Hey everybody! Been a long while...
I picked up a 2000 to replace my tired old 1000 as well as for some nostalgia reasons, I usually use it to play PSX games these days
Someone at some point had put a replacement shell on it but it was very cheap and the buttons were loose, the UMD door wouldn't stay shut and it felt very cheap. I was browsing for replacement shells and saw a cool gold one available, but only for the 3000 models. All I could find for the 2000 was bright yellow. I know a lot of posts on the forums indicated that there was no way the two would be compatible, but I'm stubborn and really wanted the gold. These days the shells are so cheap and easy to get I figured I'd see what I could do.
Turns out, it didn't really take much to make it work!
I stripped down my 2000 and compared the shells, and in the rear half there are a few posts that hold the metal shield that are in different positions between the two. In the bottom left corner the screw post moved from above the headphone jack to near the strap loop. I removed the nubs, and shortened the post so the headphone board from the 2000 would fit. I used some double-sided tape to hold the shield in place.
The 2000 rear shell showing the shield:
The 3000 rear shell, I marked the parts I removed with a black marker:
The 2000 and 3000 rear shells side by side:
After that I was able to just swap over the 2000 parts into the 3000 shell. I used the silver trim strips from my 2000 shell since they seemed a bit nicer than the ones that came with my new shell. If you were to use the 3000 trim you may need to remove the screw hole near the strap loop.
Since the one screw position changed, the D-pad button/left screen bracket no longer have a provision for the bottom screw. I was able to assemble the PSP without it and everything seems fine.. A guy could 3D print a part to provide the screw hole if need be but I don't think its necessary.
Looking at the front faceplate, they're very similar. I had to remove the two nubs that are in the middle of the home row buttons, but that's all that had to be modified on my 3000 face.
Here they are side by side:
The 3000 faceplate is thinner at the ends compared to the 2000 faceplate:
I had to trim down the lip on the edge of the D-pad bracket some to provide the clearance needed for the faceplate to fit.
After that though, the rest is just regular assembly! My home row buttons seem a bit stiff but I'm not sure if that's because of fitment differences or because the shell was manufactured poorly in that regard.
It looks good in gold!
I think I will end up doing some LED mods too, but for now I'm pretty happy with how it looks!
