painting tented plexi glass

[zaktallica]

Ok I got smoke tinted plexi glass for my cabinet but I dont want to buy a bezel so I heard about people painting the back side of the glass/plexi with paint to block out the borders of your tv. What kind of paint do you use for this? Does anyone have any examples/tips? Thanks

[shredso]

I tried this with less than perfect results.  I used the plastic film that came on it to mask off the border and the paint seeped under.  I guess you would need to tape it off better than I did.

[zaktallica]

haha why didn't you just use some masking tape? What happened what were the results?

[ghettodish]

Mask it with paper and blue tape. Rustoleum makes a line of rattle cans made for painting plastic. Works great:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=35549654&albumId=2311221

[zaktallica]

hey that looks nice. Mine should be pretty easy because its a flat panel screen so no curves

[severdhed]

I painted my plexi and I am very happy with it.  I masked it off using blue painters tape, and sprayed it with flat black spray paint that I bought at walmart for 97 cents.

[Ginsu Victim]

I just did this to my plexi the other day and it looks great.

[severdhed]

here is  a pic, but it is very hard to see exactly how good it looks in person.  it is very glossy and beautiful looking, and as long as you mask it off properly, you can get a really nice edge on it that fits your monitor perfectly.

i did the same thing with the plexi on my control panel.  that whole control panel and box are being rebuilt this weekend to make them look less crappy....but i once again sprayed the back of the plexi and it looks really nice.

[ghettodish]

I never thought of painting the underside of my control panel. That looks a heck of lot better than my granite shelf paper! I will probably do that on one of my upcoming projects.

[severdhed]

yeah, i was suprised how well it turned out.  I had just painted the MDF black teh first time, but it looked crappy..so i figured i'd give it a shot, it turned out so smooth and glossy looking, i was very, very pleased.  i could have spend $4 or $5 on special plastic paint, but i figured i'd try the cheap stuff first..and since it was well protected, i shouldnt have to worry about it wearing off...it payed of and worked out very well. 

i saw in another thread that TOK used a similar method on his cabinet, but taped it off and painted stripes on it...it looks really, really nice.  i figured i'd make a simple black one because i want to get it finished, and then i'll mess around with another piece to see if i can get it to look right with a pattern....

here is his:

[Turnarcades]

Althouh finding space and creating mountings can be awkward, building a bezel is easy and can be done for cheap, if not as cheap as a can of paint. cut a hole in a piece of wood and use that as a bezel, or use black foamboard or mountboard.

[TOK]

Thanks again for the props, Severdhed...

I've been using Pactra R/C car paints for my panels. They have a lot of colors and since it's made for the thin Lexan car bodies, it always turns out nice. Costs a little more, but they also have a nice variety of colors.

I had a can of regular black spray paint crinkle up on the plastic one time. It went on nice, but as it dried, it shrunk and cracked.

[RandyT]

Most plexi comes with a protective paper.  An old sign painter's trick is to use an X-acto knife to cut out and peel away the parts you want to paint.

The best paint for this is probably regular Krylon (not the water based stuff) spray paint.  If you want to go the extra mile, get the stuff specifically made for plastic.  Use multiple light coats and allow a few minutes between.  Creep under is caused by blasting too much paint on at once and creating a puddle at the edge of the mask.  To avoid possible tear-away of the paint at the edge of the mask, it may be a good idea to carefully pull the masking before the paint dries.  This may or may not be possible, depending on how old the plastic is.  Removing the paper from stuff that has sat around a long time tends to be more difficult.

RandyT