Ever notice how a case finish has a slight roughness to it? You want to smooth that out by using some 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and a sanding block. Make sure that you use even strokes in the same direction back and forth. Use warm water with a drop of dish soap in it. It helps to collect the dust. A coffee can works great for this. Don't be afraid of using plenty of water. When sanding, it should feel like little or no effort is involved with your movements.

Don't worry about sanding it all the way down to bare metal because you want to leave the existing paint. The primer has a better chance of adhering to what was already applied at the factory. The key is just to make the surface as smooth as glass.

It really helps to have a garage to work out of because this process of wet sanding gets messy! If you have a really old table or work bench that you don't mind getting filthy then do your work there.

If you noticed the bare metal spots in the picture above and you have bare metal spots of your own, don't panic. It's OK to have a little, in fact, there's really no way to avoid it. Just ensure that the surface is smooth, especially when dry. If it's not, wet sand it some more. The plastic face has a rough texture by nature, so it will take some extra time to sand that smooth. You may want to use 220 grit paper first, and then go over it again with 400 grit.

Once you have sanded your pieces to the smoothness you desire, rinse off your parts and place them in a place where they can dry. I let my parts dry overnight in the garage before I applied the first coat of primer. The length of time that you let your parts dry is up to you, but make sure you don't have any wet spots or the primer will be bubbled!

Here is where you want to take your work outdoors or if your fortunate enough, a well ventilated area such as shed or a garage. Believe me, it's super-nice to have as you don't have to worry about wind blowing your spray stream as much as you would in the open. But if the open is all you have, then have at it! Following the directions on the can, hold the spray nozzle about 10 to 12 inches from the surface and press firmly on the nozzle, moving your stream of paint in a side-to-side motion. Don't forget to overlap!

You may want to experiment and find which technique is best for the desired results. But remember, use light coats. It looks much better to have several thin coats as apposed to one or two heavy coats.

If you notice the picture on the right above, you'll notice that I had a small run with the paint. Since I used black primer for the interior (to achieve the flattest black possible) it's not a deal at all as all I'll do is wet-sand it down until it's smooth. Then I'll apply a second coat and you'll never see it. I allowed the primer to dry for a full 24 hours before I applied the second coat.

After the second coat of black has been applied and given ample time to dry, we can move on to the outer panels. Here we want to be extremely careful with the surface, so you may want to wet-sand the outside again at this time with 600 grit wet/dry sand paper. This will ensure that any scratches that may have happened when painting the other sides black are removed.

Again, lighter is better when it comes to the thickness of primer that you apply. As you can see in the image on the right above that the yellow is bleeding through. That's not a big deal at all as the second coat will cover it.

Let the primer dry for thirty minutes, and then wet-sand coat with 600 grit wet/dry paper. This will take the roughness of the primer out and keep the surface smooth so that we can achieve our ultimate result: mirror finish! Then apply a second coat and wet-sand again!