Introduction: Dip Your Laptop

Note***: Alright, so let me begin by saying please excuse the quality of this Instructable. I was not planning on doing one on this project, but it turned out so well that I figured I owed it to the community to at least show you what I could with the starting and final product.

Dip your laptop!

You have heard of dip your rims, dip your car, even dip your headlights, by why not use this great product for more than just your automobile. And I said, why not my laptop! Before we begin for those of you who do not know what Plasti Dip is, please check out the links below and read the next paragraph, cause this stuff is amazing!

What is Plasti Dip Intro Video

What is Plasti Dip - plastidip.com

What is Plasti Dip?

Plasti Dip is a multi-purpose, air dry, specialty rubber coating. It can be easily applied by dipping, brushing, or spraying. Plasti Dip protective coating is ideal for a broad array of do-it-yourself projects around the home, garage, garden, and elsewhere. It protects coated items against moisture, acids, abrasion, corrosion, and skidding/slipping, and provides a comfortable, controlled grip. Plasti Dip remains flexible and stretchy over time, and will not crack or become brittle in extreme weather conditions. It has been tested and proven in temperatures from -30°F to 200°F.

Plasti Dip (the black spray that I used for this Instructable) can be purchased where ever you buy spray paint - even Wal-Mart carries this stuff.


*** I am not responsible for any damage you inflict upon your device.

The beauty of using this stuff to paint electronics is that it is a rubber based coating, meaning that it is not conductive. Does this mean that it will not damage your precious electronics, no, but it means you will not be in danger of shorting out your device if you over spray, you may be in danger of overheating or just getting dust like particles in your device

Ok now that we all know what this stuff is, let's get started!

Step 1: Step 1: Gather Materials and Tools

Materials

  • A laptop, or whatever other device you want to paint - iPad, phone, game controller.
  • A can of plastidip - available at your local spray paint store for $5-$10 USD (If you want black)
    • If you want another color other than black, you can purchase it at various online retailers
  • Blue painters tape or the like (Used to tape off stuff to make your job easier at the end)
  • A vinyl sticker or something else to use as a stencil.
    • I used the vinyl triforce that I have had on my laptop for years, here is a link to a similar one that I used.
    • There are an endless number of designs and sizes of these on ebay, just seach for the design you want (e.g. "yoshi" and put the words "vinyl sticker" afterwards.)
    • Make sure that whatever sticker you get does not cover the apple light at all as when you peel off the stencil, it will not be a perfect inverse, as the line of the apple will screw it up.
  • A sheet or something to lie down to paint on and a place to paint.
  • An exacto knife
  • Some sort of cleaner and cloth to clean the laptop lightly before painting (make sure it is safe to apply to your device, dont use water and a paper towel)

That's it! It's a pretty simple set up and besides the dip and the decal you probably have all the materials lying around the house.

Step 2: Step 2: Apply the Vinyl

Follow the instructions that come with your vinyl sticker, but they pretty much go as follows:

  1. Clean the surface you plan to apply it to
  2. peel of the back side of the sticker (Usually the white side)
  3. Place the sticker in the desired location and apply pressure evenly across the sticker for about a minute while pushing out any bubbles.
  4. Peel of the front side of the Sticker (Usually the clear side)
  5. All done!

Step 3: Step 3: Prep Your Device

I apologize for the lack of pictures, as I mentioned in the intro, I did not intend to make an instructable off of this.

Anyways, this step was super simple with the following steps:

  1. Lie down a sheet or whatever you need to do to prepare your area for painting.
  2. Tape off any ports or joints that would be hard to remove the plasti dip from if there was over spray.
    1. The more that you tape off, the less you have to do at the end. You could potentially just go for it and rub off the over spray. I simply taped the all the sides leaving the top and bottom exposed. Then I placed it on the sheet on the ground.
  3. Give the Laptop a final cleaning, wipe it down with whatever cleaner you are using.

Step 4: Step 4: Paint!!! - and Remove the Vinyl

Now comes the cool part where you get to paint.

Give the device several light coats letting it sit about 15min between coats. I really must stress the word light - it is much better to do five light coats then two heavy ones. The idea with the first two coats or so its not to cover ever inch, but just to do a few sweeps, getting some spray on every part. It will however look speckled until the 3rd or 4th coat.

I used four coats for this project.

So when painting (if using four coats) follow these steps:

  1. Apply first coat - wait 15 min
  2. Apply second coat - wait 15 min
  3. Apply third coat - wait 15 min
  4. Apply final coat - do not wait 15 min!!!

IMPORTANT!!!

When you get done with your final coat do not let it dry, get to work with removing the decal, while not touching the new coat of course. This is the only moderately difficult part of this project. I found it best to cut around the decal with the Exacto knife using the vinyl as a guide. On this part just move slow and take your time and it will come out great, and if you screw up... Oh well the Plasti dip peels right off!!

***Note. On my project I did a small coat over the exposed stencil area to give it a more rough look and touch up the points that were dirty as the vinyl was on there for almost 4 years.

Step 5: Step 5: Peel Off and Admire Your Work

Peel off the blue tape and admire your work!

If you used a MacBook, turn it on and check out the light shine through!

If you do this project post about it!! I'd love to see how much better you all are than me!

Vote for me in the paint it contest! I am going in under the simplicity sub category! haha.

Thanks for reading guys, I hope you enjoyed it.

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