Paint CP before installing overlay?

BDockham

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Most likely a stupid question - I've stripped the old CPO off my panel for my Track and Field. It's now bare metal. My sense after looking at other posts is that I should get some paint on the CP before installing the new overlay. Can I just avoid the painting all together and slap the CPO on the bare metal, or am I asking for problems later?
 
Metal primer first. If the CPO covers all of the exposed areas then it's up to you if you want base color coat. If you intend to keep this machine and restore it right, I would at least cover exposed metal with metal primer. I've seen even rust come through powder coated metal.
 
My NOS Atari cabaret Centipede control panel is painted/powdercoated (I can't tell which) black. I have heard of people not painting control panels, but I would never do it. There is no way that it would be completely air tight with just a CPO on it.

Some people have said that you should paint it a light color, even white, in order for the colors to look the best in a reproduction CPO.
 
My NOS Atari cabaret Centipede control panel is painted/powdercoated (I can't tell which) black. I have heard of people not painting control panels, but I would never do it. There is no way that it would be completely air tight with just a CPO on it.

Some people have said that you should paint it a light color, even white, in order for the colors to look the best in a reproduction CPO.

Yep, I asked this question a few years ago, and was told to paint it white and the edges black because some of it would show. It was a Centipede CP and the white greatly improved the color of the overlay.
 
I took the black approach and it looked great. I cannot say it is better than white, but I have no complaints.
 
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