Advice, Please: Glossing Frosted Plastic

[Clive At Five]

I'm looking to beautify my old G4 iMac and have pondered giving it a glossy finish, if possible.

As far as anyone knows, is the frosted plastic of the shell a surface effect, or a characteristic of the plastic used? I'd like to have a fully transparent shell when I'm done, but I will settle for a glossy outer coat. Any suggestions on how to go about accomplishing this? Buff it then spray with 30 coats of gloss finish?

Thanks, everyone.

-Clive

 

[trose]

I'm looking to beautify my old G4 iMac and have pondered giving it a glossy finish, if possible.

As far as anyone knows, is the frosted plastic of the shell a surface effect, or a characteristic of the plastic used? I'd like to have a fully transparent shell when I'm done, but I will settle for a glossy outer coat. Any suggestions on how to go about accomplishing this? Buff it then spray with 30 coats of gloss finish?

Thanks, everyone.

-Clive

Im pretty sure it's the plastic, not a surface effect.

I've been around a lot of G4 iMacs, some that have been rather beat up... if it was a surface effect, wouldn't a scratch reveal a transparent layer underneath? I've never seen that.

 

[Clive At Five]

K, thanks for your input. I'll just have to see if I can gloss the outside.

-Clive

 

[RichardI]

Hi Clive. Try this. Get some clear GLOSS acrylic paint - a model store will have some - I recommend Tamiya. Clean a very small spot in a corner somewhere that is not too noticeable, (but that you can see when the Mac is on) and with the screen lying flat, brush on (a good quality red sable brush should be used) a coat of clear gloss acrylic. Cover immediately with a dust cover to keep the dust off as it dries (a large rectangular pan would work). If it looks good to you, do the whole screen. The beauty of the clear acrylic is that it can easily be completely removed if it doesn't look good.

Rich

 

[meagain]

What about good car paint like a Tri-color white from PaintScratch, etc? Clear coat it, buff. Would be interesting.