How I wasted my thanksgiving break

So, keep in mind this is still a work in progress, but I was bored and decided my laptop could use a face lift. I decided to on a black and white theme and maybe i'll add something else later. Let me know what you guys think.

I used krylon fusion for plastic spray paint and their clear coat. It took about 3 coats of the white and I put a couple of the clear on there.

First was to tape off everything.





Than go crazy on it with some sand paper (400)


My yummy



Done...Almost



Paints a bummer, takes too long to dry. Plus the tape I used to tape off the edges kind sucked so i have some bleeding on screen and other places the paint wasn't supposed to get on...that'll be fun to clean up. I should have probably invested in some painter's tape.

 

<3 Love it. Super jelly.

 

nice! i wonder if it's possible to get a digital camo pattern version

 

just use acetone or some paint solvent and it will come off... sandpapering/polishing is a bad idea most of the time.

 

Great job man, love it! You certainly didn't waste your day.

Alienware should definitely offer 'Albino White' as a colour option. I'd buy it

 

last I checked (been a while) they didnt offer a clear for the plastic paint. Is it something new?

 

just google for it, they do sell clear coat.

I love how unusual it looks as well i am a bit skeptical about how the black inside with white outsides gonna match, i mean when its closed its awesome, but it must feel weird when open&using

 

Thanks guy, hopefully the paint will be completely dry by today and i can put it back together and post some pics of the completed product.

The clear coat I bought wasnt part of the fusion for plastic line up, but i figured it wouldnt matter since its not gonna be touching any plastic, just the white paint, but we'll see how it goes

 

Heres some pictures of the laptop put together, but edges haven't been cleaned up yet.





Ignore my hairy leg in this one



I'm really digging the black on white theme

 

I'd go ahead and spray the whole thing white, just leave the black line to the sides from the power button + the plastic screen guard thing. But then again, the palm rest might not react very well to painting, as it is this sand papery thing.

 

Ask for tips from ejohnson, he painted the whole thing white

 

This is something I would be extremely interested in doing, but I'm afraid that since I have no experience painting or material knowledge, it would turn into a complete disaster without a thorough guide and maybe a YT video.

A white M11X is one of the best looking laptops I have ever seen.

Such a shame that AW doesn't offer various colours such as sky blue and white.

 

I'd definitely get a white if there was an option!
I think it looks great, I really love the black and white theme also.

Awesome job bro.

 

Its mostly preparing everything for painting, as prep work is most of the work and most important, then you need a dust-free area and spray it... M11x has some curved etc. and it would be a bit time consuming to prep it really well, same with painting, some tricky corners etc.

I always wanted a paint gun, would be way better than spray can for stuff like that... Probably wont get one anytime soon, but a man can dream...

 

Yup prep work definitely takes the most time. I spent at least 1.5 hours just over taping edges and cutting off the excess tape with an exacto blade. Once you get that done painting layers is really simple and takes no more than 1 minute for each layer, then you just gotta let it dry for like an hour or so before adding another layer.

One thing i found out is that once you have all your paint and clear coat on there you need to let it sit for about 5 days or a week for the paint to completely dry because even after 24 hours the paint is still soft and can be easily be messed up.

I honestly dont think a paint gun would be better. I thought about buying one since I already had an air compressor but I would probably never use it again. I think spray paint works just fine because the area your covering isnt big at all. I think a paint gun could be justified if you were to paint something like a car because that much paint would be a heck of a lot cheaper for a paint gun than in cans.

 

I wish I had the time to do projects like this.

full college load sucks.

 

Looks nice, One thing I did when I painted mine, was to remove every part. Its all held together with melted plastic posts. If you cut those posts off you can take the fan grill out and leave it black. You can take the alienhead out of the lcd also.

Krylon makes a good plastic clear coat. I have used it in the past on other projects and it worked really well.

 

krylon is what i use for my sealing personally

i personally wash everything I paint [after dissassembling completely] and handle it only with gloves until i do the final coating of sealing

make sure you give it a few days to fully seal and avoid the rush to put it all together

any small details that you want to hilight can be done with a toothpick or a needle point dipped in paint as well

 

When you painted your did you do the arm rest part with the mouse pad? I dont know if painting it would mess up the mouse pad, and I dont wanna paint just part of it cause it might look weird since its one piece.

 

I don't advice about painting the palmrest, in time it will get usage marks and won't look good.

 

No I didnt paint that part.

But, since my wife wanted the white one, she didnt want any of the portal theme stuff. SO, I have a name plate that says "aperture science" left over.

here are the pictures from mine though.