Tired of waiting for other companies to provide a color front for your Palm? Well, I got tired too! So, I decided to do something about it. Folks in #palmchat have seen what I did, and now you can too! It is surprisingly simple!

This will VOID YOUR WARRANTY! I am not responsible for ANY damage to your unit from these instructions! Use these instructions at your own risk!

OK, that over with, here is what you do:

1)    Go to your local hardware/paint/Walmart-type store, and look for Plasti-kote Fast Dry Enamel Spray Paint. Pick the color you want your Palm to look like. I happened to choose Harbor Blue.

2)    Take your Palm apart. There are 3 screws on the Pilot and PalmPilot. On the Pilot units, one of the screws is under the serial number label, approximately between the US Robotics text and the CE logo. You can make a small hole around the screw if you don't want to destroy or remove the whole label. Just feel for the indent, and use an Exacto knife to make the hole. There are 3 tabs on top, so pull it apart carefully. Although these instructions only refer to the top piece of the unit, if you want to see your Palm naked, be careful for the speaker attached to the back piece. It is held on by adhesive, and pulls off easily.

3)    That done, make sure that the front piece is CLEAN. Oils from your hand will make the paint not hold very well.

4)    Lay out newspaper, and place your Palm on it, outside surface up. Use a good amount of newspaper. Spray paint is notorious for flying all over the place. I have a section of sidewalk that is colored gold from a previous attempt, when I didn't use enough newspaper. Oh, use day-old or older paper. Believe it or not, when you get your paper for the day, the ink isn't quite dry!

5)    Shake the can well, and apply a thin coat of paint onto your Palm. Multiple thin coats are better than one thick coat, in terms of overall appearance! Make sure to get the sides as well. Follow the instructions on the can as to when you can re-spray (usually at least an hour) your Palm, to make sure it is well-covered. Mine took 2 coats to look nice to me. Enamel is thicker than most spray paint, so you may not need more than one or two coats.

6)    Allow at least 2 days to completely dry (more if you are in a humid environment).

7)    Put your Palm back together! Voila! Colored Palm!
 
 
 

Hint: If your buttons are sticking, use a little sandpaper in the holes to remove the paint in that area.

Now, you may ask, "Why not paint the back also?" You can. You need to take the battery door off, and the memory door off. Mask the areas where the plastic pieces come together, and paint as I mentioned above. If you don't mask it, the doors will stick horribly (Trust me on this one)! If your memory door has an IR port, remember to mask that too (Mask both sides, just to be sure no paint gets on it). Use masking tape!
 

The original "gold" (spray-painted PalmPilot):

And put next to the REAL DEAL (Yep, the Palm m505 has a gold plated cover!)

You may also want to apply a clear coat to the finished product. I don't see the need to with enamel, but this one hasn't been painted that long. Mine survived Central Valley heat in the case that the Palm came with originally, with no paint coming off, so I think the enamel is better than standard spray paint. The enamel I chose had a nice shine to it also! (Note: After 3+ years, the enamel still looks great!)

One of my "failures" was a gold PalmPilot. I wanted one that would stand out... well, as long as I didn't touch it, it did! The paint actually looked pretty good, but it flakes easily. Thus, my foray into enamels!

If you paint your Palm, let me know how it came out. If you have a picture, send it to me. I'd love to see it! (And I may just post it here for all to see!)

Renee Roberts
renee@portable-essentials.com

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