Spray Painting a Xbox Controller

My plain white Xbox controller is very boring. So I decided to repaint it to add some flair. I went with painting it brown with red splattered on top. This is a very simple task, but you have to make sure that you don't ruin the controller. I have ruined controllers before and it doesn't feel good.

Supplies

• Xbox controller
• Screwdriver
• Small bag- Optional
• Spray paint- Your color/s of choice
• Newspaper- Or any other type of paper
• Tape- Any kind

Step 1: Take the Controller Apart

In order to not get paint inside of the controller, you need to take it apart. Start by removing the battery cover in the back of the controller. Then, you need to take off the two side grips of the controller. The side grips do not have screws, you just need to pull them off using some sort of prier. I used this blue tool with a hook at the end to take the grips off. It should look like picture one now. Next, you will need to remove the five screws located on the grips and behind the battery area. There are two screws on both grip locations, four grip screws in total. The other screw is found behind the paper in the battery section of the controller. You must rip a bit of it off to get access to the screw. Remove all five screws and place them into a bag so that you don't lose them. The five screw locations are seen in picture two. Once all of the screws are off, you can take off the front and back pieces, as seen in pictures three and four.

Step 2: Set Up Your Area.

After taking the controller apart, you should be left with the controller's cover, back, two grips, battery cover, five screws, and the black insides of the controller. Make sure to touch as little of the black insides as possible or you are at risk of messing the controller up. Now, take the back covering of the Xbox controller. Now, you need to tape the metal pieces where the batteries would go, as seen in picture one. If you do not put on the tape then the spray paint could mess up the batteries and make the controller useless. Next, put down a large piece of newspaper, or whatever other paper you have, and place all five controller pieces on top. The newspaper makes it so you don't get spray paint all over the place. Be sure that all five controller pieces can fit on the paper with a lot of room to spare. If your newspaper is too small then just add another piece.

Step 3: Time to Paint.

Now that you have set up your area, it is almost time to actually paint the controller. First though, you have to chose what color you want to paint it. I choose brown for mine, but you can do whatever you want. Get whatever color is your favorite and then start the painting process. Shake up the spray paint can and spray the five different parts. Make sure not to spray them from too close or from too far away. Try to get as much of the white controller covered with your color as possible. You should be doing another coat of paint anyway so it doesn't matter if you miss a bit. Once the parts are all covered, you can let them dry. I prefer to paint them later in the day and let them dry overnight, but you don't have to do that. I also suggest doing at least two coats of spray paint, just so you make sure you don't miss any white spots on the controller. Then I added my second color, gray, to my controller on top of the brown. I put the gray in a few different spots to make it almost look like it is dirty. After that dried I added a clear coat of spray paint to finish it off. The spray paint that I used is pictured above.

Step 4: Putting the Controller Back Together

Once you have finished painting your controller, you must put it back together again. Start by placing the black centerpiece into the front and back pieces that you just painted. Then, insert the five screws back into the controller. After that, you can click the two grip pieces along with the battery cover into their respective spots. Make sure that the grips and battery cover click into place, if they do not then you are putting them in wrong.

Step 5: Making Sure Your Controller Still Works.

If you have successfully followed these steps up to this point, then your controller should still be in good working condition. But just in case, you should still test it out. There are many ways you can do this, but I like to go on my Xbox and open up the controller app. From there you can test out all of the Xbox controller's inputs to make sure that they are still working.

Step 6: Enjoy!

If you are using your controller for playing games, or maybe you're just keeping it on display, having a customized controller is awesome. It is even better when you make it yourself. Enjoy your costume spray painted controller. You can also add more designs or colors to your controller if you would like!👍