Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
as my lid is starting to show some wear and tear, I wonder...how would a W520 look without the rubberized coating? Is there anyone who removed it from theirs machine? The surface underneath looks fine and appears to be quite scratch resistant. But I don't want to be the first one who does it...

Scroll down to the middle of the page here...

http://1-4u-computer-graphics.com/notebookpaint.htm

Whether I like his choice of colours or not, he does some pretty amazing work...

But I don't want to respray it, I'd just like to remove the paint and leave the bare material as it is

That Dell looks pretty good in red tho...

I don't mind the Dell at all, nor some of the other laptops.
I think whats wrong with the W520 is that it was photographed outside and the photo size isn't big/detailed enough, so it looks like crud.

Sleepy664 wrote:Hi,
as my lid is starting to show some wear and tear, I wonder...how would a W520 look without the rubberized coating? Is there anyone who removed it from theirs machine? The surface underneath looks fine and appears to be quite scratch resistant. But I don't want to be the first one who does it...

I've done this and it wasn't easy. It seems like you should be able to peel it off, but after some random spots, it never seems to work out very well. I ended up sanding, starting with a square palm sander at 80 grit paper, and progressively moving toward 320 wet/dry with a sanding block.

It didn't get an even look from the naked eye, but it was smooth enough for my purpose which was to spray paint it for my daughter. The technique gave a smooth look and was stable as a base on which to paint and plenty enough tooth to hold the enamel. I know that's not your intention, I'm just giving you my impression of the results.

Good luck with your project.