Saturday, February 6, 2010

I can't see clearly now, but it's all okay

One of the things I do regularly is to pull out old gear, and install shiny new toys. The problem then becomes, "What do you do with the hole where the 40lb antique radar display was. The simple answer is to to fabricate an overlay panel to cover the hole. I use 1/4" inch acrylic-esque materials to do this. The problem is that there are only three  practical color choices available. White, black, and clear.
















The panels you see above are actually made from clear Lexan, that have had the back sides painted with a color of the owners choice. It works well, with a couple of caveats. make sure the spray paint you select won't melt the plastic panel. Look for paints at the hardware store that say they are for plastics and vinyls. Make sure the paint is very dry before attaching the panel. Also do all the cutting, and drilling before you paint, and mask the sides to stop over spray. I always have the owner pick the color, that way the color is always perfect.