How to spray paint your old games console

I recently took on the project of spray painting over my PlayStation 2 slim games console basically because I had ruined it with sticker cleaner.

Talk about a stupid mistake, well lesson learned anyway.

I have just finished this project and it turned out so well I decided to put together this post to talk you through how I completed this.

Slight disclaimer here, this is of course the first time I have ever spray painted anything let alone a game’s console.

With that in mind, this post is literally just my tips and advice for completing this project so do take it with a pinch of salt.

Most importantly, proceed with caution; once you start sanding and spraying there is no going back!

I have no idea how well this will work with other consoles than the one I used (PS2 Slim) so be sure it’s possible to do without ruining the plastic/material of the console.

What you need to spray paint your games console:

• Old console that you want to rejuvenate
• A can of spray paint in a color of your choice (I bought mine in a local auto factor at a great price)
• 1 can Spray primer (auto factors)
• 1 can Spray lacquer (auto factors)
• Very fine sandpaper (I bought a few sheets of 1500 and 2000 grit sandpaper and it seemed to do the job)
• Sanding blocks(not sure at all if that’s what they are called, just take a look at the photo)
• A well-ventilated area — inhaling spray paint can’t be healthy so be sure you are outdoors or in a very well ventilated area
• cardboard/tarp to lay the consoles onto for spraying — I also used some egg cartons / small cardboard boxes to rest the console onto so it didn’t just lay flat on the cardboard

What To Do

1 Disassembly of your games console

Start off by disassembling your games console, whatever it is. Take it apart until you get down to the plastic parts to be sprayed.

I would strongly recommend taking some photos as you do this if you are not too familiar or comfortable with taking consoles apart.

Even if you are familiar, it doesn’t hurt to have some reference points to look back at if the project drags on for longer than you thought (try a month.. yeah that’s what happened to me).

2 Sanding

With your console pieces disassembled, time to start sanding (my least favorite part).

Use the sanding block to give the console a light but thorough sanding to take off the top layer of coating.

Next, wipe down the console with some kitchen paper or a microfiber cloth to remove any residue.

Next, lay out a tarp or piece of cardboard. Then, lay your console pieces onto some additional cardboard boxes/egg cartons to elevate it so the spray paint doesn’t pool around the bottom.

3 Spray Painting

With your workspace established, set down the console parts on a covered table or similar.

Next, start lightly spraying a coat of primer over the console.

I would advise watching a few videos on the technique for this as it can be really easy to cause drip marks.

After the 3rd or 4th coat of primer make sure there is enough coverage. If not feel free to add a few more coats until you are happy.

Next up, we are back to sanding, this time with super fine 1500 / 2000 grit sandpaper.

Very lightly sand down the whole console again.

Following this wipe the parts down with some kitchen paper to remove any residue.

Follow this step with the addition of a few more coats of primer.

With the primer layer down, time to start spraying the color.

As with the primer, spray a light coating of the paint over the console.

Once dry, repeat at least 3 to 4 times until you are happy with the coverage.

Don’t worry if some bubbles or pooling does start to occur. This can be rectified with a light sanding and then a few more coats of paint.

So by now, if you are still here, the next step is to start applying the lacquer.

This will give your console that nice shiny finish. This will also provide additional protection to your console over time.

4 Reassembly of your games console

Following on from all of this spraying and sanding you should now have a ready to reassemble console. Reassemble your console carefully and test it out to ensure all is still working.

Congratulations for making it this far, you should now have a shiny new and personalized games console for your collection.

In my case, I considerably improved the look of my console and it sits proudly on my games cabinet!

Conclusion

I hope that you were able to find this post useful.

As I said, this is essentially just a step by step guide that I used when working on this project.

There may be other better ways to achieve the same results.

Having said that, I am happy with the results I was able to achieve with this project!

If you enjoyed reading this post you should definitely take a look at another similar post I wrote about how to restore PS2 Controllers.

If you are like me and like to be thrifty about gaming you should learn how to take apart your equipment to clean and repair it.

Originally published at https://gamercreatrix.com.