I'm completely resleeving my swordm/thermaltake 1200w pc and have found most of the connectors I need (and in the right color(s)). Unfortunately, there are a few connectors that I have been unable to find in the correct color and some I can't find at all so I'm left with the prospect of having to paint over the current connector to get the UV Red color I'm shooting for. The white connectors turn out pretty good when I either airbrush them or spray paint. Those stinking black connectors are nasty though. I've tried everything I know how to try to paint those damn things red and UV them later. I've tried spray and brush, with primer and without, acrylic and enamel, etc. nothing works. Has anybody figured out how to paint black plastic connectors?

Thanks

Plastic is tough, you need an adhesion promoter so the paint doesn't end up flaking off. I usually rough up parts with a 3M pad and use a white primer called Coverite 21st Century in a spray can, you can find it at RC hobby shops. It will stick to most anything and lays down very flat.

3M also makes several adhesion promoters for plastic and auto parts stores carry adhesion promoters in spray cans as well.

Krylon also makes a paint designed to bond with most plastics called Fusion that doesn't need primer.

If you find self etching paint at any local auto-parts stores, or home improvement stores.

the size would be pretty hard to paint really well. I would take AntiM's advise a little roughing up.

Also I would recommend ClearNeon as well. You still may need to rough it up, but it would be pretty kewl to see black connectors that glowed Red.

Thanks for the info guys. I think I've gotten the right "stuff" to do the job correctly i.e. self-etching primer and SEM Plastic Adhesion Promoter but they don't seem to have helped. I'm probably not using them correctly or in the proper order. Can you give me some idea about how best to apply and use these things? Do I sand or Dremel with 100 grit, then apply the adhesion promotor, then the se primer, etc. or is there a better process? Should I spray, airbrush or paint? I've never done this sort of thing before. Thanks again for your help.

100 grit is way rough, a scotch brite pad will work fine. You just need to take the shine off the plastic you're painting. With the Adhesion promotor, you don't need primer. Just paint with the SEM, wait at least 24 hours, (read the can, might be more) and paint with the color you want.

Most self-etching primer, while it works great on metals and bondo is not generally formulated for plastics.

I know it may not give you the feeling of "doing it yourself", but why not just buy replacement connectors in the color you want?

4-Pin Connectors | Page 1 | Sort By: Product Title A-Z - FrozenCPU.com ?

They are fairly cheap, and IMO better than spending a lot of time on a paint job that may or may not scratch right off.

Quote: Originally Posted by Sn0wMan I know it may not give you the feeling of "doing it yourself", but why not just buy replacement connectors in the color you want? 4-Pin Connectors | Page 1 | Sort By: Product Title A-Z - FrozenCPU.com ? They are fairly cheap, and IMO better than spending a lot of time on a paint job that may or may not scratch right off.

I think he's talking about different ones, he got most of them replaced, maybe the 20(4) pin or the PEG's.

Quote: Originally Posted by AntiM 100 grit is way rough, a scotch brite pad will work fine. You just need to take the shine off the plastic you're painting. With the Adhesion promotor, you don't need primer. Just paint with the SEM, wait at least 24 hours, (read the can, might be more) and paint with the color you want. Most self-etching primer, while it works great on metals and bondo is not generally formulated for plastics.

I'm almost positive we repainted our deck chairs with a self etching plastic paint, that "is absorbed" by the plastic is some way, and all we did was run a SOS pad on it beforehand (as per directions.)

But he might have got the metal stuff, it works well too(i don't know on plastic though.)

by the way

Hi, thanks again for all the great advice - most of which I have used to find a process that works. I finally got a reasonable looking "paint job" but the color is way to dark so I'm going out tomorrow and get a lighter color. Here's what I wound up doing that seems to work OK:

Scuff with 800grit

Use the SEM - directions call for initial spray, allow 5 min flash time and then spray again. Wait at least 15 min but not more than 30 and spray on paint.

Only I sprayed on the self-etching primer (green in this case 'cause I couldn't find a lighter color like white)

Waited for all this to dry and sprayed on Dupli-Color Bright Red.

Like I said, it turned out pretty good.

And yes, I would have preferred to purchase the connectors but there were some connectors that didn't come in UV Red or even white i.e. 24-pin power connector for mobo although I did fine a 20+4 that came in white and was a no-brainer to paint. I also had trouble finding the correctly coded 8-pin connectors for the 2 other power cables coming from the PSU (the squares and semi-circles didn't match the receiving connector). If anybody has a vendor that they think supplies "unusual" connectors or housing, please let me know. So far, FrozenCPU (and sometimes Directron) has been my preferred vendor because they have 95% of all the stuff I need.

Wish me luck. With all the dis- and reassembly I've done in the last week, I'm sure I screwed up somewhere and will fry some components - am going to fire up 1 cable/header at a time tomorrow and hopefully not burn anything up. I will take out my QX9650 and replace it with a cheapy cpu - that's one component I can't afford to fry.

Thanks again for all your help.