Painting Keyboard

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bladeiai

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 26, 2004
Messages
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I'm interested in painting an older laptop and what to paint the keyboard as well... has anyone done this and know if the paint will hold up long term without wearing off? and does anyone know were you can get Letter and number decals to replace the ones I would paint over? I was also planing to use a clear coat on the keys after applying the decals, do you think this would cause any bubbling or negative effects?

thanks
 
i don't know about the labels on the keys, but as long as you sand a bit before you paint to give the paint a nice surface to cling to then it won't be a problem, and do it in thin coats and yes using a clear coat or laquer will make the paint job last a long time.
 
considering how tiny the stickers would be, your best bet is to find a stencil kit with really tiny letters and spray them on, then do the clear coat of painting
 
I painted my keyboard and had very good results... two tips:

1. Don't paint the keys... WAY too much work, and it's quite hard to get good looking results. Not to mention that constant touching might wear it down fast. I, personally, didn't paint my keys and painted just the shell. If you do want to color your keys, I would look into vinyl dyes. It works different then paint that instead of just coating, it litteraly stains it. So it should stand up to constant touching and also the lettering you have will probably still be visable. I never used vinyl dyes, so I could be wrong. But that's what I would go with if I was doing the keys.

2. Paint a tiny spot on the underside of the plastic shell to test to see if the plastic will react.

I didn't use any special plastic's paint. I just used a high-grit sandpaper to sand the shell, and didn't even use a primer. Results came out very nice. Make sure you go with two coats.
 
I painted a keyboard but it was more like a ghetto mod. After disassembling, I painted the case red and the keys orange. Several coats for the case. But only 2 very very light coats for the keys. The keys were white, so the black lettering showed thru. It started getting scuffed up a few weeks later. Very ghetto.

Are your keys black? Read up on vinyl dye.
 
1. Paint the keys the color you want your letters.
2. Pick up those little sticky letters (they have them at wallmart) and put them on the keys.
3. Paint youre keys the color you dont want the letters.
4. Peel off the sticky letters.
5. Clearcoat

Done :D
 
the keys are a light grey right now and I would like to make them black, one of the problems is the size of the keys the entire keyboard measures only about 8" x 2 1/2"

if I used vinyl dye would I have to remove the current decals on the keyboard so the dye could soak in?
 
also I was thinking about using one of the Polygfx skins for the outside cover of the laptop and was wondering if anyone has used them and how well they work and how hard they are to apply and how they hold up...ect and how are they at fitting over curves bumbs and stuff

thanks
 
i am in the process of painting my logitech mx duo kb. did the mouse already and it turned out quite nice. The keyboard face is drying now to be clear coated. I just chose a paint scheme that would compliment the already black keys...
 
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