Quote Originally Posted by Algonquin
Is there a special paint for the metal casing you use? Just curious about the adhesion factor.
I generally use spray lacquer, and find that it adheres very well to these aluminum casings. For this one, however, I had to use enamel because the local hardware store near where I work didn't have the color I wanted (a light beige) in lacquer. I found the enamel harder to work with; it's touchy on adhesion and tends to "orange peel", if you're not very careful. I think that if I'd presanded the surface more thoroughly, it probably would have gone more smoothly. I just gave it a quick scuff, and it wasn't quite enough.

Bottom-line: I'd recommend sticking with lacquer, because it seems to be a lot more forgiving. Even better, buy the enclosure pre-painted! Pedal Parts Plus has a nice selection of sizes and colors. Since this was a full kit, that wasn't an option; it came with a bare metal enclosure.

Quote Originally Posted by M29
I am curious how you go about doing your decals? I am sorry if you have already covered this. I have been thinking of giving the decal paper a try that you put in your printer. Is this what you use?
I've used inkjet decal paper from Papilio thusfar, with fairly good results. When I started, I used to cut out the individual graphics much like we used to do with model car and plane decals, as a kid. However, this is tedious, and you end up with an uneven surface in the top clearcoat, due to the thickness of the decal itself. There are ways to mitigate that, but it adds even more work.

I finally got smart and started doing full-face decals. In other words, that pedal has a single decal that covers the entire top. The perimeter is about a sixteenth of an inch outside of that red border. The application of the decal itself thus becomes very easy; you just have to be careful to squeeze out any air bubbles trapped underneath. They sell a "mounting fluid" that you spread on the surface to be decaled, and it makes it easy to slide the decal into exactly the right position. Then you squeegee out the excess water, pat it dry, and let it dry overnight. Add a couple of coats of clear lacquer or enamel, and you're done. Since the edge of the decal is at the perimeter of the pedal surface, it blends right in and isn't really noticeable.

The full-face method takes a lot more effort to set up, though, because the graphics have to be positioned in exactly the right locations on the decal to correspond to the controls. I end up printing it to regular paper to see how it aligns, then do any necessary fine-tuning before doing the final print to the decal paper.

I need to re-order decal paper (Warning! Not cheap!), but this time I'm going to try the laserjet variety. We have a nice color laserjet at work, and it gets around the tendency of the ink to bleed a bit, even when "sealed" with a couple of coats of clear lacquer or enamel, which is necessary before soaking them in water for application.