Gecko Laptop: custom painted Compaq Presario

K

KikBox

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 7, 2005
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The goal of this project is to put a professional looking paint finish on a compaq laptop. I have not done a lot of painting on plastic so this should be fun. The owner requested orange so I started by looking for the right shade.

My first choice is always House of Kolor paints for projects like this. Their products are high quality and I have never gotten and finish that I was not completely satisfied with. I checked their web site and found a color called Tangelo. It's a bright orange with a pearl finish (more interesting than plain orange but more subtle than a metallic). I had heard that some House of Kolor paints were available at Walmart and to my suprise, one of the colors they have is Tangelo. The color selection is limited but it's convenient. It's kind of spendy at $8-$9 for a 6 ounce can so use it wisely! If you don't live near a Walmart you can also get it online. Check out Black Gold, they will even put the colors you want in a rattle can and ship it to you.

I started by masking the system. I masked everything but the top of the laptop using painter's tape and masking paper. Most laptops have seams in the plastic the work well as starting and stoping points for the finish. I placed the tape first and then ran my exacto knife down the seam to make neat cuts where I wanted the masking to stop.

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Once the masking was done I roughed up the plastic with with some fine grit sand paper. You don't need to do much so I applied light pressure and was done in about 5 minutes. After the sanding, I cleaned the surface with a damp cloth to clear the dust and then went over it again with dry diaper cloth.

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Now I am ready for primer. The House of Kolor paints have their own base coats depending on the Kandy coat you are planning to use. For the pearl Tangelo I used a white base coat. I started by warming the cans in a bucket of warm water. This step allows the paint to flow better and will give you a smoother coat.

After giving the can a good shake, I shoot a blast into the air to clear the nozel. The primer was applied in even strokes going across and back again overlaping each pass. The first coat of primer is very light, you should still be able to see the original plastic color through the first coat of primer. After the first coat was dry I applied a second coat of primer and then a third.

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Just a word about drying time. House of Kolor recommends waiting 5 minutes between coats however, you may want to modify this time based on your work environment. This time of year my shop is about 30-40 degrees Ferenheit so I gave each coat a bit more drying time. For the primer I waited about 30 minutes and even longer for the Kandy coat.
 
After my last coat of primer (3 coats total) I started the color coats. The Kandy paints are very thin so light coats are a must! Using the same procedure, I applied the color using even strokes at about 8 inches. You won't totally cover the primer until about coat number 3 so be patient. Also keep in mind that the clear coat is what is really going to make your paint job look awesome so don't be discouraged if your computer looks more like an orange push up than a hot rod. In total I applied 6 coats of color and waited 30-40 minutes between coats.

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Hazards
Naturally, any time you are working with paints there are hazards to your health and hazards to your project. I do not recommend painting without the protection of a good respirator. The good ones cost more but they are worth it. Always wear one! The dangers to your project are things like dust and grime that can infect your perfectly painted surface. Unless you have a professional paint booth in your house you will always be face with these challenges. I built a small paint booth out of a large cardboard box. When I am not using it it can be folded flat and put away. It does a good job of controling overspray and protecting the piece from crap falling out of the air. Even with all these procautions I still had to remove a dust bunny with my exacto knife and do a little touch up.

Recommendation
It's much easier to do a job like this if you have some kind of turn table. Each time you turn your project you are putting it at risk. For this project I did not have one and in order to hit the back edge of the laptop I had to pick it up and turn it. I placed it on a piece of foam so that I could spin it around but with each coat of paint it became more difficult to turn. A lazy susan from your local Target or Walmart will do the trick nicely. Just give it a spin and your done.
 
After the final coat of color I let the laptop cure for about 48 hours. Find a clean place where it can sit undisturbed. The next step was detailing. For this project I want a simple but striking tag to go over this nice orange finish. The Gecko is my theme and I think that bright green is really going to pop when applied over Tangelo.

I am not going to try and describe in detail how this part works but at some point I will devote a worklog to the artistic process. Let's just say I am happy with how it turned out! Using an airbrush you can get an amazing level of detail on the Gecko right down to the shadow. In this case great care was taken to place the shadow so that it would look like the Gecko was crawling up the back of the laptop when it was open.

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The final step in the painting process is clear coat. Good clear coat is what will gives the project not only its shine but it also creates depth. This is especially apparent when combined with airbrushing. Several light layers of clear coat were applied to this piece and after about 24 hours of curing time a buffing compound was used to bring out the shine. The compound can be applied with a buffing wheel or by hand. Whatever you use should be very soft. To really bring out the shine you can even use some turtle wax.

The finally I carefully removed the masking. I had to clean some of the edges where paint has accumulated into rough edges. I did this by carefully running my exacto knife over the rough spots.

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I may still do a little more polishing but basically this project is done! Go Gecko! :cool:
 
That is amazing!
Thanks... now I'll have to get something like that for my wife!
 
That's an interesting idea soaking the cans in warm water first. Does it make a big difference?

Nice work.
 
][nquisitor said:
That's an interesting idea soaking the cans in warm water first. Does it make a big difference?

Nice work.
Click to expand...

It makes a big difference if you are in a cold climate like MN. When the paint is cold it can get clumpy, warming it allows that paint to exit the can in a finer mist giving you a better coat. I think it really helps.

The other thing I like to do is after finishing a coat I will tip the rattle can up side down and give it a blast. In this position only gas exits that can and not paint and this simple step will clear the nozzle of paint before you let the can sit. Helps prevent clogging. I got that little tip from a buddy who paints for a living. I think it helped to extend the life of some of my rattle cans.
 
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