Laptop Paint Job

Basically, this all came about when I bought a laptop off of a co-worker for $13. The more I looked at it the more its appearance displeased me. After dredging the interweb, the only option that would truly suit my needs would be to paint the whole computer.

I was hesitant to do this because I live in an apartment and I have very little experience with spray painting. However, my curiosity over came any of my hesitations and this is the result. I will also be telling a little bit of the adventure that I went through, but I will try to keep those parts separate from the instructions so you don't have to read them.

**Obvious warnings**
This will most likely void your warranty Most companies like to find ways around a warranty and this will be a big one.
This will hurt the resale value Remember cool for you is not cool for other people, unless you are truly awesome.
There is no turning back! Once you start it's hard to just say "Well this is taking took long, I'm just going to stop" when you have one layer of paint not even covering the primer.
This will take a long time! If everything worked perfectly it would have taken me about a week and a half if I had nothing else to do for that time and most of that is waiting!
Things will go wrong! At least for me, this is a fact of being alive.

This is my first time writing an instructable and spray painting project larger then a model car, so if you have any tips to make either of them better please let me know.

Step 1 Supplies!

Necessary
" Primer (1 large Can)
" Color paint (3 large cans; 2 primary color and 1 secondary color)
" Clear coat (1 large Can)
" 220, 320, 400 Wet Sand paper
" Painter's tape (a lot of people say the blue kind works better, but I only had the white kind laying around.)
" old newspaper (to cover the larger sections you don't want to paint.)

Optional, but makes thinks easier.
" Sanding block
" Spray paint handle/gun thing
" Removable sticker paper (I used it so I could print off my stencil and cut it out from there.)

For safety
" Goggles or safety glasses of some type.
" Face mask (look for the one recommended for painting so you can breath.)
" A well vented painting place (also so you can breath.)

Comments

[zack247]

lol. my friend has the exact same laptop... er... well had the same laptop. (yours is blue, his isn't) yours definitely looks a lot better than the original colors.

[paperclip32]

 makes things easier.not thinks.

[Browncoat]

Serenity love!! Oh, good 'ible too. *g*

[atombomb1945]

Ok, I had to ask. Is this "Bad Wolf" as in Rose Tyler's calling card through time and space? Nice paint job though. How is the front of the key board holding up where your palms rest while typing?

[Road Kill]

Yep, that's where I got it from. I was watching the episode in season 4 where Bad Wolf reappeared again while I was planning out the project. I don't use this laptop as my main computer, but it has been about 5 months and I haven't noticed any difference.

[JakeTobak]

I'm gonna go ahead and give you 5 starts for 4 reasons: 1. You did a good job. 2. I was just thinking about doing something like this earlier today. 3. Your hair 4. Doctor Who