[McCoy]

Normally you would have to go to someone who has a paint gun for car painting or an airbrush to get decent results when painting your case. I wrote this tutorial to show you how to do it from home, cheap, with some basic household items and get GREAT results!

How to Paint your 360 Case at home with Professional Results
By McCoy Hawkins - MyXboxSpot.com

Things you will need:

• Case and or controller pieces (or other hardware) completely stripped down (no electronics still on it, just a case)
• Krylon Plastic Enamel or Spray paint (color of your choice) (Spray paint, dont buy a freakin bucket of paint)
• 400P, 1200P, 1500P sandpaper (you could probably get away with just the 400P and one of the others....)
• 5 Gallon bucket unless you want to do the sanding outside in your yard...
• Clearcoat (completely optional, I wouldn't mess with it)
• Drying stand to dry the pieces off afterwards.

Let's Get Started!

• Take your HARDWARE and sand it lightly all over it until it is "dull or scuffed" on every inch of it.... even in the corners. If you dont do this your paint will not stick.
  
• Hang your HARDWARE somewhere that it can hang freely so that when you spray it you can get to all sides of it without touching it.
  
• Try to get as much dust and debris away from the area as possible as it will get into the air and stick in your paint.
  
• Get out your spray can of paint.
  
• Hold the can about 16-20 inches away from your HARDWARE (This is just a tack-coat, which gets the hardware sticky so that the real coating will stick better) and lightly spray the hardware. You should NOT cover it completely! Just enough to where you can still see a little bit of white (assuming your 360 is white) through the paint.
  
• Let this coat sit for about a minute. Try to do no more, or no less...
  
• Spray on another coat, this time a little thicker and hold your can a little closer...(12-16 inches would be find)
  
• Let this coat sit for about 5 minutes. If you do it before about 5 minute, the coat of paint will not dry enough, and your next coat will become runny and your paint job will be bad.
  
• Apply another coat, this time trying to make sure that ALL white (or w/e color) is gone from the surface. DO NOT SPRAY TOO MUCH IN 1 SPOT AS IT WILL CREATE RUNS!!! You should hold this one 10-14 inches away from the surface.
  
• Let this coat sit for 15 minutes.
  
• Apply up to 4 more coats just like the one above, letting it dry for 15 minutes in between each coat. Be sure to use even patterns when spraying it.
  
• After you have applied as many coats as you want, let it dry overnight (atleast 12 hours) to make sure that it 100% dry all the way through.
  
• Now get a water hose, or fill up your 5 gallon bucket with warm water and take it somewhere where you dont mind getting wet... (Garage, driveway... w/e)
  
• Look at your HARDWARE. Determine how bad your paintjob is using the scale below: (1= should never have been painting in the first place.... 10=Spotless)

1= You have runs, drips and white spots still exposed.
2= You have runs and a couple parts that are too thickly coated.
3= Small runs and some debris in the coats.
4= Small runs but the rest looks good.
5= No runs, but some debris in the last 2 coats.
6= Small imperfections in coats
7= "Orange peel" on outer coats (see link for details)
8= Small orange peel but just barely
9= Just a little imperfections
10= Perfect, leave me be kemosabi

If your paint job is between...
1-2 you may need to redo the whole process... Sorry for your luck
3-8 follow the next steps.
9-10 you can follow the next steps to improve it a little more, or you can call it a day

• Sand the surface VERY lightly with your 1200P or 1500P paper. YOU DO NOT WANT TO REMOVE THE PAINT DOWN TO THE PLASTIC OR YOUR WHOLE JOB IS SHOT! You are just sanding out the orange peel and runs.
  
• Keep sanding until the surface is smooth. Make sure you dont sand too far or too hard.
  
• As long as you didn't sand it with anything less than 1200P sandpaper, your HARDWARE should now be smooth and perfected.
  
• You can now apply Clearcoat (optional) for a shinier effect.
  
• Set your HARDWARE on your drying stand to dry off and you are DONNNNEEE!

I will post pictures of mine when I am finished painting my case.


Thanks/Donate points if this helped! :)

[Gigabiter]

Where can I buy that kind of sandpaper and paint?

[McCoy]

Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, anywhere that you can buy paint...

[TRaaaaV]

i might have to do this

[McCoy]

I am going to soon but I need to get a size 9 TORX wrench to take my controller apart

[TRaaaaV]

yeah me and a couple friends had a hard time looking for that kind lol. they like don't sell them anywhere.

[SpencerzKing]

Im definitely gonna try dis

[zZ LUCKY Zz]

Yeah i have painted mine before and it came out really nice, i think the best part is knowing that you did it your self and you did not go out and just buy a case

[RifleMonkey]

As much as I send my xbox in for repairs, this is pointless for me to do. Sounds fun and awesome to do but not for someone that goes threw Xboxs like I do.

[knockem]

9 TORX wrench

its actually a T8 security bit a regular torx wont work.

It is much easier to airbrush since there is no need to sand ;)

p.s I airbrush 360s ;)