How to Paint your Computer System

Examples:
Tuxedo iMac
Art Deco

This step-by-step will show you how and have tips to paint your own Computer, Monitor and Peripherals.
Covering; supplies, paints, prep, and final finish.
Materials:
 -Spray Paint: top and base coat, primer;
-Masking Tape: 2 widths, thin graphic tape if you can find it
-3M "Scotch-Brite" Pads: semi-rough and fine ("0" grade and "00" grades)
-Sandpaper: 400 grit
-Razor blade
-Small art brush
Paints: There are many different kinds of spray paints available at local hardware stores and auto parts stores,
NOTE: whenever you can, get spray paints with FAN-TIPS, especially top coats.
Topcoats:
 Solid Colors- Many different colors and types are available; Flat, Satin, Gloss. -For a durable, scratch-resistant gloss, if you're going with a standard color, use "Appliance Enamel"
Metallics- There are many new metallic colors at hardware stores, but you're still kind of limited for colors.. an often overlooked place for neat colors is the auto parts department.. you can get many car-truck paint colors in small cans, they're a little more expensive, but worth the extra couple bucks for that cool color.
Note: Be careful with the "fake chrome" or "fake gold" finishes, they've gotten better, but..... they can be good for trim and buttons, but don't look real for the entire case, unless that's what you want.
Specialty- You can find these specialty paints, like "faux-finish marble", wrinkle finish, fleck-stone, hammerite.. I don't recommend the rough fleck-stone for around buttons and small details, it's really thick, and better to use on large detail free areas. Hammerite is an excellent textured paint, very tough, easy to paint but you have to watch HOW you paint it, for the color does change a little from the cap.
Clearcoats- Now it is important to choose a high quality clear, don't cheap out here, make sure and get a FAN-TIP, and enamel, not lacquer clear.. If you use a metallic or fleck-stone I highly recommend a clearcoat.. clearcoats are very good too when using multiple colors or patterned designs, you can also use flat colors and make then glossy.
Basecoats:
 Flat colors- are the best for basecoats, they dry fast and have excellent hide. If you are going to paint a dark color, get flat black. Many computers are white and this'll hide the white before you color. The black base will hide any white showing in case you miss a spot with the topcoat, very recommended for metallics.
If you are painting a light color, basecoats aren't as necessary, but they do help adhesion.. with light colors, instead try a Primer. NOTE: if you are painting a dark AND a light color, get a base that matches the lighter, the dark paint will cover better than the light paint will, unless the lighter is just for accents, then get a base that matches the primary color of the item. If you don't mind, try getting two base colors, but there is a little extra work involved in prep.
Primers- the best for light colors... choose a light gray. If you want a textured finish, kind of like the computer's stock finish, just get regular primer. BUT if you want a smooth finish, you have to get a SANDABLE PRIMER. It's extra work to do a smooth finish , but that's what I did on my iMac, and it looks very slick.
Prep 1: Prep is very necessary for a good, "professional" finish, and I have a few tips here.
Disassemble:
 The best way is to take apart your components, remove those cases, some parts just can't be taken apart though, or are too much trouble. Then you're going to have to mask them off with paper and tap, it takes longer then taking apart, and you have to make sure you do a REAL good, CAREFUL job of masking, you'll spend more time "fixing" and you ever would have taping.
The Computer Itself:
The case is actually easy to take apart, a couple screws on the back, and it's off. The faceplates on many boxes are removable too, look inside the case, there are usually a couple "clips" to hold it on, often you just have to pull it right off the front. Now you CAN leave it as one unit, but you'll have to mask off the CD drives and lights and front buttons, kind of a pain.
The Monitor:
You can leave the monitor as one piece, I don't recommend trying taking off the front around the glass anyway. Just mask off the glass. You can remove the back part of the case, it does make it easier, but remember. Monitors still have very high voltage in them AFTER being unplugged. Do NOT touch any electrical parts inside the monitor. Better to be be safe and just use paper and tape.
The Keyboard:
 Keyboards are a pain, but fairly easy to take apart. Just a couple or 6 screws and they open right up. If yours is the kind where the keys stay on the bottom and the face comes off, great, BUT they are a few where the keys are attached to the underside of the top half... these are the pain. Often the plate is permanent, no screws, in this case you'll just have to mask off the keys by hand. Sucks, but, ... try to stuff the paper or tape as far down past the keys as possible.
--Now , they are a couple things with keyboards, many only have screws on one side (top or bottom) the other side is held with tab-clips. Be very careful undoing these tabs, each one is a little different, some clam-shell open to release the tabs, others are held by clicking together. Open the two halves gently to see, pull too hard and these tabs will break off. If you break one that's usually okay, but don't break them all off, you'll be using glue to put it back together.
The Printer:

Printers often have NO screws, just tab-clips. Open the front cover and look inside. Now I don't ever recommend painting anything more than the OUTSIDE case of a printer, painting the inside tracks and paper feeds is only asking for trouble. That's why it best to just either take off the outside case (usually two or so pieces) or just to mask off the parts not painted. Masking is preferable if your printer is like most and has LOTS of parts to it (the front paper door, the top ink cover, the paper feeds, etc.) printers are the worst for sheer number of plastic parts.
-Now you CAN paint the paper feeds and such if you really hate them being off-white, but I'd only use a flat color, (NO GLOSS) and lightly dust the parts until colored.. that light coat shouldn't affect the paper feeding and printing.
The Others:
 Other parts of your system that could use a new color are your speakers, external drives, mouse, etc.
Most of these are pretty straight forward,.. mask off, ...paint. For anything that'll get handled a lot, like mice, use a durable, washable paint, like "Appliance Enamels", Epoxies, or a good coat of clear. I've never painted a mouse personally, but mine does need a new coat of paint. Also stick to regular gloss paints for these items, no stone finishes, a ragged marble with a good coat of clear would look cool though on a mouse, and just do the tops of mice. As with many of these items, no one ever sees the bottoms.
Laptops:
 I've never "painted" a laptop. Here's a pic or another pic of what I did do though. That's vinyl sticker paper (flexible) with a printed graphic. I used a solvent based printer, but you can use an inkjet if yours will print on this kind media, just make sure to clear coat it. DO NOT USE PAPER STICKERS if you ever want to get it off again. I even used a "low-tack" vinyl so I can peel it right back off without leaving any glue behind. -One trick you can do is to put down vinyl "Contact Paper" (availiable at art supply store or office aisle) first, then stick the paper sticker to the contact vinyl, then cover the sticker with another layer of clear contact vinyl to protect it, or a light coat of clear spraypaint over the sticker works too.
-Now you can paint that center front panel, but I wouldn't do any more than that. The nice things with laptops is that most are darker colors, when have you ever seen a off-white laptop? besides an iBook that is, iBooks lend themselves to a nice graphic on the front cover, with the glowing apple cutout.
Prep 2: Now that's it's all taken apart, get out your Scotch-Brite pads. Use the rougher "0 grade" one.
Sandpaper works too, but it tends to round off the details at this point.
Scuffing:
 You want to knock off that shine, even if you parts are textured, you want to clean off that film. Using a little mild cleanser to wash off the parts if they're older is a good step too.
-Scuff sand all parts to be painted, stay away from trim or glossy clear plastic parts not to be painted, this scuffing will ruin them. After scuff sanding, wipe down the parts with a damp cloth, inspect again and hit any missed areas.
Masking:

Mask off any parts now, like glass, buttons not removed, anything not to be painted. For paper, newspaper works fine, either cut to approximate size or fold the paper, always fold under, it's much neater. HINT: If you have little knobs and dials and especially those little LED lights that are just too small to put a piece of tape or paper on ... Use Vaseline on a Q-tip or toothpick, the paint won't stick to the part.

The Basecoat:

Now you're ready to paint the basecoat. Wipe everything down good, a damp cloth helps get rid of that static build-up that the scuffing caused. -Using a regular stiff paint brush to dust out the cracks and vent holes helps.
Grab your proper basecolor or primer, and starting at the top, make passes back and forth to cover in nice even sweeping passes. Hitting the edges and grooves in between parts first helps coverage, then go onto the large areas. Do light coats at first, let flash (to flash is to let dry for a minute until the wetness is gone) , then heavier coats, but only enough to cover up the old plastic color. This is not your final coat, it just covers up the old off-white plastic. You do want this to be a nice smooth coat, even if it is light, it'll mean less sanding before the topcoat. Let dry.
Special Note for Monitors: If painting a dark color, use the dark basecoat to color in all those vent fins and holes on the tops and backs. If you try doing this with the final topcoat the paint may run. Plus it looks kinda cool to have a red or blue fade to black in those fins. Also if you can see the metal grill inside the monitor through those holes, and want it to show when done, you are going to have to remove the back part of the case to put paper inside, or paint the back seperately. See case removal warning above. Also remove the swivel base and only lightly dust the parts where the swivel meets together, too think of a paint coat may prevent the monitor's tilt and turn.

Scuffing again :
 Now that the basecoat is dry, this is where paths diverge a little.
If you are going to use a textured top coat, or just keeping the original parts texture, all you have to do is take the fine Scotch-Pad and do a final scuff of the basecoat, skip ahead to "Top Coat"
 

If Smooth Finishing ... Sanding: If you want that smooth finish you should have shot it with "Sandable Primer", if not , that's okay, you'll just have to do that now, right over the basecoat color.
Now that's it in sandable primer, get your 400 Grit sandpaper.. you can do this dry, but wet-sanding is much smoother, gums up less and and less dusty, albeit wet. Wet sanding will make a mess, and if the computer parts are still together, don't use too much water for it can seep into cracks and those vent fins on monitors. It's best to remove monitor back cases if wet sanding them, also the sanding sludge with get to into all those vent holes and fins. Use a stiff paint brush to clean out.
Sand the finish smooth with the paper folder over in you palm, sand a little bit, feel the finish, sand a little more... when fairly smooth, wipe down with damp rag. When smooth enough for your liking you're ready for the topcoat...
Note: Recheck all your masking and paper, after getting wet some might be falling off now.

Top Coat Now your ready for color., For a single color all you need to do is paint.
 

Multiple Colors and Designs: For more than one color combination, Always paint the lighter color first, masking isn't necessary, you actually want some overlap. You'll mask off the freshly painted areas to paint the next color. (remember, let first color dry well before masking it off to paint the second color, you may have to the the first color dry overnight, depending on the type of paint used)
Now if you're painting a design, paint your base color on all of the part, then mask off your designs.
-Paint larger areas first, then smaller areas next. But remember, light colors are (almost) ALWAYS painted first before dark, regardless of area size.
Painting:
 Start at the top again and paint down, following the contours to the item. Again, start light coverage, flash, then repeat with heavier coats. With solid colors you just have to paint the item until colored. Remember with smaller items you tend to coat the thing faster and heavier. With large areas move across with sweeping strokes, overlapping the paths half over the last path you made. IMPORTANT: When working with glossy paints don't spray a spot here, a spot there, the overspray will land on your other painted areas lightly and cause roughness. It's best to spot in the edges and smaller areas first, once colored, paint the item overall in those even broad strokes.
- Once you've started on one side, commit yourself to going all the ways across the object in even paths until you reach the other side.
- When you paint the bottom of a monitor and swivel base with gloss paint, it helps to simply avoid getting a lot of paint on those parts. The basecoat should have taken care of coloring in those parts.
Special Notes for Metallics: When painting a metallic you can't paint heavy strokes, you will cause what they call "zebra striping" it's where the paint lays down heavier in one place, and lighter in another. When metallics go on heavy, the metal flakes settle to the bottom and look dull and dark... if they lay down too light, the metallic sits at the top and looks too bright with low color.
-To prevent this re-assemble all the parts, it doesn't have to be completely screwed together, just "placed" in their respective locations. Paint all the edges and angles, small edges, FIRST. Let flash for a minute. Then paint the entire item in regular type painting passes, except pause for a second before making the next pass and also make the passes a little faster than with a solid color (You'll make these coats lighter coverage than normal ). Once you colored the item fairly well, lay down a second coat, not 15 minutes later, but a minute later. except this time, make your passes up and down rather that side-to-side, again in fairly light passes... wait again, make light passes diagonally. What you're doing here is evening out the metallic so you don't get those stripes... put the coats wet enough to look right, not too bright, not too dull .. you can fix these problems by making more passes, it's about all timing, flash, and even-ness .
Clearcoating:

It's the same as painting, but Clearcoating is definitely recommended if you just painted a metallic, flat, or fleck-stone finish. If you made any mistakes, now's the time to fix them before you clearcoat, sanding little runs and spots is necessary. Do not sand metallics, if you do, you'll have to re-coat all over again to make things even.
Clearcoating is the best way to give the whole item a good even gloss coat if you painted designs, stripes, patterns using multiple colors. Remove the paper and tape from the different colored areas, and treat it as one big colored item.

Finishing Let the paint dry the required time, I'm horrible about this, rather impatient to see it done. But just follow the directions on the can.
  When it comes time to remove the tape and paper, remove the tape AWAY from the painted area, basically peeling the tape away, if you pull the tape straight off, or towards the fresh paint, it can peel off the new paint.
  Re-assemble all the parts you took apart. - (If you painted the bottom of a monitor with gloss paint, make sure the paint dries 24 to 48 hours before putting the swivel base parts together).
- If you want those little buttons or trim you pulled off a different color, now's the time to color them before assembly. If the parts weren't removed, make sure the paint's really dry, and mask off the button or CD drive, then hit it with a coat of paint.
If the thing is REALLY small, like buttons and knobs, that are just too hard to mask, use a small good artists brush. You can even use the spray paint color.. just spray some paint into the can's cap you removed and just use it as a paint well. It takes a steady hand to paint with a brush.. but using a brush for those little details can make the final product look really finished.
If you did accidentally paint over a LED light one trick is to use the razorblade and scratch off the paint, carefully,... then use a Q-tip and little alcohol to clean it off.
  Well.. Hopefully everything went okay with your painting project, a little paint on a brush can fix most taping accidents and scratches.. just be careful with it. :)