Advice on finishing a scratched enclosure

[disto]

Today has been one of those days where things just don't work out...  I managed to ruin the finish on a powder coated 1590B (I also drilled the wrong sized hole in 1590A Doh!!!).

I wondered if anyone could give some advice about the finish on a enclosure I have been working on. I bought a red powder coated 1590B. I stuck tape on the enclosure so that I didn't scratch the finish when I drilled the enclosure. The tape left a sticky residue and I used a plastic kitchen scourer in an attempt to remove the residue. This left some scratches and removed some of the top glossy finish from the enclosure, oh the irony.

Originally I planned to screen print text and a design before adding a few layers of clear coat on top. I'm not sure if this is salvageable. I think the clear coat may hide the most of the scratches. I have included a photo below. Should I use some t-cut, fine wire wool or similar to smooth the surface before I print and clear coat or will this just make it worse?

Does anyone have any advice?

[Sleipnir]

My gut reaction is that if you're adding a clear coat, those scratches which appear to be very fine, will disappear, but maybe see what others have to say as well

edit: if you are clear coating, you could also probably sand the whole thing very lightly with 300 or 600 grit sandpaper first. I did that recently with an enamel painted enclosure and it seems to have worked well.

[ghostsauce]

No problem.. just hit the box with a different color paint by only holding down the trigger half way, it'll come out all splotchy and you can make it look really cool. Check out the red and black one on my desk in this shot.. It was red and had an ugly decal, so I removed it and hit it with some rockerguard rubber spray (lol) using this method and it is the coolest one I've ever done.



Then put the silkscreening or whatever on top of that.

[disto]

I had to google rocker guard, the can warn, still not sure why you would put it on a pedal  but your finished pedal does look effective.

I think I'll give it a go with some t-cut and see how it comes out. If it doesn't work it can do it again and treat it as a just be a practice run.

[ghostsauce]

I bought it for my car, but works great on pedals too. Probably not so much if I intend to clearcoat it but since it's rubbarized it holds up pretty great against abuse. The reason I even mentioned it was because it has an ability to spit out globs which is nice for this kinda thing. Stinks until it cures though. I've done the same with black spray paint.. probably would work best if you held the can quite far away and let it kinda waft down onto the enclosure, for a dusty kinda mix. Clearcoating onto that should look real nice.

[davent]

Wet sand the entire enclosure and clearcoat, may only need as fine as 220grit. For removing adhesive get a small can of Bestine which is a rubber cement solvent, gentle on the substrate but very effective on the glue, come across it as a recommendation for removing price sticker glue from  cardboard sleeves of used record purchases. Get a small can because once opened the stuff evaporates away long before you ever use it up. Test it first on a non-obvious spot to be sure it's good with the surface you're trying to clean.

I've always used the rocker panel paint for the bases of enclosures and to paint my hifi amp and preamp. Spray it outside it stinks, nasty stuff.

[KazooMan]

You can repair the wrong hole problem with epoxy.  Cut a small piece out of a milk bottle and tape it well to the outside face of the pedal over the hole.  Mix up some two part epoxy and fill the hole from the other side.  Use another piece of the milk bottle as a spatula to spread and smooth the epoxy.  Spread it past the edges of the hole and then flatten it to just about the same thickness as the metal.  When it is set, sand the outside surface flush with the metal and redrill the hole.  This will require you to repaint the enclosure unless the repair is covered by the knob or nut of the component.

[KazooMan]

As far as the damaged powder coat, you might want to explore powder coating your own enclosures.  I have purchased powder coated enclosures that arrived with dings in them, just like your scratch.  Too much hassle to return them.  Just for fun I decided to try my own powder coat finish.  You need a few things.  (1) a source of compressed air for applying the powder, (2) a small oven to heat the enclosure (I had an old toaster oven I could dedicate to the job), and (3) a powder coat application "gun".  I got my cheap kit at Harbor Freight.  It works OK.  Probably not as good as a high priced kit, but it works.  I bought some better quality powder from Eastwood, an auto supply place.  They also sell better applicators.  The variety of finishes available is amazing.  Buy a plain metal enclosure (less expensive), drill it, sand it smooth, spray the powder, and bake.  Pretty nice results.  My results rival the quality of the commercial powder coated enclosures.  The powder does make a mess so you need to fashion some sort of enclosure to contain it when you spray.  The other issue is cleaning the gun when you are changing colors. 

[jimilee]

Go ahead and make it look aged. We call it relic'd.

[greaser_au]

Adhesive residue usually responds well to a light solvent like Mobil B1/Shellite/white spirits/ronsonol  which I've safely used to remove tape and paper labels from plastics and paint. Try it on an inconspicuous area first! Be careful to wipe once only with any part of the rag/paper (especially on the first pass) or you will just spread the glue around.

A small piece of glass with clear tape applied to the face can be used as a level 'form' for the outside of a hole to fill with epoxy or car bog (bondo). a few hints:
1: make sure you key the inside of the hole diameter with a coarse file/sand paper for best results;
2: mix the filler carefully to mimimise the inclusion of air; and
3: apply a thin layer of the filler under a little pressure with the edge/point of the applicator to the keyed surfaces and the form (to break any surface tension and make sure there is no air pockets), before filling.

david

[amptramp]

If the hole you want to hide is the one beside the stomp switch in the first picture, no need to fill it with epoxy, just add a LED.  Most stompboxes have a LED somewhere to indicate active / bypass.  You could use it for other functions as well - LFO output indicator or tap tempo are common ones.  If you fill the hole, you would have to match the powdercoat with whatever paint you are using.  Not likely to work.

[greaser_au]

Regarding auto cutting compounds... many contain waxes, and worse, silicones (check the label carefully). silicone residue will render something unpaintable/unglueable, nothing will stick to it. There are solvents used by the crash repair trade for removing these residues, but again, one wipe and move onto the next bit of the rag, then throw the rag away when you're done so you don't contaminate anything else...

david

[Pettol]

I'd try one or two polishing compounds. That has helped me a couple of times.

[disto]

Thanks for the replies, I think wet sand might be worth a try. greaser_au I had a quick look and it looks like t-cut doesn't contain any silicones but since it is meant for polishing out scratches in cars it may well contain waxes. I think I will try wet sanding.

As for the hole in the enclosure, the small hole in the picture is for a 3mm led, I hadn't got as far as soldering components in which is why it is missing. I was drilling a 1590A and accidently drilled the 13mm hole for the DC jack where the ~9mm hole for one of the mono jacks. Since the hole wasn't too large I used a white washer on the inside. This worked but I need to change the layout anyway as everything is a bit of a squeeze so I will just drill a new enclosure.

KazooMan, I don't have the space (or time) to start powder coating, I order a 1590BRD which is a hammond pre-powder coated enclosure, the finish was pretty good anyway. They only do a handful of colours but I am was pleased with the finish before I ruined it  .

I have had problems with solvents in the past, which is why I avoided them. One trick if anyone needs to remove sticky residue is to try deodorant sprayed at a close proximity (sounds weird I know). Since I had already scratched the surface of this enclosure I gave it a go, the solvents/alcohols are mild but removed the left of residue.

I will give an update went I get around to trying to sort this out. Once again thank for the advice.

[disto]

I finally got a chance to do some work on this pedal. I did try using some T-cut, this removed some of the small scratches but did little to some of the deeper scratches. I'm not sure how much help this was. I used about three layers of clear coat and none of the scratches are now visible. Hope this helps. Here a picture of the finish.

[bluebunny]

Nice result.  Well recovered.