My MZ-R500 And My Plans For It

Thanks for your tips @Machaneus I'll see if I can give it a try at some point at the end of this or beginning of the next month. Currently the heat's a bit too much for me to take a train to the town with the shop I purchased the silver paint at (it better be the same shade and I ran out of it). Either the air conditioning is broken or just off for undefined reasons in public transport around here.

I noticed the paint isn't equally reflective, one spot is more rough looking, so I must have (somehow) screwed up during the corrective spraying. I guess I'll really need some translucent finish on it to even that out and give it an equal shimmer then. According to a friend it should work and to the very most shouldn't be noticable if I buy spraypaint of proper quality to seal it off with.

 

(Almost final) Update!

I would like thank everyone who has given me tips and advice on how to tackle my (surprisingly complicated for a newbie) case mod upgrade! It is done and just needs to be assembled.
See the spoiler for the final two steps prior to its re-assembly:

Spoiler

Step 5: Black decal stripe and silver Sony.

I taped the entire device and left out a square with the Sony and the decal. In order to protect the Walkman writing, I put some paper on top of it so that the glue wouldn't get directly on its edges, just in case, so I wouldn't tear it off. Once everything was at least double-layered (ended up being three layers), I taped the back as well to make it stick. And as a last addition I covered up Sony (I did it like this becuase then I could just easily remove this part and still have everything aound it framed in tape for the silver coating). Unfortunately the tape was dried by the heat despite having been in the basement, so it didn't fully stick. You can see this on two spots where the black didn't quite stick to borders but got below it.

@Machaneus ' tip with the eraser stamping worked perfectly. I bought a pack of two which were very hard in consistency for about 1€, sprayed it in silver while my case was below a cardboard, lifted it, stamped it on, and repeated it about 3-4 times.
On the last try I got some in its gaps, the layer was slightly too thick, but with a toothpick I could remove it once it dried.

I ended up using a very very thin hard brush, sprayed it in blue and carefully dipped against paper to get the majority of paint off (to avoid small sharp bumps) and then used it very lightly to even out the edges of the walkman W and dot. It's a smooth shape now. Previously I was a bit too careless and got some blue off on the lower right of it. I also corrected some gaps of the Sony this way where I removed a bit too much paint with the toothpick.

Also as you can see below, if the light is about right, you can still notice the irregularities around N and Y from the corrective paintjob last week, but eh. It's definitely good enough!

Finally I applied a layer of translucent spraypaint. It evened it out a lot in reflectivity and bumps. I'm positively surprised. Many tiny scratches and bumps are gone.
Small note: I didn't use full reflective spraypaint for the very last layer. It was silk-mat, so neither fully reflective, nor fully mat. It seems to work best for this type of paintjob.
I also applied it in about 3 layers.


Step 6: Removal of the last bits of tape covering the window.

I took a cutter knife and carefully removed the tape by slowly cutting into the gap between window and case with tiny forth back movements and increasing pressure.
After I had a line cut around it, I used the fold on it to cut into it (it were two layers of tape) and broke the paintjob on it in order to lift the first layer of tape off. For the second layer of tape directly on the window I had a small gap prepared so I could scratch against it to pile it up and drag it off. Of course since there was this heat wave it started to tear apart, but nonetheless: It worked. Then I took my cutter knife and went once more around the edge to get the last bits of tape out of it.
There was a small spot between both tape layers (you can never have enough! Three might have been better as the tape was of cheap quality, which I didn't know) where blue paint got in. God knows why, I suspect it had to do with its quality and the fold. This in turn got slightly through to the window and where the paint was there's a small spot that's less reflective than the rest of the window, though no actual paint got onto it. Barely noticable though.

I was considering to seal this part of the window off as well but was told it wouldn't be a good idea with the window uncovered, even if it is translucent paint.

As a next to-do I plan: a custom/self-made carry bag with belt clip (in order to protect those numerous hours I put into it). I think in total it was 4 days of work including drying - scattered as I had to get materials and figure out my next steps.
Once I re-assembled the walkman case, I will show you all a photo of it in its full glory.


It was much more effort than I initially expected and a ping pong of satisfaction and disappointment, but in the end I'm truly happy I did this, how it turned out and I'm also so grateful for all the support I got.

Thank you, Stereo2Go!

 

Congrats it looks real well ! Glad you had success painting the logo. Thanks for the thorough description.
Looking forward for the carry bag update !

 

Thanks!

It's been on the 40th anniversary of the Walkman that I re-assembled it with some additional helping hands (it's pretty flimsy and a spring jumped out and had to be reattached). Quite a coincidence, isn't it? I didn't even realize that's the day until I spotted the thread just now.

Here it is. I present you:
My (final) MZ-R500:

For nearly two weeks it had to stop its duties, but now it's back!
I am extremely happy to see it shine like that and I'm glad I did this. This was the treatment it deserved (to my own abilities at least).


More images in the following spoiler:

Spoiler

Under certain light its paintjob looks just like the old shade of blue. A very welcome effect of the metallic blue I picked.


Under a small spot light you can still notice the irregularities/bumps on some spots. This is mostly the case for the Sony background as I corrected the blue before stamping the silver on it. However, you don't notice it with daylight or less concentrated light sources like some lamp on a ceiling.
As you can see it be seen in action here as it's playing track 52 of my MD (and there's a toothpick I used to get that spring of the opening mechanism back in place behind it).


Took a shot under an angle with different camera settings to highlight the small window issue and minor leftover paintjob irregularities (note the slightly rougher patch of blue above the new Walkman logo). Nothing I'd call annoying though and nobody noticed in real life until I told them, but could have been avoided with better tape and more experience. It was a very ambitioned project for someone who hasn't ever spraypainted something like this (or anything at all). Perhaps a bit too ambitioned.
But it is unique now and playback still works. The MD even gets ejected properly now, with a lot of force even, after the springs were reattached. I guess they were just loosened before. Feels like that mechanism is brand new now.

That's it with pictures for now. I'll post further photos on request, but personally I see no need to add more to this post.

Carry bag is a purely optional to-do goal for now and I'll only read up on how one would do that for the time being.
Figured I might have to tackle some other Walkman issues before getting to it, like my defect WM-2091. Found a nice leather purse where my MZ-R500 fits in just perfectly for now - and it even got pockets for headphones and 2-4 MDs. Perfect for taking it somewhere to avoid damages to the new paintjob.


I hope my journey to Walkman case modding was an interesting and informative one to read for those who have been considering to do the same to one of their devices.

PS: Whoever constructed the door's 90° hinge spring attachment had hellish motives in mind. Same for the way you have to push the device into the lower bottom, so much could have gone wrong with this old plastic...

 

I made an account here just to say thanks for your awesome writeup!

As a fellow MZ-R500 fan (I have the three "standard" colors here: silver, blue, black) and modding enthusiast (my blue R500 now has built-in Bluetooth for streaming to my AirPods ) I love reading this stuff.

Would you mind sharing what paints exactly you ended up using? I might just attempt this mod myself some time and since I am in Germany too, hopefully I'll be able to use the same brands of paint, because the result looks awesome.

 

Hello and welcome to Stereo2Go @formatc1702 !

It's been a while I was on here thanks to life, your reply here made me go "Might as well sacrifice some minutes and log on again, it's been way too long", so thanks!

The spraypaint I bought were from two separate sources actually.
Two cans of metallic outdoor spraypaint I bought in the store Hellweg:
One for the blue base-paint (which is pretty close to the original blue colour, though a little more intense/deep) and one for the stripe's black paint. I used spraypaint from the brand "Vincent", both metallic outdoor spraypaint ("abriebfest"), so be careful when you use it as you may not get it off anymore. I've checked the can for some sort of number that would give an exact colour but couldn't find it. Might check again later, maybe I'm just too tired today to spot it.

And one I purchased in the store chain Conrad for the silver accents:
They often have a model building section with different plastic spraypaint bottles. I picked a silver tone that would work on plastic surfaces. I also used a stiff, simple and white rectangular eraser that I coated in silver to use as a stamp for the SONY-logo. You have to be careful in the amount of coating you apply on the eraser as if it is too much it will apply it to the surface below where you don't want to have it.

In the end I coated everything with clear coat spraypaint, neither glossy nor matte. I can't remember where I put the can right now though, I believe it was also from Conrad though.

If you want I can take photos of the cans later on, I still have a little of each left over.

 

Thanks for the info. Indeed some detailed info for the metallic blue paint and the clear coat would be super helpful. I'm curious to see what other metallic colors are available in this product line.

Any reports on the durability? Your final pictures are from two years ago; I wonder how much use your R500 has seen since then, and how it is holding up.

I will probably save myself the trouble and not do any silver detailing; I might even remove the embossed Sony logo by smoothing it out before painting. The debossed Walkman logo does not have a separate color in the original anyway, so I'll just paint it over.

 

It still looks exactly like it did when I finished it! There's no scratch, no missing paint, nothing at all.
I've often had it in my pocket (most often a shirt's breast pocket as it perfectly fits in one), used it roughly every third day until the pandemic started. Those pockets are rather a tight fit for it, so there's lots of friction going on.
I might attribute this to having added a clear coating on top of the metallic paint, which can work like an additional protective layer preventing friction from affecting the actual paintjob.

Detailed list with links and an image of the products I used are in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

The things I used as an image:

These two small cans on the on the very left are from Conrad:

• Semi-gloss clear finish ("Seidenmatt") with the number TS-79, can be found on their website here. You might want to check if you rather don't want glossy for your finish though.
  
• Silver plastic spraypaint with the number TS-76, can also be found on their website here.

These two Vincent cans are from Hellweg:

• Metallic black outdoor spraypaint, glossy (no number given anywhere unfortunately), and I cannot find it online on their shop, perhaps it's in a physical shop though.
  
• Metallic blue outdoor spraypaint, glossy with the product number 439059, I could find it on their Austrian online shop only.

There's were more colours of the vincent brand, so if you don't want specifically that blue I used, you can surely find something else that will suit your needs! Just make sure to check that it's metallic if you want a metallic effect and that it's suitable for indoor and outdoor paint - and abrasion-proof. The latter should preserve it well.

I'm not sure where I purchased the masking liquid on the right though. I think it was in an Idee-shop, the brand is Schmincke, number being 55 730.
Also there were no smaller versions of the Vincent cans. But if you can find smaller can sizes similar to the silver coating it might be a little more than enough for one device. The silver paint is almost empty (though to be fair I was probably a little too generous with distance for even application + the eraser spraying).

I used adhesive tape for masking, but I think it was a little dried from the summer heat. Not sure which to recommend there, use the one you trust the most in daily use, but make sure to use a fresh roll of tape. It should stick better and save you trouble. I recommend applying several layers on top of another. Despite using around 4 layers on the case's plastic window the aggressive spraypaint did manage to leave a little matte spot on it in my case.

Oh and one last tip:
When you open up any of your MZ-R500's, there's one cable which is very flimsy and even snapped for me, urging me to buy a second MZ-R500 purely for MD-recording reasons.
See this post's spoiler to see which cable I mean. It's very thin and stiff and if I'm not mistaken and when looking at its architecture it's responsible for recording functionality, as everything else works fine. Also be careful when reassembling it as the area around the 3mm and optical jacks are making it a little difficult to squeeze the casing back on. I've also had an issue of a spring (the one responsible for the MD opening/ejection mechanism) hopping off and getting stuck inside the metal framing, so pay special attention to it. It was flimsy effort needing a second person to get it out.

I hope I could help you and if you repaint one of your devices, feel free to share it. I'd be curious to see the outcome!

 

Thanks for the detailed info. I'll be sure to share my work if I get around to actually doing it!

About the record head flex cable: I don't need to worry about that, since I had to remove all recording hardware (line-in jack, magnetic record head, motor and gearing for moving the record head up and down and locking the eject mechanism while recording) in order to fit my built-in Bluetooth hack inside the device. This hack is a story for another time, though ;-) I use a separate NetMD device for recording anyway.

Regarding the opening of the casing: by following the instructions in the Service Manual (available here, for instance) it's easy to get the shell off without risking any deformation or snapping; notice the arrow labeled "5" in Section 3-1 / page 7 of the manual. If you twist the back shell away using the side with the audio and charging ports as a "hinge", it pops off [and back on again] without the need for violence.
The next section in the manual also shows the torsion spring ("pop-L"), so no surprise there either. I've taken these devices apart a number of times so I've lost the fear of the process

 

You're welcome!

Taking the casing off was easy, putting it back on proved a little flimsy though. But I've only ever opened it up and put it back together twice, so I would account that to my lack of experience with it. Though in comparison I found opening the WM-2091 tape Walkman to be a far more pleasant experience in general despite there being way more screws and elements in the end. I was in fact aware of the spring but I wouldn't have ever imagined it could plop right into the metal casing and get stuck haha! That was the nasty part about it. Thanks for the link, the service manual will surely prove useful at some point!

The bluetooth hack sounds exciting. If you ever feel like sharing details or your work in progress steps on it, feel free to post a thread about it! I'm more into wires than bluetooth, but I'm sure there'll be others who are eager to give it a shot.

 

For any other Germans reading, here's the Vincent Metallic Effekt spray from Hellweg that @Sly mentioned, and an [apparently] equivalent offering from Toom.

They both come in anthracite, blue, silver (interesting, essentially the same selection as the original R500 color palette) and gold. I might have to look around for some more "interesting" colors (I love the 'shopped images you uploaded earlier, and the old-school industrial green that was suggested), but it is a good starting point!