# Painting Enclosures & Decals



## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

So...what's the best way to paint a metal enclosure? Should I sand first? Acrylic or Oil? 

I just bought a pedal off flashPUNK which was painted in what appears to be acrylic white. The acrylic seems to be coming off pretty easy, so I don't know if oil is a better choice. 

Basically, I want to strip the pedal, re-paint it a solid colour, and then I'm thinking of applying a decal to it. What's the process for decals? Can I get some paper from a arts/crafts store and print whatever image I want on it? Then what?

Clearly, I've never done this before, so all you DIY pedal-geeks need to give me some pointers!


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## flashPUNK (Feb 16, 2006)

I suggest you grind/sand the pedal down to the metal - leaving it a bit rough, so the paint has something to grab onto (what I didn't do the first time I did it 

If you want a glossy finish, clear coat it a couple times..

I know for a fact that you can find quite a bit information about painting enclosures on the BYOC Forum..

Good luck, let me know how it turns out!


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## Guest (Feb 25, 2009)

Check out Beavis Audio's Box-In-A-Day recipe: http://beavisaudio.com/techpages/boxinaday.html

Here's a neat alternative to water slide decals: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=71307.0


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Awesome, thanks guys! I found some stuff on this TGP thread as well.

Mike, I will definitely keep you updated about how it turns out.


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## allthumbs56 (Jul 24, 2006)

I used an auto paint (trans blue) and a clear coat when I made the last one. I got waterslide decal paper at the local hobby store. Just make sure that you build up the clear over the decals in multiple thin coats. I also used my oven on low to "bake" between coats.

The secret ingredient is patience .............


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

I think powdercoating would be cool... more work but more durable than just about any paint.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

So far I've sanded off the paint using emery cloth and a good measure of elbow grease. There's a few spots around knobs and jacks and stuff where there's a wee little bit of paint left, but I don't want to gut the pedal to do this, so I'm thinking of just taping off the jacks and pots (once the knobs are off) and spraying it. I'm waiting for the weather to warm up a bit so I can do this outside so my gf and my cat don't complain. I'll post some pics of the sanded down pedal tonight. It looks pretty cool, and I would have maybe kept it that way if I didn't have a bitchin' cool idea for painting the pedal.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Here's a pic of it sanded down mostly.


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

I'd take the guts out if I was you - you'll make it WAAAY easier on yourself. All you literally have to do is undo the nuts around the pots, jacks, and switch and it should pretty much just drop out.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

I wanted to do that but I'm not sure what to do with removing the bezel and dc jack. I haven't inspected those completely and I don't want to have to desolder and resolder them unless I really, really have to.

If it's easy to do, then I would definitely go for it, but I know literally nothing about putting pedals together, so I'm not sure what to do when it comes to the LED bezel and the power input.


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