade after 12 coats :


Side by side original blade vs 12 coat vinyl dye :


Side by side original blade vs 15 coats final product :


Now that the blade is finished, we have to color the very light chassis to a full gloss black. I chose to leave the wires exposed as the external portion was already sleeved. I encased the sleeve with masking tape but left the connector exposed to make it match the chassis. I haven't gotten into modifying fan connectors yet so I figured the vinyl dye would work.

Here is the chassis fully prepped :




After removing the tape, several sections near the center were completely original yet. A little touch up with a standard Sharpie Marker took care of it enough that at any distance it is unnoticeable.





Fully finished product. It appears as though the chassis are slightly different in color. This was due to the lighting in my kitchen. Side by side they are nearly identical in color.



Overall I'd say the Vinyl Dye is a great product for coloring high performance fans. The black is much more difficult to work with as it has a much thicker consistency when being applied. It was extremely difficult getting all of the nooks and corners within the chassis on the outside. There were a couple of mistakes I made in my process that I will inform you of to save anyone else the headaches should they try this themselves.

No matter how hard an area is to reach, do NOT get in closer with the spray can in order to reach a higher level of saturation. It happened everytime, without fail, to develop a pool or drip in a single location that would congeal in a completely exposed area nearby. Since my work area was simply the garage floor, this was less than optimal for ensuring decent coverage at the correct angles. It would have been much easier to work at waist height when dyeing the chassis. Also, I had the blades start to stick to my standoffs when I turned them over to pain the back of the blades. This actually peeled off the coating on the inner ring leaving a terrible pock mark. I dyed the second blade rear first, then front. Never had a problem with the 2nd blade.