How to paint over anodised alu?

[mrplow]

I've fudged up my pc60 top panel to the degree that I really want to fill in and paint over it to fix my fudge ups. It's a really hard thing for me to decide to do, painting over the lovely alu!!!

But now that the decision is pretty much set in my mind... are there special things I need to do to prepare the surface? Do I have to sand back to a polished state before priming, or use special primer?

All advice is very gratefully accepted - I know that there are some real paint experts around here! I'm really happy with the paint job I did on my chassis after following advice here and reading linears paint 101. It's really nice and smooth, and fairly hardy.

Thanks guys!

[mnpctech]

Haven't had to paint over anodized alum myself, but Insomniac has a good tutorial @ pimprig here (http://guides.pimprig.com/pimprig_paintshop/properly_prep_anodized_aluminum.php)

As for paint tutorials, I usually recommend Spiv's Paint 101 (http://www.pc-workshop.net/articles/paint101/paint101-1.shtml)

[mrplow]

Haven't had to paint over anodized alum myself, but Insomniac has a good tutorial @ pimprig here (http://guides.pimprig.com/pimprig_paintshop/properly_prep_anodized_aluminum.php)


Ah Jesus Christ.. that looks like it requires real skills :( :(

[dutchcedar]

BaDassII was made with a number of anodized parts as well as mill finish aluminum parts and a bunch of machined aluminum pieces... they were all powder coated and the surface prep for all of them was the same... bead blasting with ground almond shells... it came out beautifully, but isn't something I would tackle at home.

The challenge is to get through the thin layer of chemically hardened aluminum on the surface. Almond shells do the job well because they're finer than most sand particles and give a smoother finish.

I would be very surprised if LianLi uses hard anodizing on their cases, like the PimpRig article suggests. I've had it done to parts before and its tougher than nails, but my experience tells me its tougher than LianLi's finish (and harder). Also, I don't think its available in clear (silver), because the burn time is too long... that said, I ain't no expert and could certainly be wrong. :rant:

[mrplow]

Well... I figure I'm just gonna try sanding the heck out of it.

[fivecheebs]

at least youd have an almost plausable excuse for your well defined right arm :p

[Starbuck3733T]

Ehehehehehe :)

[mrplow]

at least youd have an almost plausable excuse for your well defined right arm :p

Nah, that's from all the wa... lking.. I do.. with a cane..