Brief G-Shock bezel stealthing guide

Here is a very simple, stealthing project. I am planning to do a lot more to my little DW-5600 like reverse the display, stealth the faceplate (if possible), but for now I wanted to stealth the bezel (remove the white paint).

Step 1 Equipment needed

The first step was to gather all the necessary equipment. For me that means Goof Off (not Goo Gone or any similar sounding products), a small ceramic bowl/dish (plastic ones may melt with the Goof Off inside it) this is one I made myself, a small pair of tweezers, and an old toothbrush or scrubbing brush.

Comments

[limonchi]

hi i have one of this watch where can i adquire a new bezel? you will not believe me, but its batteries had never been changed its almost 20 years old bye

[biffula]

I believe you, I had one that the batteries lasted for 14 years. Gshocks are the best watch there is.

[bfgreen]

Casio phone customer service is exceptional. Give them a call, ask for parts department and give the model number and they'll help you out. I've ordered the smallest parts from them before and never had an issue. Pretty fast shipping too. Not at all expensive.

[bfgreen]

Oh I can believe it. I've moved to mostly solar powered G-Shocks now, but have several battery powered ones that keep on trucking for many years.

I would recommend replacing the battery soon though. Even if it's not run out, they have a finite life expectancy and you wouldn't want the battery to fail and start corroding the inside of you watch.

Treat your G to a new battery soon and give it another 20 years of happy living :-)

[limonchi]

I´ll do, one day
i will look for the customer service email in spain
thanks

[Jeru]

@bfgreen
Hey, Thank you for your great post. We don't have Goof-off here (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) but I can order it of eBay. I was wondering: can't I just put my entire 20BAR resistant G-7710 in Goof-off? (To take off all the yellow.) Do you use tweakers cause it's too agressive to make contact with?

[bfgreen]

Jeru, I wouldn't put the whole watch in anything other than water. I don't know what the chemicals will do to the rubber gaskets that seal the watch and make it waterproof. I used tweezers just to save getting my fingers wet while taking photos, the Goof-Off is so nasty that it will hurt your skin for short period of time, nothing hot water and soap won't fix anyway.

If you are referring to the G-Shock that is totally yellow, I don't think the color can be removed. I believe the yellow color is throughout the plastic. If it just has a lot of extra yellow paint for lettering you might be able to make it work. Either way, disassemble the casing and strap and only submerge them in whatever chemical you choose to use.

Methylated spirits, denatured alcohol, or some form of safe paint stripper or paint thinner would be the closest product to Goof-Off that I can think of. Hope this helps. Post an update on how it goes!

[Jeru]

Thank you so much for answering! I was referring to the G-7710-1ER which just has yellow paint for lettering on the rubber round and the G on the light-button on it - http://tinyurl.com/6xcjo84
Problem is that I really don't know how to disassemble the rubber ring and the light button; it's totally different than the G-Shock you used in your guide.

[bfgreen]

Ah okay. I've read that several people have just used a q-tip (cotton bud) and some goof-off type product and slowly rubbed back and forth over the lettering until it comes off. It will take a minute or two, but it will still work and you don't have to get the watch soaked in chemicals. just take your time and work on one section at a time. Make sure you have plenty of spare q-tips to change out if they get messy. That should work - be patient.

[Jeru]

Thank you so much again. Funny additional thing is that my English improves: never knew these things were called q-tips or cotton buds, but Google images is so helpful :) First time I read on Watchuseek.com "I goof off the letters" I thought it was a verb I didn't know, but dictionaries didn't help :) Anyway, before I discovered what Goof-Off really ment or was, I thought it ment/had to be done by scratching, so I tried to scratch it off with my EDC folder. That was hard. The paint almost seems rubber-like. It went off, partly, off the big G on the light button, but I had to conclude that this wasn't going to work. Then I tried q-tips soaked in turpentine: nothing. So I guess this Goof-Off is really special and I need to order it from eBay. Thanks again :) I will update when it's all done.

[chosenangelx]

Nice Instructable... @sjoobbani yes im sure bfgreen or one of use should make a whole instructable on how to use a screwdriver to unscrew a screw...... @bfgreen well done =) but if the resin straps were already painted then wouldnt the paint come off?

[bfgreen]

Good point. The resin straps, at least the blacks ones, are not painted they're made of black plastic. They are black all the way through. All I am doing is removing the paint that Casio has added to the surface of the resin strap.

In fact, I made another instructable about how to dye a resin strap another (darker) color. One of my G-shock Mudmans came with a dark green case and band as standard. It's the Mudman with the negative display. In all the pictures I saw of it the band and casing was so dark it looked black, but wasn't when I received it.

Well the plastic resin used to make the casing and strap is actually porous and if you removed them and place them into boiling water with black Rit dye you can dye the entire plastic components a darker color (you can't lighten them).

I did that and now have a negative display mudman with all black casing and strap - it looks super stealthy.

[CaseyCase]

Sweet! My favorite watch.

[bfgreen]

One of mine too. A classic that never seems to get old. It's been a huge success for Casio and rightly so.

[mastermakoko]

the hell is wrong with you! G-shocks are precious,i have a black red mudman and a yellow neaon g shock(for parties).....

[bfgreen]

Nothing is wrong with me, I just made my own "precious" G-Shock even better! BTW as much as I love all of my G-Shocks (and I do love them) they're just a plastic digital watch. They can be replaced and are designed to be used and abused.

[NE-Phil]

"...I removed the bezel from my DW-5600..." How exactly did you remove the bezel from the watch? Does it come off easily? Do you need any special tools? To me, this is the critical part of this Instructable. It's what makes it an Instructable.

[bfgreen]

I did say it was a brief instructable :) The bezel is removed by unscrewing the four tiny screws located at the outer most corners of the bezel where it meets the strap. Take off the strap (by removing the springbars), then remove those four bezel screws. Once they are out you simply peel off the bezel by prying it open slightly from the back using your fingernails - it's very flexible.

[sjoobbani]

 Brief instructable.. Ok thats fine,
but you gotta INSTRUCT were its crucial...

[bfgreen]

You're right.

You need to "unscrew" four small screws. Pick up a "screwdriver" using your hand which should have "fingers" on it. Place the tip (pointy end) of the screwdriver into the "head" of the screw (small shiny object with a cross in the middle) and turn the screwdriver "counterclockwise" (you know the other way round to the way hands move on a clock).  Keep turning the "screwdriver" until each screw (the shiny things, remember) come out...

C'mon, seriously - you have to give folks some credit to actually LOOK at what they are doing and figure some of this out by themselves. If you can't follow this level of instructions then you probably shouldn't be doing things like this in the first place!