GojiFan90 wrote:Has anyone ever painted a CRT case or bezel that has any tips or suggestions? I have a Trinitron with some serious wear and tear and thought I would make a project of it. Any suggestions for paint type, surface prep etc. appreciated. Thanks!
I have some fabrication experience. My advice is going to be "best possible DIY" level.
Ideally, you want industrial paint for plastics. Most of the best of these paints is only available in large quantities, so it's hard to get for a small project.
Fortunately, you can just use paint for car bumpers. If you go to an automotive paint store, you can tell them what you are trying to do, and they can mix something up for you with the correct properties. Make sure you tell them you want something for painting plastic. You'll want to bring the part with you so they can color match it to the original paint.
That route will cost you between 40-100 bucks. If you want them to, the paint shop should be able to put it in a spray can for you so you can just paint it with that. If you have one, and you know what you are doing, get the paint in a can and use your paint sprayer. In a can will be much cheaper.
This all depends on your skill with painting. If your technique sucks, you'll end up with drips and dots and that sort of thing. You may want to practice on something you don't care about to hone your skill. Pay specific attention to how quickly you move the sprayer and how close you are to the surface.
Prep for painting plastic is sanding until it's silky smooth up to like 3000 or 4000 with wet sandpaper. Try not to go below 1000 because plastic sands down quick. 800 is ok if you are really light and you have deep scratches. There are plastic prep solutions you should buy that are applied before painting. They make the paint stick much better and it will be less likely to peel off. I highly recommend doing it.
That's about it. Watch a bunch of youtube videos on painting plastic and the procedures, there are tons of them. Good luck.