Keezer Chalkboard Painting

Looking to start my keezer build this weekend with a 7.2 cu. ft. Frigidaire. I'm going to paint the body black with appliance paint, stain the collar, and paint the lid with chalkboard paint. The lid is not smooth. It has a sort of dimpled surface. Not dented, but dimpled from the factory for aesthetic purposes. Anybody know if several coats of chalkboard paint will fill this surface in enough to make it smooth. Or should I do something like used automobile Bondo to fill it in and sand it smooth before painting?

I've gotten tons of great ideas from this Forum for my build and I appreciate any advice anyone can offer. Thanks!

I think I used the same freezer (I have the black one). It was pretty easy to convert and works great.

I'm not sure the chalkboard paint alone will give you a smooth surface on the lid. You might want to cover it with a piece of hardboard or something (and some wood trim), and then paint the hardboard.

yeah, you'll never get is smooth with the chalkboard paint alone, its gonna take at least a few coats of high build auto primer or bondo and some sanding (hopefully you have an electric palm sander!)

Rick500 said:

I think I used the same freezer (I have the black one). It was pretty easy to convert and works great.

I'm not sure the chalkboard paint alone will give you a smooth surface on the lid. You might want to cover it with a piece of hardboard or something (and some wood trim), and then paint the hardboard.

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I thought about doing this but I'm concerned about moisture getting trapped between the board and the steel lid and rusting it out over time. Not to mention the occasional spilled beer someone places on top.

I think I'll try the Bondo option. Have either of you worked with this before? Do I need to strip the lid down to bare steel to get it to adhere well? Fortunately I do have a palm sander (compliments of a short contracting stint at Bosch's USA headquarters).

If you use enough paint and apply a heavy first coat you should be able to sand it down to smooth it out. I am not sure if this will work with chalkboard paint or not though I have never worked with that before. if you use a primer or moisture blocking paint before you apply the paneling it should keep it from rusting out, that is what I plan to do. good luck, looking to start my own keezer soon as well.

either way this thread is NO GOOD without pictures......

Simphoto02 said:

either way this thread is NO GOOD without pictures......

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Haha. I couldn't agree more. I'll get some up when I start painting. I haven't done anything yet except remove the lid and the factory seal. More to come.

Thanks to everyone for suggestions. My dad has some old Bondo in his garage. I'm going to go with that option.

I vote a sheet of thin veneer trimmed out. then painted with chalkboard paint.

rough up the surface with a wire brush . Tape out the area that you want to do the chalkboard on and use some plastic filler (Bondo) or USC Icing glaze let it dry, sand smooth then prime and apply the chalkboard paint .

Edit: Just read you want to do the whole lid then the taping is not applicable. All you need is a very thin coat of the filler as the grain or dimples are very small.If it were mine I would use a 2k high build primer.But that's not something the average DIY would have an hand

Since you're going to sand it down, can you just sand off the factory finish? Start with 120 grit and go up to 1000wet/dry...

B

bad coffee said:

Since you're going to sand it down, can you just sand off the factory finish? Start with 120 grit and go up to 1000wet/dry...

B

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I actually tried doing this. I think I could have eventually. A sandblasting tool would have made quick work of this.

I did sand the surface to roughen it up with a 60 grit paper. Then I used the Bondo last night. It's working pretty well so far. I'll sand it smooth tonight but it has filled in all of the factory finish texture pretty well.

I also painted the body of the freezer last night. Let me tell you...that appliance spray paint can/will go EVERYWHERE! It's an epoxy which apparently means it sticks to everything in the air. Also, when I took a shower the paint that had been sticking to me wound up on the floor of my shower. Took me half an hour to scrub the shower floor clean. It's nothing like ordinary spray paint. Between the fumes and the SWMBO last night, I passed out and spent the night downstairs on the couch. Totally worth it, though.

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You know they sell that freezer in black, right? (ducks)

Rick500 said:

You know they sell that freezer in black, right? (ducks)

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It was a Craigslist find. $80 for the freezer and it's only two years old. $5 for a can of appliance paint.

Plus I hadn't originally wanted to paint it, but then I started looking at people's pics on here. I just think black looks better with a collar stained dark.

Ah, cool. Great find, too.

I'm looking on with interest at the chalkboard paint project... I was going to just buy a blackboard and attach it to the front of mine, but turning the top into a board is a cool idea.

A quart of the paint was only $12 at my local hardware store (Menards). I'll start painting it tonight and let you know how it turns out. Pictures to follow.

Just an update in case anyone is still following this thread. I have the keezer assembled. I'm going to have the CO2 tank filled after work. I'll also stop by a local microbrewery to have one of my corny kegs filled (my homebrew batch has another week or so to go before its ready to keg). I'll post pics tonight. Thanks to everyone out there who helped either directly or indirectly. I've gotten tons of good advice/tips from this forum.

mattjmac said:

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