I want to paint the small plastic buttons at the top on the turbo panel of my Hori V3. Pic included:
I got some plastic primer, Valspar paint w/ preval sprayer, and Polycrylic gloss to coat and protect them. Dude at Lowe’s said that should be everything I need and should all work together.
So… Sand, prime, paint 2-3 coats, wait a month, sand, polycrylic and then done? Will my buttons stick with this kinda clearcoat?
theres some pre exisiting plastic paint threads in here search them so you dont get chastised by the TT officers.
and irc @DonkeyBlonkey doing an amazing paint job on his sfxt pro so you can search his work too
Don’t. Not on buttons or anything with moving parts. Cases are ok, but buttons need a certain amount of clearance between the plungers and rims and painting plus clear coating is going to kill that.
What’s wrong with sanding down the buttons enough to compensate for the extra layer of thickness from the paint?
I would assume that the sides of the button would wear the paint off from the friction of it rubbing against the housing. Eventually this will cause the paint to chip and look like crap. I would just buy the color of buttons your going for and spare yourself all the headache of painting. After cost of paint and clear coat you would be better off just buying new caps imo.
Unfortunately, that’s not going to work for OP; he’s looking to paint the small case-buttons on the Hori Fighting Stick V3, not his main face buttons.
@gnorc you can sand but you can only sand so much before you run out of plastic. A layer of primer, paint, and clear coat will be more than the amount you could sand off. You could probably go without the primer, but you still have a paint and clear coat layer to deal with and most likely won’t be able to get it right.
It’s a shame vinyl dye isn’t a thing anymore. You could get better results with that but painting buttons is usually a bad idea. You could paint the tops and keep the sides natural, but you run into the issue of peeling at that point.
What I did was only painted the areas that is only visible , not in the areas where the parts need space for movement . Buttons , the plungers … only on the top & 1/4 inch on the sides
The turbo area, just where the knob (switch) where you touch with your fingers … I didn’t wait a month , just a few hours for the next coat … When all the painting is done then yes the paint takes a month to cure
Anyone have any experience painting plastic with hobby car paint? I imagined it would be better than rattle canning. I want silver button rims but there hasn’t been more news on the metallic sanwa release 
I’ll end up giving it a shot if no one else has.
Sand the sanwas with nice soft sandpaper then rinse with water . Wait till it’s completely Dry then if possible spray from a distance not up close
