Painting anodized aluminium

[Lorien]

Hi all,

Does anybody have any experience painting anodized aluminium/aluminum?

I was planning on using a self etch primer and then spray painting a few layers over after checking the primer adhered (I'm not painting the whole piece of metal just adding some detailing).

Everywhere I've looked has conflicting opinions on whether you should prime then paint, sand down to the metal and then prime or just not try it at all lol.

Any insight would be appreciated!

 

[TristanDuboisOLG]

Ok, so I have some incite into this because I've been repainting a Ghost S1 for some time now. (Not that it's tough, just I don't do stuff for a while).

The entire reason for sanding before painting is because of adhesion. In this case, self etching primers will actually perform the same basic function for you and only cost you that extra drying time.

Here's the thing about sanding though, any time you paint metal with rattle cans etc, sanding will help the finish a LOT. Like, I wasn't going to sand every piece before, but now I'm rethinking that because of the finish on the few parts that I did do.

Alternately, if you don't want to deal with the anodized layers and know someone with a laser cutter, you can actually remove the finish that way. I did it after messing up on one of my panels. Worked like a charm.

 

[Lorien]

Ok, so I have some incite into this because I've been repainting a Ghost S1 for some time now. (Not that it's tough, just I don't do stuff for a while).

The entire reason for sanding before painting is because of adhesion. In this case, self etching primers will actually perform the same basic function for you and only cost you that extra drying time.

Here's the thing about sanding though, any time you paint metal with rattle cans etc, sanding will help the finish a LOT. Like, I wasn't going to sand every piece before, but now I'm rethinking that because of the finish on the few parts that I did do.

Alternately, if you don't want to deal with the anodized layers and know someone with a laser cutter, you can actually remove the finish that way. I did it after messing up on one of my panels. Worked like a charm.

Awesome thanks for advice!

 

[Lorien]

Came out pretty well! aside from the right text being ever so slightly higher than the left which is made well worse by the camera angle lol

Process went roughly as follows in case (phanteks evolv shift air btw)anybody was curious.

Removed the plastic mounts from the rear of the front panel (all held in by screws, nothing difficult there)
Wiped down the anodized aluminium with soapy water to remove any oils, dried it off and then wiped down with a tack cloth to remove anything hanging around.
Lay down the vinyl stencils (I had these made by a local guy) and then masked off the remainder with painters tape.
Sprayed a layer of etching primer for metal and left that to dry, after it dried I was pretty happy and decided to skip sanding as it was very smooth/even to my surprise.

Sprayed three layers of a gold metallic spray paint (30 minutes between layers) and then removed the vinyl & tape. I had one area where I was a little too quick removing the vinyl and it peeled a tiny bit off around the edge of a letter revealing the primer underneath which is only noticeable when you examine very closely.

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Overall not bad for a first attempt!