Anybody Powdercoated Their Case Before?

[sitalchauhan]

Hey, I'm interested in powdercoating the internals of my Antec P180 to matt black.

I was just wondering if anybody has had their cases powdercoated before, and if so where did you get it done? Did you just ring local industrial powdercoating places and ask them directly? Or would they laugh at me for enquiring about such a small job when they must mainly deal with huge bulk orders lol

I have found a couple of online PC Shops that offer a powdercoating service if you post them your case, but they surely just take it to an industrial powdercoating place to get them done, so it must be cheaper for me to take my case directly to powdercoating company.
Roughly how much did you guys pay if you took it directly to the powdercoating factory?

Most importantly, has anybody had their case powdercoated anywhere near Birmingham (within 60 miles) that you would recommend?

Thanks!

[brduk]

I was going to ask why on earth you'd want to do this, but each to their own.

Just an idea, i'm told boy racers are into having their scratched up rims powdercoated these days, so you might find a car modding shop that runs a small scale powdercoating set-up that would do this for cash in hand.

[Pob255]

If you can find a "local industrial powder coating place" go for it the least they can do is say no, however I doubt it.

Personally I've not done it before but I know others who have, they've used the Chilledpc service and been very happy with it. http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/index.php?cPath=36_69

Another alternative is find a local autoshop a place that also does full resprays, full cured automotive grade paint is very good and robust.

On a side note you'll have to fully break the case down and de-rivet the top to remove it, as that's plastic not metal.

[sitalchauhan]

brduk, Ive got that bug in me to do some modding to my PC because Ive got a bit bored of it looking the same for 3 years
Im going to be watercooling my PC so I thought I might as well to take this opportunity now to change all of the internals to black too, while the pc is dismantled for a while. Ive got a window modded on my P180, incase you were wondering why I would want to spray the internals of a case that doesn't normally come with a window

Im basically aiming to do the same as this P180:


Only differences are I will be getting an EK X-Top for the Laing D5 pump (so that I can move the outlet from the top down to the front of the pump next to the inlet), so that the pump fits into the upper HD cage and is hidden (the case in the picture has had the upper HD cage removed) and I will be mounting the MicroRes on the left hand side below the rear exhaust fan.


Pob255, is the top plastic on a p180 definitely rivited? I know that all of the other plastics of the P180B can be removed as they have just screws and clips holding them, but I didnt think about the top plastic!

I have no idea about how rivet guns work so I'll look into that tomorrow, hopefully it isnt too expensive/difficult. Worst comes to worst, if I cant powdercoat it I can just spray my internals with Matt Black Spray paint.

When spraying the internals matt black, obviously I have to sand, then use primer, then matt black. But do people put a clear coat on top at the end? Surely that would make it glossy and completely negate the matt appearance?

Thanks

[spoon_]

Got my A17 done in matt black, internals/externals.

Paid £35 iirc and was well worth it

Note - as already mentioned, powder is sprayed on your parts and then baked in the oven so no plastic etc. powder over powder isn't a good idea and preferably you need to prepare your case first i.e. sand it down to bare metal almost to achieve the best effect.

Also make sure there isn't too much powder and moving/sliding parts will have problem.

[sitalchauhan]

thanks for the response. Spoon, where did you get your case done? I visit london quite regularly so could possibly get it done at the same shop, because £35 seems very reasonable. Please PM me if you don't want to write who it was publicly

The HD cages are the only moving parts, they slide in and out. But they slide on plastic rails that easily screw out and will be removed before powdercoating, so shouldn't be a problem.

Another thing, when you had your case powdercoated, did the coating make all of the screw holes more narrow, meaning your screws didnt fit any more (motherboard standoffs, pci port screws, etc)?
Did the powdercoating become quite damaged/cracked when you forced the screws through the narrower holes, or is it not really a problem?

Thanks

[spoon_]

http://www.willowpowdercoating.co.uk/index.html

I dealt with Richard over at willowpowdercoating when I had mine done.

Screw holes were perfect, guys applied a thin layer of powder and it was fine so no cracking/damage involved

[sitalchauhan]

Thanks. I just had a look and it seems the 5.25" drive cages are also riveted in. When you had your case powdercoated, wer your drive cages still in place? Did the powdercoating coat the inside of the drive cages ok? Or did you manage to disassemble all drive cages too?

Thanks

EDIT: If you have a picture of your A17 internals powdercoated that would be great. If not don't worry about it

[Pob255]

Ooo I didn't realise you'd had you case powder coated spoon (or I forgot), £35 is a nice price.

Here's a couple of questions for you.
- What did that include/not include?
- Did they also do the prepwork? (sanding/sandblasting)
- How about getting the case to them and from them?

@sitalchauhan yes you can get mat clear coat, if you're using spray cans then I would clear coat it to protect it, however leave 5-7 days between between the final colour coat and the clear coat.

[sitalchauhan]

Pob255 have you used any matt clear coat sprays yourself? I had a search around and they seem really hard to find. I am planning to use U-Pol branded primer and matt black spray paints as they get good reviews for automotive respraying so should be good for PC cases too. But they don't sell a matt clear spray.

This Plasti-Kote Matt Clear Sealer is the only one I have found so far, would this be suitable?:
diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9254030

Thanks

[Pob255]

Umm not sure but you do have to be careful when mixing paint types/brands as you have all sorts of issues.