As you can see the paint is peeling from the “heavy traffic areas” so to speak. So any recommendation of what kinda of paint or dye I could use to invert the colors properly? I know the white sides to black could be easy dye but the inner part that is black being turned white could be the problem… any tips be great and apologizes for redundancy…
isn’t there a dye that is actually absorbed into the plastic?
aside from that, all i can really think of is to clear it. wear/tear is going to happen on many painted things where you rest your hands on (keyboards, fightsticks, mice, laptops)
Not sure never tried anything like this before. If there is I’ll try it if it’s gonna happen regardless of the paint i use then I’ll just deal… =) Madcatz should really sell parts… =P
Find out from Inverse what all he needed to do to strip the paint off his stick to redo it with vinyl dye. He may have encountered some issues that you won’t have to go through.
And make sure you get legit vinyl dye (duplicolor, plasti-kote, et al) when you do. No krylon fusion or “direct to vinyl flexible coating”. There’s nothing wrong with using paint to do the job instead, but it is more difficult and time-consuming to get it right, and you should really know what you’re doing with it before you get started. Vinyl dye will essentially change the surface of your plastic to another color and leave the same texture.
There have been some good suggestions thus far, but I will give you my two cents. I’ve done a lot of painting (guitars, joysticks, computers cars etc…) I would lightly sand the surface down again, you don’t need to remove all the paint, just make it a nice level surface. Wipe it down with some thinner, and repaint it. once the paint is completely dry, apply 3-5 coats of a water based polyurethane. Don’t bother with clear coats, especially the stuff that comes out of a can. They just aren’t durable enough to stand the test of time. It might work fine for some projects, but joysticks take a lot of abuse. As far as the water based poly is concerned, it is probably easier to use a wipe on product, or even one that can be painted on with a foam brush. They even make VERY fine bristle brushes specifically for water based poly, and it won’t leave brush marks. You can take it a step further and wet sand then buff it to perfection. Either way, Poly is the way to go. It looks great, and is very durable. Especially in comparison to clears out of a can. If you have elaborate spray equipment, then you could mix a 2 part clear, similar to whats used in automotive finishes, but I’m assuming that isn’t a possibility so I’ll leave you with that. Hope this helps.
+1 on the poly. Minwax makes a polycrylic, which is water based and is very easy to apply. You can even wet sand and polich it to a mirror finish if you choose. That said, I recommend using a bristle brush on it (foam brush sucks up too much product for some reason)
Score, thanks a ton guys, the polyurethane was something I have worked with before considered using it but thought, nah this is good enough… should have gone with my gut… Depending how complicated it is to remove the pain, I’ll decide to use a dye or Paint again with Poly though it seems it would be more convenient to do it with paint/poly method since this is like my 3 time painting this thing so ti’s gonna be tough to get it all off for good adhesion of the dye. Quick question Riddick, what is wet sanding?
Update: Looked up wet sanding on youtube. I’m in the loop now. lol
Just put a good primer on the plastic, then paint in 2-3 layers and afterwards put some clearcoat in 2-3 layers on top of the paint. It will protect the paint and make it shine
PS wetsanding is the process of using sandingpaper with a bit of water to buff the paint and make the surface more shiny then any dry sanding could. Look it up on youtube. For a laquer finish it’s the best way to go.
I’m glad you found the info useful. Look at the bright side, when your finally done, you will be an expert:smile:
Some extra advice would be that if your going to wet sand(especially if it’s your first time) go a little overboard with the poly, probably 5-6 coats. It is REALLY easy to sand through the poly if your not careful, and then it’s a huge hassle because if you’ve gone through the poly, you’ve probably gone through some of the paint. Needless to say, it’s quite a process stripping all the poly so you can apply more paint to cover it up. It seems like you have found some good resources on wet sanding, but just in case here is another link:
It’s not exactly an arcade stick, but the process is the same, and it’s a good indication of what kind of results you can get with some patience and alot of elbow grease. Whichever method you choose, I’m sure it will turn out great. Hope this helps.
