Painting parts Black

[nycdude]

Hi all,

I bought Krylon's Fusion for the purpose of painting my zip and cdrw black.

What is the best way to do this?? Take off the bezel and faceplates??? I never did this before and want to know how difficult it is to do???

For the zip, there is the flap covering the drive, should I hand do that vs somehow spray painting it??


Thoughts Please.

Thx

 

[bluntman]

Remove the faceplates, it's quite simple. For CD/CDRW/DVD/DVDRW drives, make sure to open the tray first using the emergency eject hole that tray drives have. The faceplates are usually held on with 2 to 4 tabs and the facia on the tray is held on by a couple more tabs (closely examine it first - usually you'll have to slightly pull the tray's facia out in the middle and then slide it up).

Not sure about the ZIP drive (never done one)...

 

[nycdude]

Originally posted by: bluntman
Remove the faceplates, it's quite simple. For CD/CDRW/DVD/DVDRW drives, make sure to open the tray first using the emergency eject hole that tray drives have. The faceplates are usually held on with 2 to 4 tabs and the facia on the tray is held on by a couple more tabs (closely examine it first - usually you'll have to slightly pull the tray's facia out in the middle and then slide it up).

I know that painting will remove all logos and stuff on the faceplate.

Honestly does that a difference to you???? It will if you have to sell the thing.

Thoughts.

 

[bluntman]

I know that painting will remove all logos and stuff on the faceplate.

I know what you mean. I had a beige/ivory Yamaha F1 CDRw, but the Yamaha logo was silkscreen onto the tray's facia. I wasn't willing to loose the logo so I called up Yamaha and asked to buy a black faceplate for the drive. A couple of weeks and $30 CDN later it showed up at my work and I installed it later that night.

I also have a Creative Live Drive IR with many small silkscreened icons for all of the inputs on the faceplate, I am not going to paint it. Directron does have a black faceplate for the Live Drive 2, but the initial cost, shipping, taxes, brokerage and duties would make it cost prohibitive.

The last beige/ivory component I have is my new LG GSA 4040 triple format DVD burner, I'm not touching that either.

If you don't are really turned off by loosing the logos you can either replace the drives with black alternatives, or you can stealth the drives, or you can buy a case with a door covering the drives. I did the latter although I did replace my beige floppy and DVD-ROM drive to get the black faceplates so the only drives beige drives in my case are the Live Drive and DVD burner.

 

[bluntman]

double post

 

[SpicyTofu]

What kind of black paint would any of you recommend and use? Is it spray paint or what?

 

[JokerF15]

The best type of 'paint' to paint drives is 'vinyl dye'. It sticks the best, doesnt' get scratched easy, and gives an 'oem' look.

Give it a try on another unit laying around and compare.

The only downfall is that there are a limited variety of colors available.

-JokerF15

 

[stevennoland]

Wouldn't it just be easier to buy black components?

 

[nycdude]

Well, I went ahead and spray painted the zip drive black with the Krylon fusion. All I did was remove the zip faceplate and sprayed. It is supposely an alternative to the vinyl dye because it is also made for bonding with plastic. I got it at Walmart for $3.89. There are also other colors there.

It looks pretty nice if I say so myself. A little 'glossy' than the true black faceplates but it save me having to buy another black zip drive which are rather expensive.

I will wait and see about the cdrw. Not sure if I want to get rid of the logos but cdrw's are SO cheap these days so we'll see.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Yeah, screw the logos. What on earth do you need them for anyway? The resale value of an optical drive is practically nil anyway unless it's a DVD burner. I painted my FDD, CD drive, CD-RW and Zip with a chrome spray paint so it would better match my Lian-Li PC-60. The result is a close match to the brushed aluminum.

All the covers just pop off and they are very easy to paint.

 

[bootoo]

I used black fusion also and it's wearing very well; the glossiness no longer bugs me (maybe it's dusty? oh oh) and it looks so much better.

 

[JokerF15]

Personally I've always liked the 'flat' look of vinyl dye, but that's just a personal opinion.

-JokerF15

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: JokerF15
Personally I've always liked the 'flat' look of vinyl dye, but that's just a personal opinion.

-JokerF15

Me too. It matches other components very well. Then again, if you're trying to match a glossy black case, maybe it's not for you.