The ibook originally came in the
typical apple-white color. There are numerous sites on the
internet that explain the process of painting a dual-usb snow white
ibook. This is
because the finish of the ibook consists of two pieces of molded
plexiglass painted from the inside. The white
paint used on the ibooks interior surfaces can be removed with
alcohol. The process is relatively easy, and a few
people have posted the process, so I won't bore you with it. Here
are a few pictures of the process:
Since the ibook is running linux,
I thought that black would be a good color to paint it. Once
inside, I discovered that the apple logo on the lid is lit by the lcd
backlight. So,
in order to change that color, I would have to apply some sort of
colored transparent/translucent filter behind the logo.
So, while I will reserve the idea for a later point in time, for now I
will leave the logo white.
The keyboard cover and molding around the lcd is a silver color, and
would require more effort and care to paint black to match the outside
of the ibook. Also, it would be
difficult to paint / mod the trackpad to match. So for now, this
too will remain it's factory color.
Here's a few shots of the finished exterior:
Impressions
The black color is much cooler
looking than the original snow white. The downside to the black
is that it makes the scratches in the plexiglass stick out more than
the original
white. Hmmm....maybe that's why apple chose that color? I
thought the black / silver / white combination would be too many
colors to still look nice, but after painting I am very happy with the
overall look. In the future, I'd like to light the apple logo and
possibly the keyboard with blue. However for now I'm happy.
