painting plexi for bezel?

[oreo632]

Hey guys, I tried to make my own bezel yesterday and found out that I can't measure worth  . Anyways what a waste of Formica, thankfully I it was just left overs I had lying around so no financial harm. Just a pain in the arse for nothing. Anyways since I spent all day trying to create the 19 inch bezel and got nowhere I was considering just painting the plexi and use this as the bezel. Is there any concern in doing so? I plan to do this tonight unless someone chimes in here saying not to.

I'm not worried about wasting plex. I CAN paint just not measure. In case you guys ask the dimensions I need are 27" wide by 22" or above higher. If you guys know where there is a bezel that has that size and the cutout already I'd be happy to check it out. I have been on eBay and seen bezels there but the dimensions aren't wide enough or tall enough. Yes I do know about the mattboard and might use that as the alternative. I also saw this other board called foam board that looked promising too. Anyone who is looking for a cheap way to make a bezel could go that route. I'm not only because I have the paint already.Any help would be great. I'll be posting an update on my project later today as well. Thank you for your help.

[Eddie_Brock]

Good Luck and have fun!

From my experience, make sure you remove whatever tape you use as a border as soon as you're done painting. I waited until the paint had dried and it had seeped under the painter's tape a bit, making clean up a bit of a hassle.
Check out my post on the matter if you care.

[oreo632]

Good Luck and have fun!

From my experience, make sure you remove whatever tape you use as a border as soon as you're done painting. I waited until the paint had dried and it had seeped under the painter's tape a bit, making clean up a bit of a hassle.
Check out my post on the matter if you care.

Thank you very much. I am going to try this and will use your advice about the nail polish. I had to do the same thing yesterday to get old dry erase marker off. Anywho do you have any pics you could post about how it looked after? We'll see how it goes...unfortunately it's one of those tvs that are silver 

Thanks again and any other help helps.

[eds1275]

Silver TV? I haven't done this, but if I were to do one I'd probably use some sort of flat black tape - for example hockey tape - over the television's built in bezel around the screen to help hide the silvery-ness. Under plexi [tinted?] I'm sure it would be invisible and a secret helping-hand.

[severdhed]

that is how i have done my bezels in the past and i am very happy with the results.  it is difficult to capture how good this looks with a camera, but in person, it is fantastic.  very professional looking..

here is my most recent one.


i used blue painters tape to mask off the screen area, sprayed 2 coats of flat black spray paint from walmart (.97cents/can) and it came out beautiful.

[garnerb350]

+ 1 with Severdhed...in fact on mine, i used leftover black paint and threw 2 coats on mine...painters tape and Whoa-lah...

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I used electrical tape around the edge of a beige monitor behind painted glass. Worked great. And after 'mitering' the edges of the tape in the corners of the monitor it was all but invisible.

[knohbody]

All of these are good suggestions, I'm leaning towards painting the back of the plexi for any of my upcoming projects, tho I'm curious as to why no one's gone to Micheals and gotten them to do a custom mat the sizes they need. Or a local art dept, where you'll likely find someone willing and able to do it for cheap, as long as you provide the mat board or foam board.
There's a matboard/foamboard (it's foam with a matboard glued to it basically) that's black all the way through that would probably be ideal for bezels.
With a tv though, you'd definitely want to hide the original color of the tv underneath the bezel as well.

[severdhed]

personally, i think painting the back of the plexi looks way better than a separate mat behind it.  i tried making a bezel out of black foam core i picked up at the craft store, but i just didn't like the way it looked.  the nice glossy look of the painted plexi looks much more professional in my opinion.  in fact, on my showcase cabinet, that is the way it was done from the factory.  i do have a foam core bezel behind it, since i am using  monitor that is a little smaller than the dead one that was in the cabinet.  i didn't want to spray paint the existing one to mask it off smaller in case i ever decide to put a bigger monitor in.  on my other cabinet, it isn't a big deal to pick up a new piece of plexi and make a new bezel if i change the monitor. (that is exactly what i did when i decided to change it from a horizontal mounted monitor to a vertical monitor.  however on a showcase cabinet, the plexi is quite large and would be much more expensive to replace. (not to mention that there are slots cut in it in both sides for the speaker grills, i have no idea how i would re create those)

if you are using a silver TV (i have one in my showcase cabinet) i would highly recommend either removing the existing tv bezel and painting it, or covering it with electrical tape or something similar.  i havent done this to mine yet and the silver edges can be seen...it is mildly annoying.

[BobA]

I'm curious as to why no one's gone to Micheals and gotten them to do a custom mat the sizes they need..

Micheals need 100 % correct measurements to make a custom mat that you can use as a bezel.  For some builders these measurements are hard to put down on paper.    The paint on plexi on the other hand is very easy.  Put the cut plexi in place and put tape to outline the screen.  Then mask off the area with more tape and paint.   No measurements required.

[Dechene]

2 coats of Black spray paint on the back of the plexi is perfect, it will be shiny and slick on the other side.
I also have a silver TV. i just taped up the screen and sprayed the front casing black, took all of 2 minutes and now you can't hardly tell that it is just a tv in the cab, it is just sexy shiny black glass to smooth black plastic to bright colourful arcade game on screen. Works well!

[TOK]

You can get really nice results from painting the back if you're careful. I've done it a couple of times and use paint made for plastic R/C car bodies. I've had standard paint not bond right and crinkle as it dries. The stuff made for lexan has never failed me. Here is the bezel I did for my bartop and the control panel for my horizontal MAME cab. Wipe lightly with rubbing alcohol and dry with a lint free cloth. Pics don't do this process justice. The paints go on flat but get the shine from the front side of the plexi. You just can't get that glow with art under clear plastic.

[Hoopz]

I've used electrical tape, a bezel from Happ, and painted plexi.  All are easy.

Check out this thread for a cheap option:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=17175

[VanillaGorilla]

One tip from a former auto painter:

use a 3m gray or green scuff pad to add some abrasion to the surface you are going to apply th paint to AFTER you have mashed off the protected areas. This scuffing of the surface will allow you to forego the nail polish to hold the edges down. If you scuff properly, you will have DIFFICULTY getting the paint to come off. Thats what you want, right? Then clean the surface before you paint to remove dust, oils from your hands, etc...

[oreo632]

Wow, I'm gone for a day and the post goes  Anywho I haven't painted the plexi yet apparantly a three year old I know (my son) taped the entire house with my painters tape a couple weeks ago while I was at work    I am off to get some more tape today and paint away. All great tips I especially like the black "hockey tape" to cover the silver body of the CRT. Thanks again for all of the suggestions it really gave me more confidence in going ahead with this. You guys rock! 

[TOK]

One tip from a former auto painter:

use a 3m gray or green scuff pad to add some abrasion to the surface you are going to apply th paint to AFTER you have mashed off the protected areas. This scuffing of the surface will allow you to forego the nail polish to hold the edges down. If you scuff properly, you will have DIFFICULTY getting the paint to come off. Thats what you want, right? Then clean the surface before you paint to remove dust, oils from your hands, etc...

Wouldn't that very visible when viewed through the plexi? My paint jobs are both going on 4 years old, one has spent a winter and summer in the garage and hasn't peeled or flaked.

[VanillaGorilla]

Wouldn't that very visible when viewed through the plexi? My paint jobs are both going on 4 years old, one has spent a winter and summer in the garage and hasn't peeled or flaked.

Nope. The scratches are filled by the paint, improving the bond, and no scratches are seen if the appropriate level of abrasion is used (green or gray, green being finer than gray, but gray works better, IMHO).

[ghettodish]

Mine came out OK

[oreo632]

just finished painting the plexi and wow, it looks so professional. I am very please by the way it turned out. The only other thing I might do is ad one more coat tomorrow to cover those minute little pinhole spots from the air bubbles I'm still not sure though. Thanks for the pics. I am very glad I chose this route. 

[fallacy]

I don’t really get the point of painting glass. You can just buy a piece of black card board from hobyloby or whatever craft store is in your area, cut it out, spray paint it gloss black and stick it behind your glass.

Why go through all the trouble of spending an hour taping up your glass crossing your fingers and praying to god the paint wont bubble up or tear when you remove the tape. If it messes up to bad you have to trash your glass vs just trashing a piece of card board. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

[severdhed]

I don’t really get the point of painting glass. You can just buy a piece of black card board from hobyloby or whatever craft store is in your area, cut it out, spray paint it gloss black and stick it behind your glass.

Why go through all the trouble of spending an hour taping up your glass crossing your fingers and praying to god the paint wont bubble up or tear when you remove the tape. If it messes up to bad you have to trash your glass vs just trashing a piece of card board. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

because if you pull it off (pretty easy to do) it looks 100 times better than a piece of card board.

[michelevit]

I've done both the cardboard behind the glass and painting the glass.
Painting the back of the glass is way better. Looks perfect and correct. 2 coats of black paint makes the perfect bezel.