How to Paint

Day 2

First we need smooth out the primer filler we sprayed yesterday. Take some 400grit and some water and wet sand everything smooth, don't worry to much about going through the primer as will prime it again later. Main thing is to get it smooth.

Wet sanding in progress

Here you can see how smooth it is.


If your case has a smooth finish this where you will need to start. This is all I will use until final coat of clear.


Now take your scuff pad and thoroughly scratch the surface.

Here you can see the scuffed surface.

Now wipe down with wax and grease remover.

Once it's dry take your tack rag and go over all surfaces. Make sure you wipe lightly so you don't transfer any of the sticky stuff on to the surface.

Just a tack'in

Top of case sanded

Now it's time to spray the non-sanding primer sealer.

Here is the first coat sprayed lightly.

This is the second and final coat. All we want to do is give the paint an even surface.

All done now let dry about 30 min.

Once dry we need to tack everything again.

Ahh finally time for some color. Here I will use black. First coat shown here.

Now for last 2 coats. I laid a double wet coat here by spraying one medium coat followed by another coat sprayed 90 deg. from the other.

Once it has dried 30 min. I'll sprayed a double wet coat of clear.

Here are some shots couple hours later.



Whew looks like a mirror.




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Here is a CM Sniper I painted a few months ago. This is actually the one in the "I need a new case" giveaway contest.

Alright lets get the things we need gathered up.


Here is a plastic part ready to be sanded.


Ok now take the 3M scuff pad and scuff all areas. As you can see I folded pad over to scuff some tight areas in the grill. Make sure you get all areas especially the tight edges.



Once all surfaces to be painted are prepped wipe down with Wax & Grease Remover (WGR).
I usually wipe everything down when finished, then I will wipe parts down again right before paint.


Now to prep the case. Nice thing about the sniper all pieces just snap off case allowing you to just paint everything separate with no masking.
Ready for prep:


As you can see here I opted to leave to drive holders in place so nothing got broken or lost. If you take your time here no one will be the wiser.


Now repeat with scuff pad and wipe everything with WGR. (the 2 side panel shown here are off a HAF932)


Once all parts are ready re-wipe everything with WGR and use your tack rag and lightly wipe ALL areas to be painted. This will remove all traces of dust left on the surface.
On smooth surfaces like shown here I always use a non-sanding primer sealer. The sealers are more of an enamel base and dry a little slower allowing for a smoother finish and offer excellent adhesion. The nice thing is you can go straight to paint. If you do choose to use regular primers like a primer surfacer it HAS to be sanded or scuffed before paint. I see alot of posts on here where members recommend priming and just paint. This is where loss of intercoat adhesion will occur. (ever hear others talking about how easy their paint chips?)
Regular primer surfacers also will not flow out so surface will also be a little rough. Smoother the primer smoother the finish. Skimp on prep here and it will require a ton of work to re-sand and start over. PREP IS EVERYTHING!
You can see here how the non-sanding primer flows out to almost a gloss finish.




Follow can label for dry times and recoat window. What I'm using here is usally ready for paint in around 30 min,but if left over 24 hrs it will require re-sanding and re-spraying. Be sure you allow yourself enough time to complete without a re-sand.
Take your tack rag when dry to the touch and rewipe all surfaces. It's finally ready for paint.
Here I will just use a black basecoat with no clear. It dries very fast and has a nice semi gloss sheen. When spraying make sure its wet enough to allow for good adhesion. If sprayed dry it will have less of a chance to "flow" into the undercoat and could peel or chip easily.
Now sit back and admire your work! Tomorrow you can start the assembly process! (yes walk away and let it dry overnight)





Now for the exterior. If you unfortunate enough to have a Sniper or another case with textured surface it will need to be sanded smooth, unless you like the look you can just scuff and seal. For whatever reason the the Sniper has a texture on the side panels only so I will sand them smooth and prime using a surfacer then re-sand before non-sanding sealer.
Yes I'm lazy so I will use an air sander with 220 grit to smooth out surface. For hand sanding I would just use 320 grit wet-dry paper. Wet sand surface dipping your paper in a pan of water keeping it wet, that will keep paper from clogging up and speed up the process. When finished rinse with running water if possible. When dry wipe down with WGR and tack off. Apply a primer surfacer let dry and sand smooth again with 320 wet, dry and repeat with WGR and and tack rag.
Now it's ready for non-sanding primer.




Sealer applied to all of the exterior surfaces.



Now for this project I will apply a black basecoat.
Just repeat all the prep steps. When sealer is ready tack off surface and apply paint.
If you want you can just use the semi-gloss you used on the interior. Make sure you apply black wet enough that it will flow into the primer, if it's applied dry you won't get a good intercoat adhesion and it could chip or peel later.
Once base is dry to touch tack off again and apply 2-3 coats of gloss clear. For me my #1 rule is to never apply final clear on an un-sanded surface. So on that note let everything dry overnight.
The next day wet sand everything with 600 grit being very careful not to sand through the clear, wipe dry occasionally to see the progress, you want to it smooth free of orange peel and dust nibs.
Rinse and wipe dry (keep those gloves on) now gently wipe with WGR try not to get it to wet so the WGR doesn't soften or attack surface and tack off.
Now apply 2 more coats of clear wet on wet another words go back as soon as first coat is done this will help maintain a wet edge and allow clear to flow a little more remember in this step what you see is what you get. So watch for "dry" areas when painting.
If you are unhappy with something just let dry 24 hrs and repeat clear coat.



I will touch on what it took to finish this project. From here on out I will be using House of Kolors paints, they are expensive high end paints.

After black base I sprayed on an mid-coat clear to protect the black.


When it was dry I scuffed surface smooth.


Then applied a silver base coat and clear.


I didn't get any pics taped, but as you can see I did a shadow outline and "brackets" to resemble a metal edge with rivets. Yes more inter-coat clear.




Real quick here are some pics before final clear. Panels and rivets all airbrushed in along with gears and true fire flames. Blue was achieved using a white pearl over black then covered with electric blue candy, then sprayed yet another inter-coat clear let dry wet sanded with 600grit and applied two coats of urethane clear.





Auto paint examples.

-subbed-

+rep I'm going to start a custom paint job when I get my new case, So this tutorial will help out allot!

You can really use the old paint as a base? What if it has those tiny lumps/bubbles?

+reps
this should be stickied

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As long as you feather it out you should be fine. It's usually pretty thin and is easily sanded out.

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Yes Factory applied finishes are going to be prepped better than you could do at home so it makes an excellent base.

If it has the textured finish like the Sniper side panels and you are after a smooth finish you will need to sand smooth with 320-400. Then spray with the primer surfacer and lightly sand smooth. I will also cover this in the pic tutorial.

FannBlade

Cant Wait to see your auto paint section, I would divide it into 2 sections at least and as the lower VOC water paints are becoming pretty popular and PPG is still king for quality.

looks good, waiting for the update so I can paint the interior of my xaser 6.

Omg, this is exciting!! Can't wait to see more, +rep and subbed

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Yes I will be doing a separate section for auto paints. rtop2 just donated a APEVIA X-Jupiter Jr. G Type Case-Black to use for the auto paint section.
I think Water Borne paints will be a little tricky for home use and PPG would be WAY to expensive (there high end clear runs about $300/gal around here) for this. So I will be using Omni brand as it is the most cost effective. ( @ $100/gal)

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Thanks. Hopefully updates coming very soon

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Thank You

Updated the OP.
I forgot I had pics from a Sniper paint job that will work for now in the auto paint section. This will still be a good reference for spray paint.
Also received the rosewill case today donated by We_Gone. I will start the mods tomorrow and get it ready for the spray paint tutorial. Also setup a build log for it here.

Thanks for looking.
Please feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer them the best I can. If it will help others I will add it to the FAQ.

Awesome tutorial! This will come in handy.

Thanks

Amazing, will sure help me when I start painting my case, but I'll do it with spray paint...

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........how about we get some pics of the car?
But nice work on the case and tutorial

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here you go

Was looking for a good tutorial to paint my antec 900 that will be here in a couple days

BEAUTIFUL car.

Hey Fannblade, I have a question for you. I went to Canadian Tire (it's a place where they sell car products, obviously ) and found in the car paint section some spray paint and was wondering if it would work well or not. The brand is Dupli-color and its price is 12.99$ for 227g (1/2 pound exactly). It's their most expensive spray paint. Do you think this will do the job well if I want to paint my case and if I want it to last ?(and look cool also ) Thanks in advance

We have dupli-color here in the states also. I'm going to use it for the spray paint section. It's a very good product it should serve you well.

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Cool thanks alot

Spray paint section updated in the OP

cool !