How To Paint A Wii. Harder than you think.

[Forte 0]

Hi everyone. I suppose this tutorial may not be as technical and complicated as others, or maybe even as useful as others, but it's something that's certainly helpful. When I did this, I had no tutorial to run on, so giving back to the community...

As most people with one know, the Wii is limited in color. White. White. White. White. That's the color of every accessory it has. However, if you're inclined to a certain color, you can most certainly change the color of your Wii with ease and little expense.

Things you'll need:

One Wii.
One Tri-Wing Screwdriver (can be found on Ebay for remarkably cheap)
One Phillips Screwdriver (It has to be small. Sears sells a set of six Phillips and Flat screwdrivers for ten bucks. If you're into taking apart electronics and repairing stuff yourself, this is a good investment.)
A can of Vinyl Dye in the color you want. (NOTE: Krylon Fusion paint will PEEL OFF just like any other spray paint. Either it doesn't do as advertised - period, or it doesn't want to stick to glossy surfaces.)
A well vented area
Patience

To start off, unplug your Wii from everything that's attached to it. Here comes the second hardest part to doing this, surprisingly early in the project. Open up the top flaps that expose the Gamecube controller ports and Memory Card bays. Take them off as per the instructions on the inside of the largest flap. You will see three black screws, almost perfectly matching the black part that is under the flaps. STOP: Opening your Wii will of course VOID YOUR WARRANTY if you have one. If you've had your Wii since it was released (give or take) your warranty has already expired, and this will make no difference. (If your Wii breaks now, you'll have to pay a $60 service fee to have it repaired by Nintendo.)

Now that that's out of the way, go ahead and take off these screws. They're Phillips, so have your Phillips screwdriver handy. They may be a bit of a challenge to get out, but don't worry, they're not glued in there. Once they're out, lift up the black faceplate. It snaps out, so it may give a bit of a struggle, but don't worry. You won't break the thing. There are two Phillips and two Tri-Wing screws under this, so get those out.

Next up, turn your Wii over onto the side with the rubber white 'feet' Carefully get these off. You'll want to put them back on later, so set them down on a clean surface, wax paper is especially useful. I used one of my flat screwdrivers because I lack fingernails. Now that you've popped all of these off, you'll be greeted with four Tri-Wing screws. Take them all out. The ones up near the front are the ones that keep the faceplate on, and according to two accounts of taking the Wii apart, they're the hardest to get out. Try your best.

Before you can remove this completely, there is a small cable connected to the Main Board. This is the power cable for the LED lights within the face plate that light it up when you get a Wii Message or some other lovely thing. Carefully unplug it. It's tiny, so fragile comes with the territory. Inside the face plate, you will see another black peice of plastic. Unscrew it. I believe the screws here are Phillips. Take out the plastic piece and lay it aside. You will notice this also takes out the buttons, which is fine. If you want to paint them, keep them together with the stuff you want painted, if not, set them aside in a safe place. You will also notice the LED boards, and a white part with a clear plastic ring around it. Take these out as well. Set them aside in a safe place. If you've kept organized and have a pile of stuff that you want to paint, by now it should at least include: Faceplate. Top Flaps. (If you want to paint the buttons and that black thing that covered the gamecube ports, go right ahead.)

Now, shift your attention to the bottom of the Wii. There are more of those rubber 'feet', as well as a few white squares that are nothing more than stickers. Some of these conseal nothing, but most have a screw under them. Take off all of them, once again, being careful not to damage them (The paper-like ones are almost unavoidably damagable, so don't worry too much about them). After removing these screws, the last outside screw is clearly visible. Unscrew this to reveal the CMOS clock battery. It's a common flat cell battery, so take it out and put it somewhere that you won't lose it, as you'll want to paint the cover for it as well. Unlike in a computer, the Wii's CMOS battery controls nothing but the date. You're not damaging any data by taking this out. You'll notice that under this, there's yet another screw, but this is the last one on the outside.

After unscrewing that screw, you are now able to open the case. Take off the top part. Your paint pile should now include this large top cover. You will now see a large, silver metal object. This covers the CD drive. Take it off. Set it aside. You're left with the CD drive, some more plastic, and more metal stuff. From hereon out, it's pretty methodical. Remove visible screws until theres' none left that you can see or reach. Take off whatever you just freed and set it aside. NOTE: REMEMBER HOW THIS LOOKS. You will have to put it all back in EXACTLY the reverse order you took it out, or else it won't go back together correctly. If you have to draw a diagram, take notes, whatever helps you, do it. You do not want to screw this up.

You will have to unplug the CD drive from its ribbon cable and its data cable. Don't be afraid of this. As long as you remember the spaces this went in, it's no problem. You will also have to unplug these two cables from the main board, but once again, no problem. Unplugging the little fan is probably a good idea, as well.

After about 5 minutes of unscrewing, taking off, unscrewing, and taking off, you should have now reached nothing left except the main board. Here is where things are tricky. Take your Phillips screwdriver and unscrew the screws that appear to be holding the heatsink on over the Processor and the Graphics Card. They are NOT holding it on there, so don't be afraid. If you've done everything correctly, you just freed the main board from the bottom plastic part. There is another metal shielding device under it, take it out as well. You now have all of the plastic parts that need to be painted. Set everything that you took out of the wii in a safe, static/magnetism free area. Put it down on something that doesn't do a good job of conducting electricity, like wax paper or a clean rubber bath mat, or even a wooden countertop. Cover it with something that will keep dust off of it, because it's going to go without a cover for almost two days. You're done with the second hardest part now, and as hard as this sounded, believe me, it was very safe for you to do this. The Wii is a pretty resistant little thing. If you're feeling like this is a bad idea, don't. It's a really easy modification that doesn't require anything except a little bit of bravery and patience on your part.

Now for the artistic part - painting. Hopefully, you went out and got your paint before doing this. The problem with Vinyl Dye (which can be ordered off of the internet at various producer's websites, or bought at your local auto parts store) is that it comes in very limited colors. The brand I used only had Black, Blue, Red, Glossy Black, Khaki, and Yellow. I used glossy black. You may have to be 18 to buy this stuff, as it is technically spray paint, but they never asked me for ID. So, you're wondering what Vinyl Dye is and why it's so special. According to various resources I read, it's paint that alters the chemicals of the plastic it touches, so its able to put the dye under the top layer of plastic, making it a permanent change. If done right, it's a scratch resistant paint, so it looks professional when you finish up. The other best part is that it doesn't stick to anything it wasn't designed to stick to. If you hit wood with it, it comes right off after drying, almost like some kind of plastic wrap. The downside is this stuff smells terrible. Worse than any spray paint, so if you can, do this job outside. As it says on the can, make sure the surface you plan to spray is clean. I washed mine with warm soapy water and dried it thoroughly before spraying. Follow all the instructions on the can and paint everything you plan on painting with the stuff. Allow it to dry for 30 minutes to an hour and follow up with another coat. Now, let it sit for 24 hours. Make sure that you gave everything an even coat, or else it'll look bad.

After this, simply put everything back together. Hopefully, you diagrammed your Wii's inner workings or something to make putting this thing back together simpler, because it is a challenge getting it back together, in fact, it's harder than it was to take it apart. This is the hardest part of the entire job, yet notice I still said "simply". After getting it all screwed back together (I put significantly less screws back into my Wii than I took out...) it should be working like it did before. Reset your date, and you're good to go. Enjoy your newly colored Wii, and if you want, paint your controllers too. Show off, sell modded Wiis and controllers, do whatever. Like I said, this isn't hard. There's a very small chance of failure, but there's a greater chance of you dying today than screwing up the Wii like this, so go ahead and give it a try.

Here are some pictures of my stuff after painting it black. I kept the buttons white to acheive a contrast look that turned out even better than I thought it would. Excuse the low quality pictures.

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/404.png
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/404.png
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http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/404.png
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/404.png
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/404.png

[Saint_Michael 3]

Well as interesting as this tutorial is and the odds are it will void out your warranty I think a quicker solution would be to go to a website and purchase Wii skins and use them to decorate up your Wii and make it less dull. Although I don't own a Wii or anything but a simple search and you will find various websites to purchase these skins like this website, http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/.

On top of that I think this tutorial could use a few pictures so people who are willing to try this out know what to look for and at least have a guide on where they should be but other then that some good work with this tutorial.

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

Well, I think that this is a very good tutorial if you want to make your Wii unique, rather than just slapping a mass produced decal on it. Also, the OP already said that this will void your warranty

[ragav.bpl 0]

well in my opinion the tutorial is really cool n helpfull but the main concern after changing the color is violation of warranty so i suggest modifying only after the warranty expires

[phoenixinno 0]

I would definetily prefer to apply skins to it than risk destroying my Wii and losing my warranty.Nice tutorial though!

[Tramposch 1]

This is a great tutorial, but like SM said, skins are a lot quicker and won't void your warranty. Additionally you can change them whenever you want, with this method you need to repaint it. Not to mention a high gloss paint would look best. And just painting it a solid color is rather bland. The concept is good, but the product leaves much to be desired.

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

Well, I think the idea is that you can paint it to be whatever design you want on it. Also, using a high gloss paint probably wouldn't be as good as, say, painting it whatever you want with another paint and then adding a gloss to it. (As far as I am aware Gloss Paints don't work well if you are trying to paint a design)

[Forte 0]

The unfortunate part about most skins, as convenient as they are, they leave residue and might eventually lose their stick. (I am aware that many skin providers claim they leave no residue, but I don't know how trustworthy that is.) The paint that I used on mine was originally supposed to be glossy, but eventually the gloss ran out and just left dull black.There seems to be a flaw with glossy paint, apparently the stuff has a higher gloss than paint ratio until you're almost out, meaning that the paint is more open to chipping and scratching, even though it shouldn't. My Wii console and Wavebird were painted after the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, leaving them just matte black. The Wii controllers have had various chipping and scratching, while my Wavebird (which I tested by scratching with a knife in a hidden place) is completely scratch resistant. Personally, I'm more fond of less glossy things, since fingerprints don't show up on them.Also, yeah. You can make designs or whatever you want on your Wii. I'm no artist, so I can't do any of that, but if you're artistically inclined, you can most certainly get creative with this stuff. Sorry I didn't include any in the works pictures, but of course I had already been long done with this before I posted the topic. However, as I tried to stress in the opening post, if you have even the slightest experience with opening your own computer, you're prepared to open your Wii. The most confusing aspect is how crammed together everything is, and even that's not impossibly challenging.

[jaqlene 0]

Nintendo skin covers are the best way to change the looks of my nintendo and to protect it from scratches and nicks.


Nintendo WII skin cover

Edited July 26, 2011 by jaqlene (see edit history)

[iGuest 3]

Maybe if you taped up EVERY POSSIBLE LITTLE CRACK THAT ANY MICROPARTICLE COULD POSSIBLY GET IN you MIGHT be able to do it. If you took it apart and took every faceplate off, you could do it.It's really not worth it though. I'm pretty sure nintendo.com would sell you a faceplate for it for like, $15; Best Buy would probably have one too.