# painting malamine



## Frozenmouse (Apr 13, 2012)

has anyone painted malamine with any success just thinking of a grey interior on one of my display tanks for the lounge room


----------



## saximus (Apr 13, 2012)

I haven't done it but I would suggest roughing it up with a bit of sandpaper so the paint will stick better


----------



## browny (Apr 13, 2012)

if you rough it up with some sand paper first it should work, can't say I've tried it personally though


----------



## CaptainRatbag (Apr 14, 2012)

clean it well and spray it with that vynal spray paint you spray vynal door trims on cars with. Comes in the usual colours.... flat,gloss or satin black, blue, brown...Maybe gray? not sure. etc. Comes from repco or super cheap type stores about $18 a can. Gotta be really clean and it bonds with the vynal coating on the mellamine 

Edit: Oh, inside the enclosure? Dunno... that stuff stuff stinks.... prolly ok once it cures? I painted inside mine with waterbased paint from Bunnings. You get a 500ml sample pot tinted whatever colour you like... about $16. Clean the mellamine really good.... extra really good. Any grease or dirt and paint will lift.... no grease or dirt, it wont. What about glueing/velcro-ing 12mm polystyrene to the inside of enclosure, hammer some dents into it, drag the soldering iron over it a bit to make it look 'rock like' then paint it with same waterbased paint ... looks good, paint sticks to it great its and insulation too


----------



## bigjoediver (Apr 14, 2012)

Try going to a small cabinet makers and purchasing a sheet of laminex and gluing it


----------



## -Peter (Apr 14, 2012)

There are products available for painting over laminates. ESP being one of them. You can also use shellac based paints. You key the surface with fine sandpaper or steel wool, paint it with the product and when dry treat it like any other surface. There are also paints for laminate, glass etc.


----------



## ralliart3 (Apr 15, 2012)

As above use a shellac based primer then paint.


----------



## AndrewHenderson (Apr 15, 2012)

I used ESP (easy surface prep) and painted on it with normal water based house paint I had left and it is still sticking today with no chips.


----------



## bimbo (Apr 18, 2012)

I painted my inwall(ish) fishtank pannels with a primer designed specifically for melamine/plastics. I think it was white knight brand from bunnings then over the top with normal waterbased house paint. The finish is still looking like the day it was painted (except for the dirty 1 year old sized hand prints)

HTH
James


----------



## Just_Plain_Nuts (Apr 20, 2012)

melamine is one of the hardest things to get adhesion on, the safest option is give it a really good going over with steel wool, then give it a coat of oil based primer with a liberal addition of Penetrol. Then you can paint over it with anything else.


----------



## rvcasa (May 8, 2012)

Frozenmouse said:


> has anyone painted malamine with any success...



Ooops... everything was mentioned already, (no need to repeat it all over again!)


----------



## Frozenmouse (May 9, 2012)

thanks for all of the replies i will try the steel wool and primer .


----------

