painting plexiglass?

[roosta21]

I am building a pc in an acrlyic case and have a question. I have used a piece of plexiglass in my car before to mount some toggle switches and I painted the backside white...It gave it a nice deep glossy look. I was going to do this with the 2 empty bays in the front of the computer. My question is do I have to buy glossy paint or does it matter? Should I paint the edges or just the backside?

[Knothead]

No prob, Roosta, you'll need 2 things:

#0000 steel wool, (which you can find in the paint/wood finish section of any hardware store) and

A can of epoxy enamel spray paint (although you can use just about anything, really, even white primer.).

Scour the backside of the acrylic with the steel wool until it has a uniform dullness. Then paint. It's just about foolproof.

[paul9]

hi knot, does priming the plastic in this way affect the gloss on the finished job?

[Siliconjunkie]

Priming will make it the color of the primer. Remember, you are actually seeing the first layer you put on.

[paul9]

i was talking of the act of scouring the plastic, in order to key it to accept the coat of paint, not a coloured primer paint.

[pphalan]

I done this several times for control panel ,clean the surface with alcohol and you don't have to use gloss to get a gloss look.

[roosta21]

Yea, i am not sure that i want to scuff the surface because i want it to look nice and glossy. The piece that i had in my car stuck well for years and it was not scuffed up.

[Siliconjunkie]

test it, just get a small piece, scuff it, paint it and see what it looks like. My guess is that it will be glossy.

[roosta21]

Is that a guess or have you done it? Why would i scuff it if i have painted a piece before and the paint stuck fine?

[Siliconjunkie]

Because it is the right way to do it? Do what you want, it's your plexi. If you want to do it half-ass, thats your call.

And, if you would have actually read my post

My guess is that it will be glossy.

You would see that it is just that, a guess.