Painting your flashlights. Good reason to do it!

The thread about maglite scratches got me thinking, why not paint a flashlight? Visit the Krylon paint section of your local hardware store, or housewares section. GREAT WAY TO RESTORE YOU FAVORITE LIGHT!
Just don't paint it shut! Paint will seep into the crevices .

Krylon has "home appliance" type paints for things like refridgerators, dishwashers, stoves, etc. That is some powerful stuff.

Or maybe you want to make your favorite light camoflage, Krylon has that too. How about day glow colors? Or Bright meltallic gold?

A Krylon clear epoxy paint could help seal and protect the flashlight coating.
They even have some "plastic" paint to give your lights a better grip, or insulation.

One of my favorites is black BBQ paint. Will actually withstand several hundred degrees of heat.

With some dissasembly and masking tape, you can have the light of your dreams. Anyone going to try it?

does krylon paint stick to hard anodizing? I've considered playing with this concept before but never took the time.

zespectre said:

does krylon paint stick to hard anodizing? I've considered playing with this concept before but never took the time.

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Good question. I imagine if it is clean it will. Could always dab a little on the battery cap and see how it holds up. If not, you will need to lightly sand the whole flashlight to get it to stick.

Just for the record, I did not select the "...send him money!" option. Some other appreciative/crazed Flashaholic did. I do have a paypal account if you wish to donate. :naughty:

I haven't tried it on HA111 but if you key HA11 by sanding and degreasing it BBQ paint adheres really well.

I have even applied BBQ paint to unprimed aluminum and providing the paint is applied to a degreased surface it seems to withstand rough use reasonably well.
You note I've said reasonably well! No paint is going to be like HA111 and deformation of the substrate will cause flaking in a similar way to HA111 chipping .
Doug

Aren't polls fun?

Why would you want to paint a light? Scratches add character. :nana:

Speaking of appliance paint, there was cermaic appliance/tub repair brushon stuff once. It dries like ceramic. It's white though, and you'd need a lot to paint a whole light white. It could shatter too, but would be scratch resistant!!

What about a urathane stuff like truck bed lining? That'd be cool, rubberized grip and that would resist dents too as it would add cusion and flex too.

WOW spray on bedliner would ROCK as a flashlight grip material! i love that idea seriously considering doing that to my modded 6D! my dads truck has the afforementioned liner in his truck, and you cant break that stuff if you try!

WOW spray on bedliner would ROCK as a flashlight grip material! i love that idea seriously considering doing that to my modded 6D! my dads truck has the afforementioned liner in his truck, and you cant break that stuff if you try!

also has anyone thought about powder coating?

As greenLED asked - why bother?

I've niddled a little with stuff like this, but never seriously.

I've tried:

Sandblasting and clear coating. Neat, but not strong. Went through a phase where I was sandblasing everything in sight. This was done on a cheapie MiniMag clone.

Using that 'tool handle coating' stuff just to see. Bleck. Was trying to coat a chain that I was going to use for an airplane, and although the results were functional they were far from pretty. Had a little MiniMag with me and got stupid with it. The coating peeled right off when I got tired of it.

Was having a muzzleloader barrel teflon coated and tried it on an old flashlight because the guy would do it for no extra charge. Purty, but not durable.

THat was when I was younger. These days, I just beat 'em up and let 'em alone.

I'm considering some black stripes on my HF HID. Kind of a tiger stripe pattern.
It might tone down the bright orange a bit. Or maybe it'll make it stand out even more ?!??! Hmm.... :hahaha:

After playing with PhotoImpact:


Edit: Added link to photo

db: Krylon Fusion is what you need. It's made to stick to plastics well. You can have the first totally black HID! (other model from costco was gray).

i sanded and polished my mag74 =)

i think it turned out really nice =)




looks better in person =)

Wow, it does look nice. I bet that took some elbow grease and time!

I think powder coating would be the best option...I've powder-coated things before, but not flashlights. It'd probably work well. Only thing is it may make the knurling less aggressive, whether you want to or not.

JM-99

I painted my bright neon yellow PT40 tan along with my M16 mags, and a knife sheath. Would've done the M16, but I'm sure that the commander would have been a mit upset with me for that.
I could swear that I've seen some gloss black epoxy based paint, but it was so long ago.
The biggest problem with paint that I see is that it would rub or wear off. There are other types of coatings that would be more durable. Maybe something like Duracoat, or GunKote used on firearms. They'd also let you do your lights in different colors.

I remember not to long ago there was a cold rubber dip compound you could dip tool handles into to give them a comfortable handle. It came in several colors and if I am not mistaken it was made by Rust O Leum. On my last visit to Target I saw some glow in the dark Rust O Leum paint that I have been thinking about going back and getting. I would like to at the very least try it on one of my cheaper lights and see if it makes it easier to find in the nightstand. On a side note the bed liner compound sounds really interesting. I saw a small Toyota truck the other day that was totally covered with the stuff instead of paint. It looked really cool!!!!!!!!!

Paul

senna94 said:

I remember not to long ago there was a cold rubber dip compound you could dip tool handles into to give them a comfortable handle. It came in several colors and if I am not mistaken it was made by Rust O Leum.

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Heh...earlier in this same thread someone already posted that they tried the tooldip stuff and it didn't work too well.

JM-99
(I tried it before and would agree with that...tried it on an old steel hammer...peeled right off...)

Paint just doesn't hold up. It may work as a quick fix for a scratched coating, but after awhile you're probably going to regret using it.