Paintjob on the 380

[AlphaKilo470]

Hello folks, I just recieved a 380D from a forum member and it's in pretty good shape with the exception of some expected cosmetic wear and two spots on the wristpad with the paint worn off to reveal the plastic underneath. However, luckily, the plastic underneath is black, just like the paint, so I'm pretty sure that if I could somehow get the rest paint off, the wristpad would look brand new.

Would anyone here know of a good way to get the paint off without harming the plastic?

If I can get the rest fo the paint off, I'm also thinking o possibly repainting it. Would anyone know of a good brand/type of spraypaint to use?

[MadeInJapan]

Hey there...thought of that myself but decided it wasn't the risk...then didn't use it anymore. Good luck!

[AlphaKilo470]

Well, I looked around in the garage but all I could find is sandpaper and solvients, both of which are out of the question. Sandpaper might damage the surface texture and solvient might screw up the plastic.

At this point, I'm thinking I might have to live with it. Actually, come to think of it, the transistion between the paint and plastic is rather smooth. Maybe I culd just get rid of any lose paint then put a coat of a good spraypaint over it if I can find some good spraypaint for plastic.

Well, until I can come to a sure solution, I'm just going to live with it. I'd rather good physical shape over cosmetics. Besides, when you're a student in high school, sometimes it's good not to look the best and turn the most heads. I can take comfort in knowing that if my computer and my friends Dell were in the same room, his computer would get stolen first.

[BillMorrow]

brake fluid will usually take most any paint off..
but this might be a bit extreme..
so why not try some paint remover.. it is pretty caustic stufff but should work..

then a trip to the local body shop (no not THAT kind of body shop, an AUTO body shop) and look into the paint they use on the new flex bumpers on most all cars.. and make it a semi gloss or flat finish..

[AlphaKilo470]

Well, I stripped off all the paint tonight only to find that the stuff I used left the plastic looking greyish and that I'm out of spraypaint so it's off to Home Depot tommorow. For tonight, I'm having to decide whether I want a black ThinkPad or if I want to stray from convention and make it grey like an older Toshiba or NEC from the mid 90's. Hmm, if I do black I'll only have to repaint the wristpad. If I get grey I'll have to go over all the plastics. Still, the grey would look pretty nice if I get the correct shade.

EDIT: I just had a new thought cross my mind. Does anyone know where you can find the rubber paint like that used on the 760's and other various ThinkPads?

[AlphaKilo470]

Well, I finally got around to going to the Home Depot and I bought some black spraypaint for plastic and today I applied a few coats to the wristpad. So far all looks good but I won't know the final results until the paint dries and I'm able to reattach the wristpad to the computer.

[AlphaKilo470]

Success! The wristpad was finally dry enough that I could re-attach it to the computer (though I'm still going to refrain from using the computer for another day to be safe) and the wristpad looks almost like new now. Only problem is that the paint is glossier than I originally wanted but depending on how well she holds up I might repaint the rest of the ThinkPad as well so the gloss won't be a problem and everything will match perfectly.

Still, all in all, she turned out pretty nice and alot better than many of my other DIY jobs.

EDIT: Wow, I just remembered I had bought this computer for parts originally. It's now one of the best looking computers I own. Now if only something could be done about the wear on the keycaps themselves other than having to replace them.

[AlphaKilo470]

Today, I got around to reading the Hardware Maintenance Manual so I could figure out how to remvoe and take apart my screen so I could apply the same paintjob to the lid as I did to the wristpad. Now that the paint's pretty much dry, it acutally looks quite nice. The computer itself with the new paintjob all over looks almost like something you'd find in a store or booth off the streets in a high tech part of Japan or wherever. Unfortunatley, the paintjob also makes the computer look like it's worth stealing so I might have to be more careful but since it's almost never out of my sight at school, I'm not too worried.

Later on tonight or tomorow when I get around to reassembling the laptop, I'll try to remember to take some digital photos and post them in the pictures thread afterwards.