Hiya everyone,

As you TSU9600 users may be aware, the removable back panel seems to tarnish and looks ugly after years of use.

I am considering spraying this part with some form of rubber matt black and think it will improve feel and grip and actually improve overall appearance.

Before I do I was wondering if anyone else out there has done this and have any tricks and tips.

Better still a photograph of this would he great, I know it's a strange request but I love the looks of my Pronto from the front but the back looks grotty and I'm sure if this was rubberised it would improve the tactile feel.

tj

I never done it but I suggest you use a enamel that can withstand scratches and fingerprints.

I have painted other remotes with sprays (Glow in the dark). But when you put them down on a table after a year it can get worn through.

I never tried a spray enamel but that would be my choice. A brush would give it a thicker coat.

You could try cleaning the remote with a solvent to remove the rubber coating or sand it.

I have tried a spray Plastic Dip coating on something similar but it wore off. It peels off to easy.

Good luck.

Ok alpha, thanks for the advice.
tj

Keep in mind that there are two screws under the label area on the back you'll need to be able to get to if you ever need to replace the battery. If I were to apply some type of coating to the back I'd remove the back portion first, do what I was going to do to it, then put it back on.

Yeah Lowpro,
Due for a new battery so may just respray silver as was gonna get new device from bay but in UK these things are selling for mega bucks at the moment.
Mine is great apart from the rear housing, previous owner has not done a very good job refitting after they replaced the battery, bit of excessive gap one side and grotty looking.
Rubber matt black or standard silver, mmmmmmmm, decisions decisions.
tj

Hi tj
I did this with two Pronto TSU 9600:
- carefully remove the label at the back (with a Swiss Army knife)
- remove the two small rubber feet and remove all the screws as well
- then remove the sticky back panel
- clean the back panel from old paint
  (I used a pan cleaning pad for doing this, it took some time but was worth it)
- clean the back panel with cleaning solvent
- spray the back panel with a plastic primer spray
- spray the back panel with a color painting spray (2-3 times)
- spray the back panel with a clear painting spray (I used a not shiny one)
As color I used „platinum“ since it is similar to the look as the Pronto, but you can use any color of course. The final clear spray is acting as a protective coat for the color paint. I used „dupli color“ painting sprays since they are sold locally.
I made this a year ago, the back panel still looks like new and the stickyness is gone forever :-)

Any pictures you'd like to share? Would be neat to see.

Hi Lowpro, sure.

Seems there is no way I can upload or copy/paste pictures directly in this forum, so I created a dropbox folder with some pictures:

[Link: dropbox.com]

Rene

Nice Job!!!

Hi, I just added an additional picture to the dropbox folder (link above) with the parts I used to remove the old paint and spray the back panel new.
Rene

The back of mine is really looking bad. I don't want to have to respray the back of it but can anyone suggest ways that they have cleaned the back of the unit? I am not sure what to use. I did see that a cleaning solvent was mentioned but I am not sure what to use.

I tired alcohol and that took off the paint. Not too happy with the result. I just want to get rid of the stickiness.

I used a pan cleaning pad for doing this (see pictures in box, link above), rubbing the back panel and used some cleaning petrol. First it was even more sticky and looked very ugly, but after a while rubbing, the paint goes off completely and you will have just the plastic back panel without any paint on it. You should not use any agressive solvent which could eventually dissolve the plastic.

I'm in the process of repainting the back of my 9800 too (funny coincidence: I bought the exact same primer and paint as Rene without having seen the pictures from his above link).
Removing the old paint is fairly easy with 1000 grit wet sanding paper.
You need 1 sheet and about 1 hour time.
At first I tried rubbing off the paint with the coarse side of a Glitzi sponge, but that didn't work well and I feared that it would leave scratches.

Sebastian

Rene,
here's a dropbox URL you published on remotecentral for some remotes that you painted. It's been five years since you posted this, so it occurs to me that you're going to change computers at some point or other, which might (I'm a bit ignorant on this) wipe out this URL. It'd be helpful to have it available after that time.

I think imgur.com will let you publish and link to photos for free.

Thanks for publishing these photos to begin with, and whatever you do to keep them available.