Spraying a Chieftec Dragon Full Tower

Schnippzle

Schnippzle

Schnippzle

Soldato
Joined
9 Oct 2006
Posts
3,761
Location
here
Howdy,
With all the mods going I really cannot help myself anymore. Atm I have a full tower chieftec dragon case with side window. The outside is matt black and the inside is the default gray. As I have had a black/red theme for my pc since I bought the case about 4 years ago I have decided to spray the inside of the case a dark red. What Im wondering is, does any one have any experience doing this? Or disassembling the insides of the case i.e. taking apart any rivets (if necessary), or any special instructions for a good results when spraying this case? I understand that a primer is a good idea, but as I am going for a darker red, should I still use a white primer or another colour?

Regards,

Schnippzle.
 
Hi Schnippzle,

Spraying a metal case interior is pretty easy although a bit labour intensive. It follows the general code of good painting which is prep, clean, sand, prep, paint, sand, paint.

The more effort you put into it the better it will look and longer it will last, you could bang it out quickly and it may look ok'ish but will not last and chip easilly.

If you were painting the metal case interior in red then I would use a dark red primer.

Also depending what paint you use you may not need to prime, I'm not up to date with modern paints as I tend to stick with the old school methods.

I also have a Chieftech Dragon (rebranded by ANTEC) which is wanting some TLC so I will be interested how u get on! :)
 
Cheers for the heads up Big.Wayne. The thing is, I have no idea what paints I should use :p Im after a matt dark red colour, so Ill probs go for the dark red primer like you said, but when it comes to paint brands etc I have no idea what is best. Gonna have a gander around the net and see whats available.
 
Yeah your best best to start would be to pop into a halfords car place, they sell heaps of different paint for cars and that works perfect with metal case interiors, chat with one of the blokes there, most of them know stuff about spraying and will sort you out. You will need 1-2 tins of spray primer, 1-2 tins of your final colour, some different grades of wet n dry sandpaper and perhaps something to protect the finished result? (clear matt varnish or similar?).

Dunno if you have ever spray painted something before but if you are a total nOObzilla I suggest practicing on something else first. Also you need to take your time when applying coats, what normally happens when you first attempt this is to try and get the full coat on straight away and it just starts dripping, total rubbish and means you have to let it dry and sand it down so take your time. When you do light even coats you will notice it doesn't take that long to dry and be ready for another coat.

So, you want to do lots of very thin coats to achieve your final finish.

Prepare your surfaces to be primed, give them a good rub down with some courser grit sandpaper so that the surfaces are keyed and ready to accept paint. Keying the surface give the primer something to really cling onto and will add to the durability of the paint job.

Example steps

  • Remove everything not wanted to be painted
  • Wipe clean the surfaces and allow to dry
  • Key surface with course grit paper (and clean again!)
  • Carefully apply your base primer, several thin coats
  • When primer has dried inspect finish and run down with fine wet'n'dry paper
  • Carefully apply more primer if needed, so you should now have a real good base
  • Find a dust free space where you can start spraying your final coats, no pets allowed
  • Start working up the final colour in several thin coats, dont be tempted to rush it as explained you will get drips

If you put a lot of effort into the preparation you will get a lovely finish that will last, if you rush it it will almost certainly be a bodge job and your money and time will be largely wasted.
 
Last edited:
Ah sweet, cheers mate :)

Got a load of wet&dry left over from when I lapped my 120 heatsink. Am I right in thinking that the 800-1200 stuff i should use before the primer and the finer stuff after? or should I use the 1200 stuff on the primer as well?

Incorporating time into your guide, would it look something like:
* Remove everything not wanted to be painted (30 mins)
* Wipe clean the surfaces and allow to dry (40mins)
* Key surface with course grit paper (1hour) (and clean again!(40mins))
* Carefully apply your base primer, several thin coats(4 hours total time)
* When primer has dried inspect finish and run down with fine wet'n'dry paper (1hour)
* Carefully apply more primer if needed, so you should now have a real good base (1hour give or take)
* Find a dust free space where you can start spraying your final coats, no pets allowed
* Start working up the final colour in several thin coats, dont be tempted to rush it as explained you will get drips (4 hours)

All times ofc including drying time. I really do not want to rush this so taking a good two days is no worries.

The one thing that I am a little worried about though is getting to all the "hard to reach" areas. I can take most parts off the case and tape off any bits I do not want to have sprayed, but do you think I will have to take apart any rivets to get to all parts of the case?

Regards,

Schnippzle.
 
Schnippzle said:
Am I right in thinking that the 800-1200 stuff i should use before the primer and the finer stuff after?
Click to expand...
Yup, courser grades to start, then finer and finer. .

Schnippzle said:
The one thing that I am a little worried about though is getting to all the "hard to reach" areas. I can take most parts off the case and tape off any bits I do not want to have sprayed, but do you think I will have to take apart any rivets to get to all parts of the case
Click to expand...
I personally wouldn't start getting involved in a spray job to the level where I was undoing rivets, you need to keep a focus of the job in hand, get it stripped, get it primed and sprayed, give it *plenty* of drying time, then get your components mounted back in the case and stand back and admire your work. Its so easy to get struck by *project drift* when you get so immersed in the details that you almost forget what is it your started out to do! :o

While I advocate taking your time and paying attention to the details you are not painting the sistine chapel, its not possible for you to get the most amazing paint job ever when you are new, you need plenty of experience, practice and mistakes etc to really produce your masterpiece.

Your project brief is to transform the look of your case for under £50, the end result should be of sufficient quality to last a good few years and withstand the odd bump and scrape.

I think the biggest problem I have with this kind of job is finding the right enviroment to spray the final coats, one little bit of dust or fluff finding its way into the coat will look crud. If your spray outside you will not kill yourself by inhaling the fumes from the spray but you will increase your chances of getting various debris blowing into your fine paintwork, if you spray indoors you can avoid most dust and stuff but you will damage your lungs. I sorta try and find a happy medium where I spray just inside my flat with a balcony door open, seems to be the best way I can find?
 
Big.Wayne said:
I think the biggest problem I have with this kind of job is finding the right enviroment to spray the final coats, one little bit of dust or fluff finding its way into the coat will look crud. If your spray outside you will not kill yourself by inhaling the fumes from the spray but you will increase your chances of getting various debris blowing into your fine paintwork, if you spray indoors you can avoid most dust and stuff but you will damage your lungs. I sorta try and find a happy medium where I spray just inside my flat with a balcony door open, seems to be the best way I can find?
Click to expand...

Fortunately we are rebuilding a lot of the house and the front room is almost done, just needs carpet, wallpaper and it will be done. I should be able to do it there as long as I give the room a good hoover before and get rid of any dustballs that could possibly take up habitat in my case. Will open the windows and get a mask on ;)

When going over the primer with the finer stuff (1500-2000), how much should I take off? should I give it a good rub just to make sure the final coat of paint can get its claws in there?

With regards to paints, is the Plasti-kote Metal Protekt Spray stuff along the lines of what I should be looking for when it comes to the final coats?
 
Schnippzle said:
When going over the primer with the finer stuff (1500-2000), how much should I take off? should I give it a good rub just to make sure the final coat of paint can get its claws in there?
Click to expand...
The main part of sanding is the initial *keying* of the metal as hundreds of tiny micro-ledges really help give the paint something to stick to. Once you get the first few coats on any sanding gets lighter and lighter to just a quick gentle rub, you are still keying the paint to accept the next coat but paint sticks to paint pretty well, thats why you gotta get the first base coat on really good because all the other coats will be using this for their strength.

If you did your coats really nice you hardly need any further sanding but it also helps remove any unwanted debris thats strayed in or perhaps the beginning of a small drip

Schnippzle said:
With regards to paints, is the Plasti-kote Metal Protekt Spray stuff along the lines of what I should be looking for when it comes to the final coats?
Click to expand...
I'm not really up with the newer paints like Plasti-kote, that is actually a different kind of plastic based paint and may not even need a primer, you could just spray that straight into bare metal maybe?

Perhaps someone else can comment further?

If your doing it the conventional way then you just need a base primer and a couple of tins of carpaint for your final coats.
 
Ok cool. Think I will go the conventional way as I want to get the surfaces nice and relatively smooth as I know the Dragon does have some rather nasty surfaces inside.

So the plan is, this weekend, obtain required things. Next week, prepare living room for spraying purposes. Next Friday, strip pc and start preparing the case. Next Sat, do primer. Next Sun, do main coats. Will have some pics for you next weekend ;)
 
Cool, looking forward to seeing your end result. I've just resurrected my old Dragon case and am toyingf with a full re-spray from that gree color to a Black/Red combination :)
 
He he. Been having a look at how Im gonna do it and tbh because the Dragon is such a friendly case to work with it really shouldnt be too difficult :)
 
Ceryndrion said:
If I remember rightly... for a dark red, you would use a black primer, a white primer would result in a more vivid red colour
Click to expand...

I was considering either using a dark red primer or a black primer to get the results I want. Thing is, I want the red neon fans to light up the red paint as well.....may well have to do some testers first before I spray the whole inside.
 
okay, in that case... this is how it will work

White Primer + Red Paint, under red light, will reflect more red light out, and look bright
Black Primer + Red Paint, under red light, some of the light will be absorbed, giving a darker red, with some areas around the fringes, looking almost black.
 
Too true. Brings me back to my Warhammer days of primers, coats and washers :p lol. Think I will go with the white primer and the red paint, and if its a bit too bright I will apply a darker red paint and see how it looks.
 
Right-o. Last night I started stripping the case of everything inside it, and today Iv been busy cleaning and priming :) The primer is now on the case, and its sitting outside drying and awaiting its sanding. Will have pics to follow ;)
 
cool, I got mine all ready also. however I am thinking of modding it before painting to somehow accept 120mm fans instead the 4-5 80mms it currently uses.
 
I was thinking that as well, however there really doesnt seem to be space for 120's unless you mod the hdd cages as well :( what I was thinking though, was flipping the panel that holds the psu and sticking a 92mm fan just above my cpu heatsink to lead air out of the case from the cpu.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom