#Painting... Sunglasses

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

prime gulch
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Hey you guys. I've been racking my brain and trying to Google it but I can't really find anything that describes what I need. So I realized that I have the best group of people to ask right here!

These sunglasses are my absolute favorite pair and I've had them since 2020 and being in the military. My first sergeant explained how I am definitely not going overseas with them since they're shiny gold...

I was wondering if you guys knew how to take shiny metal and turn it into a matte black permanently without some paint that would chip and expose the gold and without it making it impossible to reseat the lenses.

And yes I already tried looking for the exact same pair in Black or any color that isn't shiny metal for that matter. And I came up empty-handed even after looking for 2-3 days straight

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dense tundra
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Pop those lenses out. Scuff up the metal and consider an enamel spray paint or even car paint.

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Also, pay special detail to sanding between coats for better adhesive. Might be worth testing on some cheap sunglasses too so you can discover how many coats and how durable the paint turns out to be.

prime gulch
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Oooh! I hadn't even considered car paint! That's brilliant!

prime gulch
dense tundra
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There's a lot of good spray paint variety out there now! If you have a bit of cash to spend and want to do the r&d, try a few. Car paint can also be custom mixed at places like Napa. Or, at least they used to do it. 🤔

prime gulch
dense tundra
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I would probably not bother, but I would follow manufacturer recs. Might need to be part of your exploration to see if a shiny finish that is scuffed needs more cover.

verbal hinge
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I would absolutely use primer. Paint on its own doesnt grip amazingly long-term, if you want it to last you want primer

dense tundra
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Some primers are more for chemically bridging between materials though it would depend on what paint you choose.

prime gulch
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Thank you guys so much! All of this info is amazing, paint is far from my specialty and I usually just stick to leather working so I really appreciate all your guys's input!

verbal hinge
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For longevity, Id also use a polyurethane spray after the paint. It forms basically a protective plastic coat over the paint. So the ideal process would be sand-primer-paint-poly, with light sanding between coats to rough up the surface and give better adhesion. Your decision how much effort/cost its worth though

prime gulch
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Beautiful! I'm headed to a rough desert so the more durable the better!

harsh loom
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no paint required

shadow ferry
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What about acid etching?

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mild acid

royal drum
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Some advice from an optician: if you're going to rough desert you might want to get some replacement lenses. If the wind is kicking sand into them the lenses will get messed up pretty quickly, so you might want to get a replacement pair for them.

My advice is to get some cheap sunglasses that you will wear in the desert that you won't mind getting messed up and keep the nice ones for other occasions. Just don't buy gas station sunglasses or something like that, always get them from authorized stores because bad lenses can actually harm your eyesight and don't provide any protection. For example you can get some Polaroids for pretty cheap and you get polarized lenses which could be very helpful in the desert to minimize glare.

prime gulch
prime gulch