Painting the Fightstick (With Krylon or Vinyl Dye)

[wolfeagle_847]

Thank you

[sonofx51]

cool thread, gonna dye my 360 this weekend.

[P_m0n3_Y]

Not really much of a guide. Turns out Krylon isn’t too bad at all. It’s basically regular spray paint made for plastics. Stuff bonds decently with enough coats and given time to dry. I definitely didn’t do this perfect, so don’t take this as some kind of gospel. Nobody in my neighborhood knew anything of paints, so I had to go off Google and luck myself. ^o^

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/8071/stage1u.jpg

Basically cleaned off the entire thing with soap and water. Making sure to clear it of dust and any kind of debris. At this point I didn’t know anything about sanding or priming, and I thought I was using Vinyl dye so I did no kind of prep before hand. Knowing what I know now, I might have sanded it down a bit with some really fine paper, like 1500 grit to smoothe down the plastic for a smoother first coat. Krylon works decently without it though, but it would have helped.

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/894/stage2.jpg

Coat it about 75%, like all the guides on the net say, go side by side. I liked to spray away from the project slightly and then ONTO the project. Basically start spraying off the case then onto it, and then when you stop spraying be off the case. The beginning and end of a spray are more likely to leave “speckles”. If you’re using Vinyl dye this probably is a non-issue (I hate myself sometimes lol)

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9923/stage3.jpg

At this point you can now cover it up with a decent coat, remembering to go side by side and ensuring proper time between coats. Wait for the thing to dry. My can said 15m, but it’s still cold out in my garage, so I didn’t give it the time I think it needed. I ended up doing this by overdoing the front and not waiting till it dried.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/603/stageoops.jpg

Ugly isn’t it? I was pretty angry at this point because the case itself was looking good as hell by this point. This is where I waited nearly an entire day for it to “soak into the plastic” and realized that it wasn’t Vinyl dye. Normally with Vinyl dye you would leave this alone and it wouldn’t be an issue. However since I’m using special paint and nothing more, this means I had to sand the entire front of the case down.

Avoiding this would have been preferred. Don’t spray too close to the thing. Make sure you’re nice and dry before you do another coat, and don’t linger on a spot. Make sure you start and finish off the case. In this case I think Is tarted and ended in the same spot, (Since I go left to right and back).

No pictures, but basically I took some 1500 grit sandpaper and dry sanded that part down, trying to get off the biggest part of the drip down as close to the plastic as I could. Then after some time with that, took some 600 grit sandpaper and wetsanded it (sanding it down with some water applied. I actually did it by a sink.)

The entire thing disappeared, and now I was cool to respray the front. This time being one patient mofo. Do yourself a favor and get vinyl dye if you do your case, you won’t have to deal with this BS.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6108/turbopaint.jpg

The turbo area was fun. It’s very, very easy to take apart. Just take it out of the case. Don’t have to unplug anything. Just unscrew the side screws to remove the plastic housing out of the case, and the 4 metal screws on the PCB to remove it from the turbo housing itself.

There will be a bunch of plastic pieces. The Guide button pops off, so does the turbo button. The plastic “lights” are one big plastic rig that pops right out if you tap on the front with a pen or something. Easy mode. :tup:

In the end, I had some light chipping on the top “thin” part of the case where the panel ends around the edge of the frame. Not alot of coats there (I was terrified of getting drips again! lol), but I can retouch it by spraying into a small area and soaking a Q-tip I hear. Sorry that it looks so ugly in the final pics. The chipping happened when I was putting the plate back on the case. Takes seven days for Krylon to “cure” so another -10 points for not using Vinyl Dye! lol

Well this went on longer than I think it should have considering that I’m not a pro and this is a lamo guide. I think my end result turned out pretty ok. Thanks to all the people who helped me make this awesome stick. It’s 5am and I’m tired so I’ll edit the post with proper credit when I can.

If you do a vinyl dye job though, post a proper guide for those that want to paint their SE. It was fun as hell, and really makes your kit feel special. Unless you like white, in which case more power to you.

Happy moddin’!

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3717/finishedtop.jpg

LS-32-01 /w Seimitsu PS-14-KN’s. Artwork Printed on Lamilabel by Kinkos.

man that looks great man

[System_1]

i used krylon fusion to paint a spare 360 case and it seemed to work great on plastic. i havent tried the valspar though cause the colors were limited at the hardware store i went to.

[System_1]

I used the brand Dupli-color Vinyl dye with great results.
http://pineconeattack.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/100_1757.jpg

The dye absorbed into the plastic like everyone said and there is no sticky film or layer like krylon. I even sprayed my brother’s white ball top with this stuff and if looks like a stock red ball top from Sanwa and there is NO residue. (not to be confused withthe photo above, which is a Sanwa red ball top.) Even through heavy play, the dye has not rubbed off. I highly recommend this stuff. I purchased my can of dye from Autozone for about $8.

EDIT: I only wiped down the casing with windex and mild soap and water, then sprayed on the dye. Easiest stuff in the world to use as long as you use thin coats to prevent overspray.

[lldre]

looks awesome

[Lifeless]

I used the brand Dupli-color Vinyl dye with great results.

The dye absorbed into the plastic like everyone said and there is no sticky film or layer like krylon. I even sprayed my brother’s white ball top with this stuff and if looks like a stock red ball top from Sanwa and there is NO residue. (not to be confused withthe photo above, which is a Sanwa red ball top.) Even through heavy play, the dye has not rubbed off. I highly recommend this stuff. I purchased my can of dye from Autozone for about $8.

EDIT: I only wiped down the casing with windex and mild soap and water, then sprayed on the dye. Easiest stuff in the world to use as long as you use thin coats to prevent overspray.

Stick looks great! I love duipli-color, the only problem I have is that it’s in so few colors. If it was in the same variety of colors as Krylon I would have painted every stick I own by now.

[Demoninja]

Just curious, where did you guys put the innards of your stick when you painted it?

[Alec]

I’m waiting for some white Krylon Fusion to dry on a Tekken 5 stick right now. Never painted a plastic joystick case before, closest thing was a metal Neo Geo cab control panel that really needed to be restored. It looks good wet. I’m about to flip it over and do the other side in about 20 min here. If it needs another coat, I’ll buy another can tomorrow. Clear coat after this no q.

[manman]

Just curious, where did you guys put the innards of your stick when you painted it?

When I did a full TE case I took out everythin possible that could be detatched, then pulled the cord as far as I could through the cord compartment and rapped it up in news paper. Everything else that I thought would be difficult to keep track of I just put into labeled plastic bags.

[System_1]

I used the brand Dupli-color Vinyl dye with great results.

The dye absorbed into the plastic like everyone said and there is no sticky film or layer like krylon. I even sprayed my brother’s white ball top with this stuff and if looks like a stock red ball top from Sanwa and there is NO residue. (not to be confused withthe photo above, which is a Sanwa red ball top.) Even through heavy play, the dye has not rubbed off. I highly recommend this stuff. I purchased my can of dye from Autozone for about $8.

EDIT: I only wiped down the casing with windex and mild soap and water, then sprayed on the dye. Easiest stuff in the world to use as long as you use thin coats to prevent overspray.

Good post. I’ve always wanted to paint the sides of my TE black so I might check this stuff out.

[System_1]

Good post. I’ve always wanted to paint the sides of my TE black so I might check this stuff out.

same here just been reading this thread for awhile now and each time I though about using one then I read or see a post about the other and blows my mind…

[AJtheMishima]

I didnt want to start another thread. I dont know anything about painting metal. I have a control panel from a agetec stick that was sandblasted about a month ago. what do i need to do to it if i want to paint it solid white? thanks

[Missing_Person]

Here’s 51 colors of vinyl dye.

Has anyone tried this brand on their stick? I could definitely make use of their plethora of color choices.

The label on it on their site certainly looks like it would work, but I figured I’d ask just in case someone’s used it and it failed to work.

EDIT: I just read somewhere some pretty good things about this Meltonian dye for computer components, so I’m planning on giving it a shot. I’ll let you guys know the outcome. If it works well, then it should give us a lot more options on painting sticks.

[Digital]

I used the brand Dupli-color Vinyl dye with great results.
http://pineconeattack.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/100_1757.jpg

The dye absorbed into the plastic like everyone said and there is no sticky film or layer like krylon. I even sprayed my brother’s white ball top with this stuff and if looks like a stock red ball top from Sanwa and there is NO residue. (not to be confused withthe photo above, which is a Sanwa red ball top.) Even through heavy play, the dye has not rubbed off. I highly recommend this stuff. I purchased my can of dye from Autozone for about $8.

EDIT: I only wiped down the casing with windex and mild soap and water, then sprayed on the dye. Easiest stuff in the world to use as long as you use thin coats to prevent overspray.

Wow that came out very nice, I’m definitely contemplating on painting my whole TE matte black since I’m not too fond of the white sides and I have scratches all over the black part of the TE stick.

I think I’m gonna give this a shot once the summer is over and this bad humidity is gone.

Thanks for the links, bookmarked!

[AJtheMishima]

jang- stick came out nice. FYI, on your write up you can just turn the mounting bracket on the ls32 90 degrees instead of foolin with the pcb.

[Digital]

Well I bought some matte black Duplicolor Vinyl spray. I’m looking to paint the white parts on my TE with it, and touch-up the black parts with a few coats so that its all one solid black color.

My questions are would I need to sand the white parts down with 1000 grit sand paper to get rid of the gloss that’s on the white parts of the TE stick? Also, I have a few scratches on the black part of my TE,would it be safe to use sandpaper to blurr them out a bit?

Thanks for any help, I’ll probably give this project a shot today or tomorow.

[manman]

I don’t know if you HAVE to do any of that, but I did exactly that and mine came out great. You can sand to get scratches out if you want, just make sure the surface is as smooth as you want it once you start painting cuz the dye won’t cover any scratches, it’ll just color the texture you alreaday have.

[jdm714]

Jangofatt, the Sanwa Joystick in the video was actually a JLF-TP-8YT. :sad:

I didn’t see a Shaft Cover throughout.
If there was a Sanwa JLF-CD, then it would have been JLF-TP-8YT-SK.

Sorry for even mentioning it.
Cool video though.

[Digital]

I don’t know if you HAVE to do any of that, but I did exactly that and mine came out great. You can sand to get scratches out if you want, just make sure the surface is as smooth as you want it once you start painting cuz the dye won’t cover any scratches, it’ll just color the texture you alreaday have.

will the gloss on the white parts of the TE stay glossy after you dye it? thats the main reason i want to sand it because i dont want it to remain glossy.