painted clevos, please share experience!

whoever has painted or has had their clevo painted please share your experience with us!

 

One of the better known companies in the industry (I would say the most elite as well):
www.smoothcreations.com
They do all of Alienware's mALXs and special projects like the Superman laptops. They also do jobs for companies such as Nvidia and Maximum PC (they have done every Maximum PC rig of the year for years). They painted three of my rigs including my Hypersonic FX7.

 

check out this thread, it has Clevo's with paint jobs
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=104024

 

I paint about 20 a week. I like the vast majority of them. Good build quality and not to many screw balls thrown at you. I have had good relations with most of the distribution chain from ODM, OEM's and resellers. I have zero problems recommending a Clevo.

If you are looking to do a custom job yourself...I highly recommend using a professional painter with a good HVLP gun. Check your local custom car shops. They will probably charge you a metric ton of quarters and dimes for a one off job....but they do REALLY good work most of the time. Ask what kind of paint they use...PPG and House of Kolor make me the happiest. As for Clear Coat...that is a never ending battle of mine. I still have yet to find one I really like for this purpose. Some can cure in 2 hours and be hard as diamonds to get dust nibs, scratches and such out. Some can take 72 hours to cure which affects turn around time but in the long run you have more time to work on paint issues. Make sure the shop is clean.Paint shops by nature are VERY dusty due to a lot of sanding. Down draft spray booths are really good to.

Masking...you should invest in good tape that can handle a tight line. I hate using normal house painters or auto masking tape. I use a very specialized tape that can cut a real fine line. Paint and masking in certain areas is a art form. Around the touch pad is the number one place I have issues with. I am getting better and better each week. Some systems you get lucky and the touch pad comes out, some you just leave them in. Make sure any electrical part that you leave on does not get baked past 120 degrees.

Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.

 

As a consumer I would not trust my laptop to anyone but someone who SPECIALIZES in laptop/computer training such as LaptopDesignUSA or Smooth. These people clearly know how to take apart and put together a laptop in addition to their painting skills. Spend the money because you are really commissioning a work of art not just buying a paint job.

 

The real difference between SmoothCreations and LaptopDesign is this...(At least to me).

When you go with Smooth Creations you commissioning a piece of art. They are artist and **** good ones. When you come to Laptop Design we expect YOU or someone you know to be the artist (Although we do have our own digital art designers if you need design services). We provide the service for pumping out enough units for to supply a reseller with a decent turn around time. We can provide a 7-10 business day turnaround for a order of 1 or a order of 1000 units. We structure our organization around good turn around time for every level of service.

BTW Darth...your Star Wars tower is still my all time favorite. That may change after I finish my own personal case mod....I am dumping about $1500 just into the case. It will highlight all of the methods I have at my beck and call..Paint, Dye-sub, Color shifting Powdercoat, minimal lights, dremel cutting, maybe some minor robotics and even some laser etching. It will be based around Frank from Donnie Darko.

 

I have to disagree. While the fact that they have experience at disassembly gives them an advantage (no need to mask the delicate parts) with NOTEBOOKS there are tons of perfectly capable artists that can mask the laptop with excellent results.
Cost is an issue for most, $200 vs $1000
I have been a fan of custom painted 'things' for years. I have had 2 cars, a motorcycle, 2 bicycles, 3 helmets, a baseball helmet, 2 desktops, a monitor, keyboard, 2 mice, my daughters battery operated car, and 2 notebooks painted by professional paint shops(****, now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind having the money I spent on painting over the last 11 years ).
If you find a good artist that is capable of doing what you want and has a good portfolio then you will not be dissappointed. Masking a notebook is not an easy task .... repeated for effect - It is a severe pain to mask a notebook to the point of painting all of it and requires an experienced painter that knows how to prep.

BTW - I work on the road and was away from my 'usual' artist so my current notebook was done by a motorcycle airbrush artist I found in St Louis. It was his first computer. I don't know if it's art or not but I like it. For the price he charged since it was his first comp ($160, mouse included) I like it even more.

 

Actually I still have a ton of masking to do. We try to avoid getting paint inside the systems. Paint dust and chips can contribute to heat and system failure. Once the modification has contributed to the failure of a unit then the threat of a voided warranty is increased by a very large magnitude. I would say a average laptop takes us a hour to mask. That is with all the quick lessons we have learned. If you are painting the whole system and not taking the unit apart and THEN masking...you are just asking for trouble.


Some of the other things that Laptop Design and Smooth Creations have that a typical painter does not is relationships with ODM's, OEM's and professional clear coaters. In the balance between painting a base coat and the clear coat. The clear coat is much more important to get right. You can screw up a base coat and cover it up with clear coat...a bad clear coat job can not be covered though. Then there also comes the fine balance between how different clear coats act.

As for the relationships. If Joe Painter breaks a single retention clip on your mouse button controller board (A very cheap part - but they are very brittle in some systems)...how long do you think it will take him to find the part nomenclature, find the supplier, create a account, pay for overnight shipping sometimes from Hong Kong, then put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Again...If you are painting the whole system and not taking the unit totally apart, then masking all screw holes/access paths/ports/air vents and in short the total interior...you are just asking for trouble.

I am not against people doing their own mods...I just hate to see them done wrong. I am very much a DIY guy. Just be aware of all the pit falls. If you are going to do this...be prepared to spend a few weeks without your system and expect at least 20-40 hours of hands on work perfecting that system. We are only able to get that time down by putting dedicated people on each job and they become very quick at what they do. I can strip a laptop and reassemble it in less than a hour. Add a hour by our masking guy, a hour to our painting guy, a hour to clear coating, a hour of buffing out dust nibs, a hour of Quality control per system, about a hour of paper work and time tracking (The worst part for us) a lot of curing and drying time, and of course hours can be added for any issue found. Not to mention our vast collection of tools. Our first few months had many hours lost in looking for the proper tool.

 

Taking a laptop apart, putting it back together correctly is not something you do lightly. You don't mask the top to do a quality job.
For LaptopDesignUSA: ****, you guys really kick em out. On the Donnie Darko theme: Coolio! My wife and I love Donnie Darko (there was a really cool Frank action figure we saw at the mall . . .might make a good model for you). I am planning my next mod as we speak . . .it will have a more human-like feed.

 

I think the most often mistake people make when modding of anything is not allowing enough time for themselves (or the pros they hire) to do a good job.

The needs of people vary as some have more time than $$ and others more $$ than time. My last notebook was masked and only painted on the top. On this one I did quite a bit of research deciding whether to take it apart or not and decided not. I did however spend about 4 1/2 hours masking my notebook before delivering it to the painter. I didn't even consider shipping to a computer 'specialist', however this conversation, coupled with the obviously great work has put that option on my list for next time.

I wasn't trying to imply that you guys do not provide a neccessary service in the market. Smooth Creations and Laptop Designs represent the top of the line in computer painting. I just wanted to show that those willing to spend the effort and time can also get great results via other routes.

 

Painting just the lid....that would work. Go beyond that and....I cringe.

 

So, do you guys paint the metal on the Clevo 570U or do you order a plastic cover. If the latter, where does a n00b like me go to get one?

 

We can paint anything. They do not make separate plastics lids....

I would be the happiest man in the world if I had a metal version of every lid. That is where we shine is on a solid metal lid. Many lids with plastic can not have the plastic and metal separated and we get stuck with painting. Painting is not our preferred method.