People shy away from painting their front panels believing it is a difficult and complex task. It isn't. All you need to do is take the panels off the drives. Those which have hinged doors that flap down to let the tray extend should have the door removed before painting, but I haven't done one and have no further advice here. The fronts are reasonably easy to get off since they mainly click into place and once the tray front has been removed it's plain sailing to release the latches til the front pops off.
The tray front is usually held in place with guides at each end and a couple of detent claws which latch behind the lower edge of the tray itself. The front can be released by pulling the tray out a little (use the little hole as shown in its instructions) and look under the middle of the front (see photos). There may be a slot in the centre of it where a flat-blade screwdriver may ease it forwards so that the claws pass the front edge of the tray (see lower photo) and allow the front to slide upwards and off the guides.
This photo shows the items referred to and also the panel latches in the centre of the case edge. The upper one shows the tray front in the normal position while in the lower one, it is partly released.
It is advisable to remove the push buttons from the panels and spray them separately to avoid getting them frozen with the paint. These are usually held in place by plastic rivets formed as part of the panel moulding and swaged with a heated tool. So cutting the head off with a sharp knife will allow them to be gently eased off the remaining stems which are re-used on assembly after painting. Each of the parts was sprayed with Plastic Primer to ensure a decent paint job.
This close-up shows three of the four front-panel latches in green circles. The hot swaged button rivets are in the red circles and if just a small amount of the plastic there is pared away, the button frame will slide off the stems with a little gentle persuasion from the edge of the knife under the end of the riveted bar. The other circular impressions are made by the 'ejector pins' which push the newly moulded part out of the mould.
Mask all the holes in the front panels including the large tray slot so that as far as the jet of spray is concerned it is just a flatish plate. This helps prevent the metallic content from separating and showing as an outline around the holes. I didn't paint the volume control edge-wheel 'knobs' since I didn't want to risk them seizing up with paint. But since they were part of the drive chassis, that was easy!
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