Hmmn, I'll look at those, I got this to work but I want to be able to
change from dashed back to solid and dashed again using a checkbox.  I
can get it to go dashed but I can't figure out how to apply this class
again the the panel pn?  Here is  simplified version of what I'm trying
to do?

//declare new dashed panel
DashedBorderPanel pn = new DashedBorderPanel();

//watch checkbox
public void jCheckBox1_actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
       if(this.jCheckBox1.isSelected()) {
           pn.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
           System.out.println("Checked");
       }else {
          pn.??????
           System.out.println("UnChecked");
       }
}

import javax.swing.JPanel;
import java.awt.LayoutManager;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;

public class DashedBorderPanel extends JPanel {

 class DashedBorder extends LineBorder {

   public DashedBorder(Color p0) {
     super(p0);
   }

   public DashedBorder(Color p0, int p1) {
     super(p0, p1);
   }

   public DashedBorder(Color p0, int p1, boolean p2) {
     super(p0, p1, p2);
   }

   public void paintBorder(Component comp,Graphics g, int x1,int x2,
int y1,int y2){
     Stroke old=((Graphics2D)g).getStroke();
     BasicStroke bs=new BasicStroke(5.0f, BasicStroke.CAP_BUTT,
                               BasicStroke.JOIN_MITER, 10.0f, new
float[]{8.0f}, 2.0f);
     ((Graphics2D)g).setStroke(bs);
     super.paintBorder(comp,g, x1,x2, y1,y2);
   ((Graphics2D)g).setStroke(old);
   }

 }
 public DashedBorderPanel() {
   DashedBorder db=new DashedBorder(Color.black);
   this.setBorder(db);
 }

 public DashedBorderPanel(LayoutManager p0, boolean p1) {
   super(p0, p1);
 }

 public DashedBorderPanel(LayoutManager p0) {
   super(p0);
 }

 public DashedBorderPanel(boolean p0) {
   super(p0);
 }
 public static void main(String[] args) {
   DashedBorderPanel dashedBorderPanel1 = new DashedBorderPanel();
 }
}

Good idea if:

     Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D)g.create();

     super.paintBorder(c, g2d, x, y, width, height);