Hey everyone, I'm the boards newest NOOB

well anyway, I've got this beautiful 18.1" LCD monitor, but it's about a year old, with a 50 ms response time, so it's useless for gaming. I like to have all my hardware match, and I purchases a black 19" CRT. I am buying a black keyboard, mouse, and I'm gonna paint my speakers.

So anyway...has anyone ever painted an LCD before? I searched the forum and didn't turn up much on this topic. I read it's best to take the monitor apart if you want to be careful, which I probably will, but I have no idea what to expect.

Should I take it apart, lightly sand it, prime it, spray paint it black (which spray paint? model car kind?)

let it dry, put it all back together, and have a rockin BLACK 18" LCD to go with my 19" CRT! Ahhh I'm getting excited!!

Does anyone have any tips for me? I don't wanna wreck this baby, it cost me a ton.

Thanks for your help! I'm really looking forward to modding my computer. It's gonna be an experience, that's for sure.

I would say to get the best results would be to take it apart, however, I have never done it and do not know if you'll be able to properly put it back together. But it woiuld be best to take it apart and paint each piece while it was laying flat on the ground that way to avoid any runs.

basicly what he said..
just take it apart.. When I do my CRTs I just take off the back pannel..
get a sheet of paper cover the front screen and tape over it so no paint gets on the screen.. and I use primer, then I paint it.. I use the Kyrlon paint.. and then after like 2 or 3 coats (what ever looks nice) I put on a nice clear coat.. and then I put it back together and try not to scratch it

i wouldn't disagree with anything they said. if you really want it to come out smooth, get some wet/dry sand paper (auto section of wal-mart or the body sections of an autoparts store) and wet sand it. then let it dry off and add about 2 more light coats. you can then add a clear coat or repete. if you have some runs or something like that its a good way to get rid of them.

I personnally disagree with all of them, I paint monitors all the time, First you DO NOT NEED TO TAKE IT APART!!!

Your just wasting your time.

tape off the screen

grey primer the whole thing one or two coats up to you.
then paint your color, one light coat at a time, don't worry if it's not a total cover, each coat will make it thicker, just be sure each coat is a light coat, after your done with about 3 or 4 coats of your color, go ahead use your clear coat the same way light coats.

Defenatlly use automotice enamals, I use plasti cote or krylon enamals. If you take your tiem and have patients you shouldn't have to wet sand or anythign extreme like that, just take your time.

Now if your planing on painting your case or anythign like that you should take it apart and wet sand and all that jazz, but since your painting your monitor and you can't take everythign totally off without havign a major pile of parts to deal with, I would not even bother to take it apart and just take my time and paint carefully. other wise wet sanding certain parts will give you a funky effect of some shinny and some semi shinny parts, won't look good, this way you get an even effect.

im gonna disagree with GigaShadow, if you dont take it apart you are going to get paint in the vent holes on the back of the monitor and it could damage the internals. pull of the base of the monitor, paint it. take the back of, paint it. take the front cover off and lay the LCD itself on a soft towel or something where it wont get damaged then paint the front, i painted one of my CRTs a while back and i took the whole thing apart and it worked fine accept when i put it back together the power button didnt work so i bought a 17'' LCD

Ok about paint getting in the holes, ya get hardly any paint at all in the holes first off, and the stuff inside won't get hurt by paint if alittle does get on it as long as it's dry, I've painted a hundred monitors like this and most of them are more than a year old and on 24/7 and never had a problem with any of them. But it's still my opinion your wasting your time takeing them all apart there's nothing to hurt. Of course if your stupid enough to leave it pluged in well then you deserve what you get. But anyway, do whatever. The only reason i would even consider taking one apart is if I'm replacing the majority of the case with plexi glass. other wise it's a waste of time.

lcd's are a piece of cake. here's what i did to one:

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-160-3.htm

That is AWSOME!!!

hehe that was pretty cool.

anyway, I've read a lot on the net within the past day, and I've come to the conclusion that using Vinyle dye is the best way to paint plastics.

So...I think I am going to take my LCD apart, and just apply the vinyle dye. You aren't suppose to prime it, sand it, or anything, because the dye is absorbed INTO the plastic.

Is this correct?

I got it from here: http://www.gideontech.com/guides/vinyldye/

http://linear1.org/gm/archives/00000065.php

http://forums.pimprig.com/archive/topic/3323-1.html

So I guess I'm pretty much set using Vinyle Dye?

I'm still kind of scared about taking this thing apart, dying it, but hey it'll be worth it!