Face Button Modification

- '''DISCLAIMER: This requires you to open up your GCW Zero. If you damage your console, you are solely responsible for the damage caused. Nobody will refund you if you damage your console. Do this at your own risk.''' -

Overview
For better aesthetics, you can replace the original ABXY buttons on your GCW Zero with buttons of your choosing. In this tutorial, I'll be replacing the original face buttons with buttons from a Nintendo DS Lite, but the steps can be roughly applied to any buttons you wish to put in your console.



Disassembling your GCW Zero
See the tutorial: click here.

Before you start
You can obtain a set of Nintendo DS Lite face buttons online for a few dollars. I got mine from ebay for $3.50 USD. A GCW Zero disassembly tutorial can be found here: click me.

The NDS face buttons are just a hair larger than the shell accommodates, but too short to use as-is.

Enlarging the button holes
After you disassemble your GCW Zero, you'll have to enlarge the face button holes in the shell to make the NDS buttons fit. I used the end of a drill bit covered in sandpaper to enlarge the hole. You only want to remove a very thin layer off the holes; the NDS buttons are almost a perfect fit even before the hole enlargement. Keep testing with your buttons and slowly enlarge the holes as needed. Favor removing too little plastic over removing too much - too little and you can always enlarge it more later, but you can't shrink a hole that's too large.

Removing the NDS button base
Once you obtain a set of NDS face buttons, you'll want to start by removing the base ring of plastic around the buttons. An X-Acto knife is fine for this, just make sure to have eye protection in case of snapped knife blades. Use firm strokes but don't try to cut through it in one go. Use multiple strokes and slowly work your way down. Prefer to take off more plastic rather than less. The point is to eliminate any protrusions that would stop the button from smoothly moving through the hole and out the other end.

The NDS buttons are made of white plastic, but painted over for each color. Removing the ring around the buttons exposes a white ring around the bottom of the buttons; have a permanent marker the same color as the buttons to color it over with. This ring will mostly hidden inside the console after installation, and the marker cover-up will be unnoticeable.

Re-making the button base
Next up is to re-make the button base. The protrusions in the button base that stop them from turning differ in the GCW Zero and NDS. Take the original face buttons from your GCW Zero and trace each button base onto a sturdy sheet of plastic. It's fine to use the plastic from the packaging of a blister-packaged product. Cut them out and modify them until they fit into your shell. Prefer a fit that's too large to move smoothly in and out of the shell: you'll likely want to trim it again later anyways.

Padding the button height
The NDS buttons are too short to be used as-is. The height of the original GCW Zero buttons is the ideal height for face buttons. Any shorter than that will result in mushy, or unpressable face buttons. Using your original buttons as reference, add material in between your NDS buttons and the remade button bases, until they reach they're the same height. You'll want to cut the material into circles slightly smaller than the diameter of the buttons; this is only to pad the height, and you don't want it to catch on the shell. A single layer is probably enough. For reference, 1.6 mm is the approximate amount I needed to pad, the remade button base included.

Assembling the new buttons
First, use hot glue to glue the the height padders onto the bottom of the NDS buttons. The height padders should be small enough not to impact the buttons movement through the button holes at all.

The hardest part of this mod is aligning the button base with the button face. Look at the holes in your shell, your custom button base, and determine how you're going to attach the NDS button on to the button base. It's very difficult to align the buttons with the button base in a way that won't leave the button text crooked after you're done. I used hot glue to attach the button base to the buttons, which I now regret. It's far easier to use a slower-setting adhesive, stick the button on, place it in your shell, and twist the button until the text is no longer crooked. I think rubber cement or sticky tack might work. Afterwards, you can trim the button base until it slides in and out of the shell smoothly, while using the trimming to fix any slight crookedness in your button.

Testing and finish
Test thoroughly before you reassemble your console. Shake it around (careful, as the screen isn't held in place by anything), and see if the buttons become crooked. See if you can twist any buttons more to one side more than you can the other (be gentle if you used sticky tack). If you can, this button will become crooked after you reassemble.

Don't insert the rubber stoppers in the GCW Zero's back panel just yet. After a few days, you may notice some buttons like to lay crooked more than straight. If it bothers you, you'll have to re-open your console again.