Database Develop

Flat Black MDA

Well the factory warranty ran out so why not paint it! Here it is in a flat black. I really, really like the look of it. But the bad part is...the paint that I looked all over town for...is worthless. I used the Krylon Fusion that's supposed to freaking bond to the plastic and not even require sanding. However I used 2000 grit sandpaper to just give it something to grip on to. Then following the instructions it says to wait 7 days for it to become fully chip resistant. Not only does it chip...easily...the paint comes off! The first time I put it back together after waiting a week...I made a call and of course the oil from my face got on the front bezel and screen. No biggie I thought...I wiped off all the smudges with my shirt...and the paint came off onto my shirt! I couldn't believe it. So I'll have get this paint off and redo this phone with a much better paint. Anybody have any suggestions for a flat black?

Haven't tested as i'm not that skilled (i think) and phone's still under warranty.
http://www.instructables.com/id/E5MGY2CF5EB7KDV/
hope it helps. cheers

Painting over is not a good idea :\

Any way to fix scratches on X1 case?

(First of all, I apologize if this is not a forum where one can post questions regarding hardware only.)
Yesterday I bought a used Xperia X1 for a budget price. The phone is in good shape. And looks like I hit the right ROM instantly (826X-peria ROM with WM6.5.3 and Sense UI 2.5). Everything works like a charm, and I really love everything about this phone. Well, except for one thing.
The white "Sony Ericcson" label just below the ear-speaker was half-way scratched away. It looked fuzzy. So I got the stupid idea to remove it completely. I took a cloth and some polishing paste, and rubbed it away. It looked fine last night, but today, in daylight I saw that I scratched some of that black brushed surface too. I didn't anticipate that this black brushed outer surface was so thin. The surface remaind smooth as it was before. There is no difference of feeling under the finger, it's just that some lighter/silver tone is coming out there where the "Sony Ericsson" was. Is there a way to fix this?

The black finish is the worst of the ones X1 came in, so many people just did away with the entire black coating to make their devices look presentable. The best way to fix this is to use the finest sandpaper or nail block to remove the errant black and make your X1 uniformly colored.

Oh, I really like the black finish.
And I would have to disassemble it to brush away the black on the front cover. Looks tricky...
I was hoping for some kind of a solution from the outside. Like some special paint, or something...

Please delete this post.

No, It's not about he battery cover. I already polished it.
It's about the front cover. There where the "Sony Ericsson" label is. Just below the ear-speaker.
The stupid thing is that I made this mess myself...
I made a photo, but the forum doesn't allow me to post links, because I'm a new user.

Need help with a first world's problem...

Okay, I'm gonna start with this that I have OCD. Now that you know, Let's get on with business.
This happened to my beloved tablet:
Don't ask why or how, it's a long story and frankly it doesn't matter now, it's done.
my purpose for this thread, was that how can I fix it?
I've tried ceramic paint, it was okay, but it had some serious flaws.
1. Hard to paint it with that. huge PITA with brush, better with a sponge but still really hard.
2. It's very stable, and can't be removed easily, but, it cracks and falls off after a while.
3. only one coat is not enough. it needs at least 3 coats to completely cover it, and with that many coats it is creates a big bulge which is a huge eye sore.
Now, I've came to this conclusion that paint is no good. I thought I going for a complete re-paint (as I really like black for these stuff, I thought that may be a good idea), but when I opened the back cover of the tablet, I changed my mind. Now, I need some suggestions.
Thank you.
Before you post something, remember, I have OCD.

so, replacing the back cover is out of the question.. Going be a tricky one to solve.

thats going to be a pain to fix but i still think paint is the way to go.
Use a high grit sand-paper and sand it down until its smooth.
Use a spay of black primer and put like 2 coats of primer on and allow time to dry between hands.
Then i would use a high gloss black spray paint. 2 to 3 light coats of that.
Then very lightly sand it down(more of roughing it up a bit, not actually sanding it down) with the highest grip sandpaper you can get your hands on.
Apply 2 coats of clearcoat.
finally use a buffing compound and lightly buff the surface, that will give you a mirror black finish.
Those are steps i have taken in the past to paint electronics and they lasted a while under normal use and i was happy with the results. You could probably find a better step by step guide online somewhere.
Oh, and make sure you mask the screen and the side panels with MORE then one layer of masking tape or you will scratch it.

m1l4droid said:
Thanks for the reply. You mean full body paint? But it's very sensitive, slightest mistake and you lost your USB or speakers... and it's very hard to cover the speakers, am I right?
And you mean to scratch the whole paint off? That's really hard, on this device which is quite big, and has markings on the back.
I was thinking maybe covering it with something like leather... I can design a pattern for it or something, no?
Sent from my Nexus S with CyanogenMod 9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, the back cover pops off and you can do anything youwant to it without affecting device functionality. Iknow from my a500. As for the scratching, I meant that you dont want to scratch by accident your screen and the sides of the tablet, where the Ports are located. the paint will be a pain to do but with patience you could pull it off. you need to understand that since you are not a paint pro there will be a trade-off between the quality of the work and the self satisfaction of doing it yourself.
As for covering it, go to an upholstery shop and look at different fabrics. Get a really good glue, an exacto knife and a heatgun and get on it. Keep in mint that once the glue touches the tablet, there is no going back.

scratched my black one :(

Hey all, I dropped my black one against some metal and the back got scratched to the point where you can see the aluminum underneath. Anybody have any experience with this and how to possibly hide it so it's not as obvious? I was thinking a black marker might cover it up but I don't want to get the wrong tint of black and make it look even worse.

oxipod said:
Hey all, I dropped my black one against some metal and the back got scratched to the point where you can see the aluminum underneath. Anybody have any experience with this and how to possibly hide it so it's not as obvious? I was thinking a black marker might cover it up but I don't want to get the wrong tint of black and make it look even worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen recommendations for black markers. I'm surprised you can actually see the silver aluminum. Thought they had some kind of multi layer black thing going on. Hmm.
Do try the black marker on a VERY small area. wait for it to dry and see whether it works well.
Otherwise if you're still within 30 days of ur phone's purchase. Find even the most minor of defects and bring it in to a store. Maybe they'll accept an exchange.. :S That's all I can recommend :'(
Wait to get other replies first though! Maybe someone else has better experiences (I'm here with a silver One)

I have the black One and tried using a black permanent marker to cover a mark at the top edge. I did not really care about colour differences since my scratched is very small, but my makeup did stay even I waited until it was dried to handle the phone.
I have heard people saying a marker bought from halfords, that's a car shop by the way if you are not in UK. The pen is used to hide car imperfection and can stand rain, dust, and etc, so it must be much tougher to remove.
If you are not sure about colour, yes, I would suggest try a small area first, but if you do have a long scratch it would be difficult to find the perfect colour.
Keep up updated if you find a good pen, so I will stock one as well.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

oxipod said:
Hey all, I dropped my black one against some metal and the back got scratched to the point where you can see the aluminum underneath. Anybody have any experience with this and how to possibly hide it so it's not as obvious? I was thinking a black marker might cover it up but I don't want to get the wrong tint of black and make it look even worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds painful

Finally worked up the courage to buy some paint and go ahead with the paint job. Thought I'd give you guys an update. I bought some Tamiya XF-1 paint, it's supposed to be matte black ink for plastic models. So after the drop my phone looked like this.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1308152/phone paint job/IMG_20130531_210230.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1308152/phone paint job/IMG_20130531_210315.jpg
I used a toothpick to pick up a drop of the paint and blob it on each scratch. Then I used a moist kitchen toilet to scrub away the paint that didn't get into the scratches. End result is this.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1308152/phone paint job/IMG_20130531_211936.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1308152/phone paint job/IMG_20130531_212012.jpg
Overall I'm pretty happy with the result. You can still see the silver surface pop up at some angles and I'll probably do another few passes of the paint and scrubbing to try and get it perfect.

Possible fix for scratched bezel

I saw a few guys complaining about the scratched/bumped bezel which looks ugly because the paint will reveal the metal underneath.
Well, I also damaged my watch by accidentally hitting it . Permanent markers are not a good solution because they do not last.
Apparently the bezel is made out of aluminium and only the watch body is made out of steel, that why, maybe, the bezel is less resistant.
Last evening though, an idea came to my mind, which I also applied on the watch. The result is promising .
Using some fine sandpaper (600) and some real paper after that, I completely removed the paint from the top of the bezel.
As a technique, I laid the sandpaper on a flat surface (table) and then I pressed the watch on it while rubbing it. After the paint was completely removed, I did the same operation but using a regular sheet of paper (to add a nice finish on the metal surface).
Please be careful: you have to press the watch against the sandpaper (laid on a flat, hard surface), not the other way around. In this way you leave no room for mistakes and the revealed metal will be uniform and nice, w/o weird edges.
This is the result.

That actually looks really nice! I'm Impressed with it . Just out of Curiosity what watchface is that also as it suits the watch really well.

That's a custom watch face for WatchMaker (built by me). You can download it from here.

I'm not sure I have the b... sorry guts for this kind of job

First Hardware Mod!
That looks great! I know it's just a matter of time before I will need to do this. I have sanded/polished like this before and may I warn everyone:
Make sure you keep the sandpaper flat. If it rolls up under the face it will scratch the screen.​Better yet, only do this with a screen protector.

Really nice. You should offer your services for a fee, to do this for others afraid to do it themselves. Not that you'd offer any guarantees, but you have proof you know how to do it right .
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Wow that's a great fix for this. Showed the scratches on my bezel to the lg team at ces and they were surprised and would follow up with me after the show. They said they hadn't come across this issue (which I find hard to believe). Like you mentioned OP the bezel is aluminum and the lower parts are steel and seem to be much more durable paint wise.
I'm hoping they might send me a new watch with some better paint but if not I'm definitely going to use this method!

it does look good, however once you do this there is no going back ........
if you want a better finish you may want to try crocus paper after you have removed the paint on the bezel, crocus paper is very fine and may give a smoother finish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocus_cloth

Once you have bumped the outer bezel into an outer object, hard enough to expose the metal under the paint, the is no going back either. But at least, there is a way to move forward .

ro_explorer said:
Once you have bumped the outer bezel into an outer object, hard enough to expose the metal under the pain, the is no going back either. But at least, there is a way to move forward .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So very true.
I personally think that looks fantastic and a milliion times better than a scratched bezel. Mine hasn't recieved any scratches yet, but seeing your results, I'm no longer panicked about that happening.
Thank you for a great solution!

yes of course, I like the look of it too
How long have you had the watch since you did this? Is there any signs of corrosion on the exposed Aluminium?
ro_explorer said:
Once you have bumped the outer bezel into an outer object, hard enough to expose the metal under the paint, the is no going back either. But at least, there is a way to move forward .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I did the operation on January 2nd (when I posted on the forum ). One full week passed since then .. no signs on the metal surface whatsoever (expected, it's aluminum and this does not corrode).
Here is a photo from today.

ro_explorer said:
I saw a few guys complaining about the scratched/bumped bezel which looks ugly because the paint will reveal the metal underneath.
Well, I also damaged my watch by accidentally hitting it . Permanent markers are not a good solution because they do not last.
Apparently the bezel is made out of aluminium and only the watch body is made out of steel, that why, maybe, the bezel is less resistant.
Last evening though, an idea came to my mind, which I also applied on the watch. The result is promising .
Using some fine sandpaper (600) and some real paper after that, I completely removed the paint from the top of the bezel.
As a technique, I laid the sandpaper on a flat surface (table) and then I pressed the watch on it while rubbing it. After the paint was completely removed, I did the same operation but using a regular sheet of paper (to add a nice finish on the metal surface).
Please be careful: you have to press the watch against the sandpaper (laid on a flat, hard surface), not the other way around. In this way you leave no room for mistakes and the revealed metal will be uniform and nice, w/o weird edges.
This is the result.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my watch for a little over a week and don't recall hitting it against anything but this morning noticed my bezel has a scratch longer than half an inch. Doing a Google search brought me here.
I was going to try your method today. I understand using the 600 grit sandpaper to remove the rest of the paint from the bezel but how does the regular paper help the finish? My uneducated guess would have been to try a finer grit sandpaper such as 1200 instead of the paper.

You can use whatever finer than 600 you have (even coarser but you may risk it going coarser that that).
Unfortunately, 600 was the finest I had in house at the moment that why I used id. After that though, the metal finish was matte, missing that fine polishing .... there is where the regular paper got into action. If you use a regular laser printer paper sheet, it will act as a very very fine sandpaper, enough to give that fine polishing on the pure metal (aluminium in this case - soft metal, no other reason.

ro_explorer said:
You can use whatever finer than 600 you have (even coarser but you may risk it going coarser that that).
Unfortunately, 600 was the finest I had in house at the moment that why I used id. After that though, the metal finish was matte, missing that fine polishing .... there is where the regular paper got into action. If you use a regular laser printer paper sheet, it will act as a very very fine sandpaper, enough to give that fine polishing on the pure metal (aluminium in this case - soft metal, no other reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You sir are a genius - your solution actually makes the watch look better than before the problem.

dzyuba said:
You sir are a genius - your solution actually makes the watch look better than before the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please tell us what did you do exactly to the watch, step by step. Thanks.
My request to any other people who want to adopt this method, please record a video of the process. Then upload it to youtube and share it with us. Thanks.

The entire process that I used is described in detail in the first post of this thread.
There is also the possibility to use a nail file (there are some guys who did that and the results are quite nice as well).

Guys,
This looks fantastic. Perhaps even better than stock. I've got a 1/4" scratch, so not quite ready to take the plunge...but certainly thinking about it.
-Doc

I should probably post this here also. I managed to ding up my watch pretty badly crashing my skateboard, and a user suggested I try this method. I did it a little differently by finishing with a 3000 grit and using metal polish cream on the exposed metal to give it a nice shine. Here are before and after pictures.

The metal polish is definitely adding a nice touch. Thanks for the info.
// sent from my phone //