It’s product number on the can is HVP102, pretty sure that’s the Tuner Blue.
Yeah, that is tuner blue. I just got some and after looking at the cap and the pics of Lifeless’ stick, I would say it’s not close to either blue that sanwa carries…not close at all. It’s a lot closer to the blue happ buttons.
IMO it’s unfortunate that neither sanwa nor seimitsu seem to carry a deep blue button like this. Regular blue is more light or turquoise, and dark blue is like a really muted blue.
Guys, I’d strongly recommend avoiding most of the commercial plastic paints or “dyes” that are sold at Autozone/Home Depot/etc.
I did a bunch of research on various vinyl dye products last year when I was doing some custom automotive interior work and I found out that SEM vinyl dyes are pretty much your hands down best bet for any kind of plastic dye. The truth is that most of the products specially designed for plastics leave a lot to be desired and still end up looking like crap down the line
Unlike a lot of the commercially available “dyes”, this is a TRUE vinyl dye that seeps deep into the surface and leaves a real, factory-looking finish.
You can find a color chart here: http://www.msitrt.com/SEMchart.htm
SEM products are kind of hard to get your hands on (I think I paid like $33 after shipping for 1 can of black and 1 can of surface cleaner) but definitely worth it. I hope this helps some of you out! I’m just getting ready to dye my SE stick, and I’ll be happy to post some pictures of the finished product when I do.
doesn’t duplicolor vinyl dye seep into the surface too? I’t would be cool to see some kind of comparison, cuz the examples I’ve seen of people using duplicolor look pretty damn professional! at almost double the price, there would have to be a pretty significant increase in quality IMO
Don’t get me wrong, SEM makes a great product and if it was readily available to me I would use it. SEM has a much better color availability too. However, a lot of people have had excellent results with Duplicolor that can be purchased very easily. It may not be “real” vinyl dye but I assure you it’s not regular paint either, or my results without primer and topcoat would have been wildly different. I do agree that people should avoid using regular plastic paint unless they want to spend a lot of time priming, sanding, and topcoating.
Although if you want to match the blue Sanwa buttons, you may need to go the paint route considering the lack of dye color availability.
I was hoping the tuner blue was close…
I just starting apraying my TE bezel a few minutes ago, first coat. How long is the full process from paint to dry? I stil plan on using the TE while I paint the bezel but don’t want to mess up the buttons microswitches.
I used a can that said Rustoleum Vinyl and Fabric and I thought it was Vinyl Dye. I painted my Wii fightstick black and though its only been a few hours, its dry to touch and came out kind of rough and grainy. Was it that I wasn’t using vinyl dye or may it have been due to how I painted it?
This is the kind I used
http://www.rustoleum.com/cbgimages/products/248918_AU_11oz_FabricVinyl_GlsBlk_L.jpg
There’s lots of Krylon options. Is Fusion the best for painting a TE?
Also, what do you guys think is best purple to match Vega?’
EDIT:
I read the tut on using Krylon paint. In the materials listed, he mentioned Tremclad Clear Coat (long to dry) and Krylon Clear Finish (dries fast, recommended). Are these 2 coating things the same or are both of them to be used?
This is my first try using vinyl dye and I have to say that I was really impressed by how it turned out. I basically just sprayed several really light coats on the sides and button plungers. I had no issues to speak of when it was all said and done. The buttons even seemed to have a bit of texture which made pulling off moves easier. (for me at least) The plungers were originally white. I used the ones from the TE and I ended up buying some Dark Hai buttons in order to create a better look in terms of how the buttons looked.
The Duplicolor I just bought says…vinyl & fabric coating and not dye. Is this the one you guys got? Is this truly dye or is it just paint?
I got the duplicolor vinyl & fabric. It is dye as I’ve been told. Works wonders. I painting my TE black (Trim and Bezel) with it and it’s gorgeous. Just waiting on my buttons and final artwork to finish my beauty personally.
decided to give it a shot with some metallic black paint i found in the garage, even though my stick was flat black to begin with haha.
it’s got some dings here and there but im overall pleased with my first try at painting. the pic doesn’t do the glittery black any justice but it’s there. i got the reflection at least. i have another stick to mod, i’m sure i’ll do better with the paint from the things i’ve learned from this experience.
that’s interesting, I was wondering about painting buttons before, because sanwa doesn’t make a blue that really pops. So it did add a texture to the buttons- they don’t stick or act differently at all though? In my case I only want to paint 2 of the buttons, so it might feel a little weird having only 2 buttons with a texture.
One question- do you double tap, and if so has it affected the feeling at all?
So i’ve got a few questions regarding the clear coat.
[list=1]
[] Is it really necessary when using vinyl dye?
[] I know someone said get an enamel based one, but is there a difference between enamel and acrylic base? I could only find acrylic at my auto dealer retailers
[] Is clear, clear? ie. do i need to buy krylon or vht clear, or should i just get any clear?
[] How many coats would you guys recommend? I’d prefer not to have a “gloss” look
[/list]
Thanks in advance.
- Nope, I did not bother and if you want it to be matte you should avoid it.
- It’s 2 different things. Enamel refers to the hard glossy over coating. Acrylic is the substrate that it’s suspended in.
- Clear is going to usually be glossy and completely transparent.
- For an enamel clearcoat, it really doesn’t matter. Use 4 or 5 thin layers and see what you think. Remember, it’s only to protect the paint from chipping.
nice temp …by me:lovin:
sweet thanks for the tips…
i might pass on the clear coat then, i’m really after a matte look, i’m just worried about the dye chipping, but i’m guessing since its dye, then it won’t really matter, if its gonna chip, it’ll chip like black plastic…
I’ve got about 2 more weeks till my TE is completely white!! Just waiting a week or so in between major coats.
I’m going for a Ryu theme… keeping the red bezel, and changing the back buttons to red
Man i hope a white TE doesn’t get too dirty when being used.
I just finished my vinyl dye job using the dupli-color tuner blue, and I have to say it’s a lot darker than I thought from seeing Lifeless’ pics. I guess it turned out that bright because of the sunlight in the pic. I did notice it’s a little brighter in direct sunlight, but in the house it’s definitely darker looking. Oh well, still looks good 
My first time using vinyl dye, I did about 5 or 6 coats (double pass on each coat), it dried REALLY quickly in between coats. I probably wasn’t as careful as I should have been (I’ve used krylon fusion before, and I have a feeling if I was using it this time I might have caused some runs), but no problem with runs at all with this stuff. It came out very clean.
Currently finishing up the rj-45 jack mod, but I’ll post some pics when it’s all finished. BTW, thanks for the tips before Lifeless.
This is my first time using the stuff, but I have a feeling it could chep down to the original color if the chip is deep enough. Even thogh it’s dye, when I look at it, I can still tell there is a ‘coating’ over the top. Plus I thought someone else before said you can sand it back down to the original color, so I don’t know how deep the dye seeps in.
Just out of curiosity- why are you waiting so long in between coats? On the can I have it said you were supposed to do the subsequent coats while the last coat is still ‘tacky’. Does waiting a long time between coats add some durability?
Well good luck on your ‘white on white’ stick- I saw another one painted all white and it looked awesome.