   Respraying a laptop
  Hi all,I've decided that I want to give my laptop a makeover, had it for nearly 5 years now and its starting to look a little hagged.For the record the laptop is a Sony Vaio VGN-N11M.I have two questions I'm hoping someone could answer, first off, does anyone have any ideas how I could go about getting a very shiney mirror-like finish?The second question is the most important, will I be able to spraypaint over the touch pad, or will this break it, as im not sure how this tech works.Thanks, Scott   
  You will ruin your touchpad if you spraypaint over it.If the pad recognizes the capacitance of the fingers, the paint will effectively cut out the "sense" entirely. And if there is a separate membrane layer that will be measured, said membrane will get a hard crust from the paint and does not move as smoothly (thus ruining the accuracy and sensitivity) as a paintless membrane.About the shiny finish - be sure to apply some very fine sandpaper to the paintable surfaces before painting, and use some glossy paint. Apply multiple coats of paint, waiting for the paint to dry between each layer. Paint in a dust-free zone, and hold the spray can at an adequate distance (far enough) so as to get a consistent amount of paint across the surfaces. Test the spray flow against a cardboard or something before painting the actual workpieces. Preferably, test against a piece of actual plastic other than the workpieces.If there is a reason to believe that the original plastic surfaces and your glossy paint are chemically incompatible, apply a primer paint layer after applying sand paper and before applying the glossy layers.For best results, I recommend taking off the paintable parts (lid cover, possibly the plate surrounding the keyboard and touch pad) so that you don't leak paint to parts that aren't supposed to get painted.   ;  Sand, prime, sand again, use glossy paint (more than 1 coat).I'd highly recommend going through the entire process first on something else. Spray painting well actually takes practice if you want it to turn out well   ;  Hey, thanks for the replies. I'll make sure the touchpad is well away from the paint. I've sprayed a guitar before which went reasonably well never managed the perfectly mirrored affect tho, I do however have a nice phone lined up which seems to be made of a similar type of plastic so I'll have a practice.Now I just need to work out the best way of adding the details, I want "gameXcore studios" on the lid but lettering gonna be a bitch.Anyways thanks for the advicescott   ;  I hope you post Before and after pictures - I'm eagerly awaiting the results :)   ;  Haha, now that I will definatly have to do. Just gotta get the stuff now, I think my heart is set on a viper green spray, probably not gonna be the easiest to get hold of.   ;Quote:Original post by gameXcoreNow I just need to work out the best way of adding the details, I want "gameXcore studios" on the lid but lettering gonna be a bitch.scottJust use stencils.Get a clear gloss paint and paint over the whole thing when you're done so there isn't a separation between the details and the background.   ;  Ive got the first coats of colour down today, after lots of sanding, priming, sanding, priming etc etc... but the finish is only as good as the preperation after all.It's actually a bit brighter, but looking nice, cant decide what to do about the keyboard tho, wether I want to attempt to paint each key individually or not, at the moments its white and isnt really going to look nice =/   ;Quote:Original post by gameXcoreNow I just need to work out the best way of adding the details, I want "gameXcore studios" on the lid but lettering gonna be a bitch.As everyone has said, make a stencil. Design whatever you want to detail in Illustrator/InkScape making sure to have "bridges" to any islands of background. Print out on to transparency film. Cut out the stencil with an Exacto knife. Apply the paint with an airbrush if you have access to one.   ;  You should also re-spay your laptop. You don't want it breeding with any laptop it happens to fancy while in heat, do you?   