Laptop Case Mod - Respray your laptop
by Jason Mayes www.jasonmayes.com

WHAT!? Are you crazy many people said as I told them my next project... My mission was to repaint a laptop, and I did. Then they were saying "wow I want my laptop that colour"!. The outcome was pretty damn good as you can see from the before and after shots below and I am most pleased, however having been my first time using a spray can and painting in general its not professional quality (for example I only just found out after about sanding which would have made the scratches from its previous life look a lot nicer), but I believe I know what to do for next time now and the mistakes I made could have been avoided if I was a tad more experienced in this area. On this page are the images and findings of the 2 days of laptop modding and I hope you can learn from my experience if you ever take on such a project.

(Note to users: This laptop was obtained for free - this means I did not care if I messed up as this was purely a learning experience. I strongly advise you don't use your brand spanking new laptop if its your first time - get a cheap one from somewhere and experiment first like I did. You will learn a lot.)

Well to start off with here are a few lovely shots of the final product along with before and after shots to get you in the mood:

The Laptop

It was a HP Omnibook XE2 - about 5 years old containing a P2 366Mhz processor, 128Mb RAM, 6gig hd.. so yea its not exactly gonna play Half Life 2 but it makes a good laptop for surfing the net and note taking etc which is great for uni! Below are some pictures before modding took place: (Click any to enlarge in new window)

Tools and bits n bobs...

Now then,,, where does one start who doesn't have a clue how to mod a laptop? Well first off we are going to need paint. Originally I wanted black but ended up using this as an undercoat instead to give the overall style a darker feel under the metallic blue. For this mod I used normal car spray paint. Obviously I needed a variety of tools to get inside the laptop (namely a screwdriver) though different sized ones helped for hard to get to areas. Also pictured below is a Bacardi bottle opener. WTF? Well it came in handy as a metal ruler when masking the screen! Don't use plastic, your knife will only chew it up.. (and don't have the wise idea of forgetting about using a ruler as you end up cutting things you don't want to.. like tft screen.. yum.) Sponge oh lovely sponge... don't make my mistake and find out you need to repaint cause you left a bit of dust on there! Seriously sponge like there is no tomorrow before you paint stuff. Scissors - I can't remember what I used those for but you can probably use your brain for that. Also purchased some plastic primer - it really makes the paint stick much nicer I advise using this. I tried some parts without and if you touch the paint when its half set it peels off on your finger! NOT GOOD! (This is the reason I have a small mark on the left of the screen in the final product as I didn't know about sanding stuff at the time). Finally some clear lacquer and wax spray were obtained to give it a nice shiny look! However to get a even better shine you should sand the surface first (go google for it - I think sanding kept coming back to haunt me and is the main reason I didn't get a professional finish)

Lets Strip :-)

Masking

Ahh the joys of masking heh. The next step you must take is protect all those precious parts - mainly the TFT screen and any cables with bare ends, motherboard etc.. This is boring and will take time if you want to do it properly. You really don't want paint leaking on your lovely screen. If you feel its not good enough, rip it off and start again, you will only kick yourself later if you don't. Don't forget to mask all your lovely ports if you want them to work after! I also masked the fan (not shown) to prevent paint getting inside the laptop into forbidden places. Here are some lovely pictures of masking in all its glory:

Primer

Now the fun starts! First apply a THIN coat of primer. Wait 10 mins and repeat a few times so that it is evenly spread. You can see my primer turned it silvery from the shot below. Be patient for things to dry. If you don't you will end up with a tacky end result.

Undercoat

Now add proper paint. For this I used black although I think you're supposed to use white but I like to be original... So here I go spraying everything black. Once again do this slowly in thin coats and wait say 10 mins between each new coating. Oh and sorry about the photo of the screen... that was my wise idea of taking a photo of a black object on a black background.

BLUE BLUE BLUE!

Now the black has dried (I actually left mine overnight as I didn't have any blue paint at the time and the shops were closed), you can apply the colour of your choice! I chose metallic blue and I think it worked rather nicely. I had a request since for a pink version lol maybe one day... Anyhow once again for any of you who didn't bother reading above, apply coats thin and slowly build them up. I think I used about 7 on this.

Don't make the fatal mistake of spraying non computer parts either... It doesn't come off for a long long time!

Another tip I have is that when drying things, where at all possible try to ensure no contact with the paper it's lying on as sometimes if it is humid or you applied too much paint the paint will stick and the newspaper will come off onto your pretty laptop. THIS IS NOT GOOD and leaves bumpy areas if you try and respray it! To get around this after failing 3 times I invented an alternate use for the spray cans:

Lacquer!

Now to apply some lacquer (that makes it even more shiney and brings out the colour really nicely). Simply apply thin coats till your happy. Dont touch it either or else you will leave a finger print and it wont go away.

Polish it up...

Just to go that further mile lets take a moment to make things nice smelling and shiny to the eye... For this I used some spray on wax which you rub in using a soft cloth (small round wipes). Apply a few times till its squeaky clean and marvel at your shiny parts :-) Now we are getting to a stage where you will see your hard work pay off (or not if you didn't put any in).

Unmask Meh

The time has come... Has your paint spilt through onto your lovely screen or any other part of the laptop for that matter?? Slowly and carefully unmask all the bits of tape you put on before. (If you didn't you are a fool and I bid you good luck in reading anything on your screen again,)

Once unmasked, the tricky part of putting everything back together again comes to play. Don't forget to take the masking tape off any fans you may have masked to prevent paint leaking through to motherboard!

And here I am trying to put everything back together again...

Some detailed views of the laptop's keyboard connection to motherboard - very delicate job do not get angry when doing this:

Some detailed views of the laptop's screen connection to motherboard:

Finally, replace all the other components and screws and you're done! Oh checking that it still works is also a good idea! Don't end up with the below its very annoying though I don't think they were important...

*insert charming language here* Where the devil did they go?!

Final photos

Well, you have reached the end of my crazy tutorial... I hope you learnt something from it and that it benefits you somehow :-) To end things off here are some photos of the final product in all its glory! Enjoy.

Oh, and here is evidence it still works (sorry about blur had to do it without flash or else TFT reflected it):