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[Raven Oberon]

I just got done "dying" my monitor black. While it does look pretty good there are a few blemishes that I thought weren't suppose to happen with vinyl dye. I used Plasti-Kote Vinyl Dye from Advanced Auto Parts which is what people seem to be having good luck with but to me it seems more like plain spray paint. The first thing that happend is that the paint DID peel up in some places like it wasn't soaking in(mostly around where I masked it off but also one spot on top on the monitor). This was fixed by going back over it with another coat (there are 4-6 coats total depending on the part of the monitor). The other problem was that I did have a couple runs and while after a few days they did seem to soak in since they are flat now, you can still see the outline of where they were. Now I cleaned my monitor before coating it but it is REALLY old (turning very yellow) so maybe it already absorbed a bunch of stuff(like oils) that kept it from soaking up the dye. I'm not real sure, maybe someone out there has some idea of why I had these problems. But anyway even with the few problems the end result is really nice. And for all of you wondering about painting your monitor, yes I had to take mine apart. I was EXTREMELY careful though. If you are at all worried about damaging your monitor or especially yourself, DON'T DO IT! For those of you who are curious as to what I did in order to dye it here it is. I didn't want to mess with any of the guts of the monitor so I inspected it so see how the back was connected. On my monitor the back shell was attached with some screws but was not connected to anything inside. The front part however was attached to the tube. I left the monitor together, masked off the screen and the vents in the back and sprayed the front of the shell. After it was dry I set it face(screen) down on my table, and took off the back part of the shell and sprayed it. Then I just slipped it back on and I was done. I never touched any metal or anything on the inside of the monitor. Just make sure nobody walking by touches anything while its sitting open either. If you chose to take it apart use EXTREME caution and do it at your own risk. As I said before if your worried about it DON'T DO IT. Even if your trying not to touch the insides it could still happen if your not really carefull. I read about a guy who did something similar to me I think but when he was putting it back together it was on the edge of a table and started to fall off. His natural reaction was to grab is so it didn't break when it hit the floor. He grabed a high voltage wire and it sent him flying across the room. So anyway, there is my experience with vinyl dye so far. I guess I've hit the keys enough for one post, got to get to bed anyway. night

[merlinicorpus]

Well, from the way it sounds, there must have been some kinda residue where the dye didnt soak in.  I have had that happen a few times, just recoat and it should be fine.

[Mr.Mysteriosity]

so, does vinyl die work on Powder-coated cases? essentially, the coat is a layer of melted plastic, so in theory it would

[merlinicorpus]

Nope, it wont diffuse into the coating.

[merlinicorpus]

You know, according to my referring logs on my website, this thread still gets viewed quite often.  Thought I would resurect it for the younger folks.

[GotBeer?]

Thanks for bumping this thread, didn't know it existed...

  Anyway, if anyone is curious about durability, I dyed my MS optical mouse black about a month ago.  While I was at it, I decided to dye my street corner Oakleys (the green color was flaking off.)  After a month of rubbing against the sweaty bridge of my nose, no color has rubbed off.  If my nose starts turning black, then I'll buy new shades (Hey, I'm cheap!)

  I'm going to try dyeing my keyboard keys grey soon, we'll see if the black lettering still shows.

[shah]

I have a ThermalTake Xaser III Silver case and I wanted to match my CDRW, DVD and Floppy to that color. So I went to ADV AUTO PARTS and bought Plastic-kote Vinyl Dye GREy and it looked like a primer.
I got it, sprayed it and waited. Then I went to Lowes or any home department store and they had Krylon Metallic silver color. I sprayed that on top on the grey, added a bit of clear cote and tthere you have it. It turned out to be the exact color of the case and trust me it is hard to do aluminium cases.

[DurocShark]

I picked up the PlastiKote black at Wallyworld for $3.50. Decided to experiment on some old floppy drives...

Note 1: DON'T MESS WITH IT FOR A FEW HOURS ONCE YOU'VE FINISHED PAINTING! While it's drying/soaking in it will peel off easily. I noticed this like 30 min after I was done when I was moving it from the patio indoors and bumped it with my fingernail.

Note 2: CLEAN THE PLASTIC FIRST!! Any grease or dirt can prevent the dye from soaking into the plastic properly. On one floppy I cleaned half of the bezel with soap and water, and then finished with alcohol, leaving the other half alone. There is a definite difference between the two. The cleaned half looks like it was molded in black plastic. The other half is kinda blotchy looking. Still just as durable it seems, but not as attractive.

[merlinicorpus]

I picked up the PlastiKote black at Wallyworld for $3.50. Decided to experiment on some old floppy drives...

Note 1: DON'T MESS WITH IT FOR A FEW HOURS ONCE YOU'VE FINISHED PAINTING! While it's drying/soaking in it will peel off easily. I noticed this like 30 min after I was done when I was moving it from the patio indoors and bumped it with my fingernail.

Note 2: CLEAN THE PLASTIC FIRST!! Any grease or dirt can prevent the dye from soaking into the plastic properly. On one floppy I cleaned half of the bezel with soap and water, and then finished with alcohol, leaving the other half alone. There is a definite difference between the two. The cleaned half looks like it was molded in black plastic. The other half is kinda blotchy looking. Still just as durable it seems, but not as attractive.

Words of wisdom.