You bought your new fangled paint slinger went to the local field or in your backyard and fired off a few pods of paintballs. The next thing you know the marker you bought has turned into some Frankenstein version of it’s former self. Welcome to the paintball marker customization crowd, we have all been there, and many more will be bitten by the bug in the future.
So, when I talk about modifying a paintball marker what do I mean? With the aftermarket flooded with products for just about every type of paintball marker out on the market how do you choose? Most of the time, at least for me, I would get a general idea of what I wanted to do when I bought a marker or adopted one from a trade. Then the shopping would begin…
Modifications can be as dramatic as a entire new engine inside of your beast or as simple as a new set of grips slapped on the frame of your favorite paint chunker. You can go as far or as little as you want as most paintball mods are not needed but in the ever progressing quest for something that is personal to each individual player the need to customize feeds at your soul. I have dumped upwards of $500 into Smart Parts Ions, and been as cheap as a set of custom grips for a Dangerous Power Threshold in the past. With the lower end markers it seems people seem to dump more money into them in the long run then they do with higher priced models, maybe this is because the player has much more money to play with after buying the lower priced item or they just feel this tug to buy and buy and buy.
What I am going to do in this article is take my girlfriends Ion and slap on some aftermarket parts that everyone can buy. Yes, I could go over the top and annodize the parts, laser engrave the body and frame and then throw in the latest and greatest OLED circuit board. But I am not going to do that, I want to show you that on a small budget you can build an incredible looking and shooting marker that can and will impress your friends and shoot fast enough to compete in any tournament.
To start off with you will need a Smart Parts Ion of course. You can buy one new or find a great deal on a used Ion since they are so plentiful. Smart Parts sold over 400,000 in 2005 when the Ion was first released so you can imagine how many are out there in the five years since their inception. Out of the box the Ion can shoot upwards of 17 balls per second so it is plenty fast enough for most capped balls per limit rules in all of the popular tournament series out there. There are a few must have items I would recommend you buy first and these are a clamping feedneck, a trigger and a QEV (quick exhaust valve).
Now on to the parts list I am going to use:
Smart Parts Ion
Deadlywind Barrel
Deadlywind Body
QEV
Custom Products Trigger
Stock Ion Board
Element Version 1 Frame (these are rare but since I had one I figured I would use it)
Generic Feedneck
NDZ Firing Can
CheckIt On/Off ASA
I have a few different bodies I will show you to give you different ideas as to what you can do. The idea is to express yourself and have fun while modding your marker. It does not matter if anyone else likes what you have done, only if you personally like it. Customization is a personal thing and each individual will have different tastes. I am not a fan of blue markers but will be using a blue Deadlywinds Foehn body as the main build on the Ion. With the Ions I have built in the past I have found that I bought a lot of wholesale type lots to get better deals, thus allowing me to make multiple Ions and sell off the extra markers I did not need. This gave me some extra spending money to actually get out there and play.
Step 1: Dis-assembly
The best advice I can give you here is to go slow and consult your owners manual. Use a white towel or similar workplace so if you happen to drop a part, and you will, finding it will not be a big issue. Be careful as a lot of markers have internal springs that can and will shoot some integral part across the room and have you searching for something so small your eyes go crossed. When you take your marker apart lay the pieces on your work space in the order you removed them, this will make putting them back in the marker much easier as all you have to do is work in reverse order.
Step 2: Reassembly
Again, go very slow and be methodical when putting your maker back together. Make sure you use lube (read your manual, it will tell you what kind) when putting together the pieces. Worst thing you can do is forget this and go to test fire your marker and all you hear is leaks. If you placed the parts on the table in the order you removed them from the marker putting it all back together again will be a simple process. Go slow and make sure each and every part is in the proper place.
As you can see from the pictures you can take the Smart Parts Ion from mild to wild with just a few bolt on parts. You can do this with just about any brand of marker out there, the only thing keeping you from having a marker that is the envy of everyone is a little imagination, some cash and time.
Do it up people!
A BIG thank you goes out to Deadlywind for the barrel and body kit for this article. I have personally been using a Deadlywind Carbon Fiber barrel for a few years now and I would not use anything but it. It takes Freak inserts to make it a complete barrel kit.
Check em out here: www.deadlywind.com
Paul Forcier
