Re: Control panel finish...

While my method isn't exactly the same genre finish you describe, I found
that the method I'll describe here was relatively inexpensive, and gave me
beautiful results. I stripped the paint of my Asteroids panel, then I used
the "extra large" black control panel overlay material available from Video
Connection for $20. This single piece covers the whole control panel in its
entirety. I then applied my Asteroids overlay on top, and it looks
excellent. This control panel overlay material is the same type that is
used to make the marquees for Star Wars, and control panels for Star Wars
and Tempest, etc. It's that nice textured stuff.

There is one improvement that I made when I had the opportunity to do this
on another control panel. That is, I cut out the region that the overlay
would occupy, so that there was no physical discontinuity between the
overlay graphics and the surrounding black material. I have to say that
doing it this way makes it look like it was meant to be this way. It just
looks really good to me.

I don't think you can go wrong with the powder coating, it's just expensive.
If you like the look and feel of the textured black control panel overlay
material, give that a shot to see what you think. If you don't like it, you
can always peel it off and send the whole thing off to be powder coated.
:-)

Joel-

-----Original Message-----
From: Clay Cowgill <vector_clay@hotmail.com>
To: vectorlist@synthcom.com <vectorlist@synthcom.com>
Date: Friday, May 05, 2000 1:39 PM
Subject: VECTOR: Control panel finish...

>Have any of you refinished a control panel (say, an Asteroids control
panel)
>in something other than just paint?
>
>In particular, the original Asteroids CP finish looks like some kind of
>powder-coat to me (although maybe not as durable). It definately has some
>"texture" to it that's not replicated with any aerosol paint I've run
>across...
>
>Anyway, my boss just got a bunch of cut sheet-metal powder-coated for the
>control panels in his airplane. They came out looking REALLY nice, but I
>think it was on the order of $200 for them ($50 or $100 for setup and $100
>for the actual work).
>
>So, I'm curious now if anyone here has any experience with powder-coating
>stuff you might be abe to share? (Or any other "alternative" durability
>coatings like chemical phosphating, parkerizing, ceramic powders, epoxy
>resins, etc.)
>
>I'm thinking I might buy a media blaster and clean up my rusty Asteroids CP
>really well, then have "Portland Powdercoat" do it in a semi-gloss black
and
>put one of Tom's repro overlays on it... Sure, it'll probably end up being
>a $400 control panel by the time I'm done, but I'm curious to see how it
>would look. ;-)
>
>There's also some "home" powder-coating systems that look fun to play with,
>but I don't have a spare oven to do the curing. :-/
>
>Thanks,
>-Clay
>
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Received on Fri May 5 15:04:18 2000