Paint: interior or exterior/ flat, semigloss or gloss?

Firepro4life52

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Paint: interior or exterior/ flat, semigloss or gloss?

I'm going to be painting up my two Nintendo cabs soon and I am curious what the best type of paint to use to get a pretty nice smooth and durable finish is? I plan on using either valspar or Olympic paint from Lowes and will be spraying it with the Wagner power painter plus I just purchased. I'm not super meticulous about about getting a 100 percent flawless finish, again, I just want it to look pretty clean and smooth and be durable. I've painted previous cabinets with a foam roller and they turned out OK, but I am hoping maybe using an exterior or higher gloss paint in conjunction with the sprayer will help me get the paint job just right.

Is exterior going to be more durable than interior? Will gloss hold up better? Is applying a final clear coat a must? I'd prefer not to mess with anything oil based, especially for clean up if possible. Any recommendations?
 
Do not use a high gloss on a nintendo cab. It will look awful.
 
Fair enough. Anyone have any experience using exterior paint? Any better or more durable?
 
Prime - Paint - Clear Coat

Gloss actually looks very good. It makes the cabinet pop. I've used gloss on Nintendo cabs and would do it again. However, it's not as close to the original finish, which would be somewhere between satin and semi-gloss. But then again, the original wasn't painted. If you use gloss, cabinet prep is more important as imperfections also pop with gloss. Bondo, sand, bondo, sand, prime, sand, prime, sand, paint, sand, paint, sand, clear, sand, clear. (I think I just made a case for vinyl) Interior is fine. Especially if you are going to clear coat.
 
Yeah, I should specify what I said. Gloss is not a bad finish itself, but it looks out of place on a Nintendo cab. If your goal is not to make it original (which was not painted, as Hoth said) then go for it.
 
What exactly were Nintendo cabs actually covered in? It's like a perfect hard candy shell.
 
I always use semi-gloss latex. Painted two red dk's and a play choice...all semi-gloss. Did not put a clear coat on...but that's my preference. Rolled them all as well. But semi-gloss on my two red dk's turned out great.
 
Yeah, I'm going to go with semi-gloss. I'm going to use exterior paint on one to see if it appears more durable. I plan on making one of the cabs into a Mario bros. I'm just trying to decide if I will paint it red (already got the perfect red for $5 from the reject bin at Lowes) or if I will just repaint the cab the original DK blue that it is currently. Since Mario bros was a kit, I guess I could go red or blue, but I am torn.
 
Yours may be a kit, but the dedicated wide body Mario Bros were orange.
 
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Kind of like this...........

wideload1tu.jpg
 
When I did my DK Jr I used Semi Gloss. I wasn't sure what orange so I used Cleveland Browns Orange on it. Rolled it on and it came out great.
 
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