Textured surface for my CP

[Gradius]

I'm thinking of using some kind of textured surface for my next CP. There's a material that is used for hi-fi speakers, which is a kind of textured vynil. Do you know if it's good for this? The CP I have now is made of MD wood, gun painted in black, and it's nice, although the part where there's friction with the hands has turned very shinny. What do you think of the idea of textured surface, asthetically and for practical reasons? I think the shiny buttons will contrast with the slightly textured surface, creating a beautiful appearence. I don't think the material will deteriorate with the usage, or am I wrong? Also, I don't think it's a material that is much hard to clean or where you leave fingertips marks, etc.

[Soulcon]

You could cut out a sheet of thin metal for a control panel overlay. Then get it powder coated. They have I think Red Blue and Black colors. Powder will stand up to just about anything from my own personal experiance on Cars.

-Soul

[paigeoliver]

Black carpet runner (rubber hallway mats) is cheap at home depot and it has a different texture on each side. It looks terrible in photos, but looks pretty darn good in person. (When used as an overlay).

On one machine I simply made the control panel out of plywood and spraypainted it black, and it never drew a single comment, not in real life, not here, not anywhere, it blended that well.

[paigeoliver]

Also, the larger the control panel the more wear the overlay material is going to get. People don't tend to touch the panel itself much on small panels (no room) but large panels get trashed.

[Soulcon]

I did my Mini cab in sort of the same way as your plywood CP. Hoever I went a little cheaper . I ended up finding some Crap partical board that was used in the packaging of my new water heater. O cut the wholes out chipping the hell out of everything but it worked. I then used some Kids paint and put about 5 thick layers of the stuff down after I did 2 coats of Primer. It gave the CP a little bit of texture as well aas giving your hand a coushie resting spot due to so many rubbery layers .

Again no complaints yet other then my color choices. But it was for my Daughter and she loved it so I could care less .

-Soul