0221 casemodding, first steps (56K, beware)

[g.l.amour]

aaight,

i'm gonna go at this very slowly, these mods here (+ some metallic painting on the sideline) has taken me almost a week.

the idea for the front bezel is to stealth it (no leds, no lock). firstly i was thinking in the lines of epoxy or fibreglass, but the shop provided me with something easier, the stuff you would use to repair cracks in walls, but then for plastic and metal. works like a charm upto now.

[g.l.amour]

and the front grille mod. bended and shaped my old addtronics grille. when that is all painted it should look a bit more professional

[Puzzdre]

Looking good m8!!!

That grille just screams for a H2O mark on it, ofcourse when painted and finished!

Keep onnnnnn!

[g.l.amour]

the paintjob

after screwing up my first metallic layer (not enough paint) i resanded and sprayed almost half a can on that sidepanel. it gave a really even and nice result with some afterspray dust ofcourse. most howto's tell you to use some sort of rubbing compound instead of wetsanding because u'd sand away the metallic parts. problem is that all the cleanup still left my panel looking like this after the rubbing compound. i could almost cry...

[g.l.amour]

so i decided that i couldn't screw it up more than that sorry looking sidepanel and gave the wetsanding another go. took some 600 grit and did some very mild wet sanding. after the sanding it still had some staining but the oily rubbing compound was gone. after some cleanup i did a very thick layer of clearcoat in the hopes that that would make it 'shine' again.

this pic shows an almost dry layer of clearcoat, and as you can see it looks alot better than before the clearcoat

pics don't show it all , there still seem to be some scratchmarks under the clearcoat (and some dust + orange-peel, but wetsanding takes care of that). i hope they disappear after the wetsanding evens the panel out again. if so, it will be one perfect, ass whooping metallic paintjob.

[g.l.amour]

detail of the metallic

edit: tomorrow lets see what some wetsanding upto 1200grit and some polishing does for that panel.

[Puzzdre]

It looks really great for the first time job with the metallic paint!

Keep 'em comming!

[winewood]

can you tell us what paint that is? Did you have to get an airbrush to apply it?

[g.l.amour]

this is the primer and metallic paint i use. the clearcoat is from the make Motip, nothing special.

i didn't use an airbrush; in retrospect doing it right isn't all that hard. patience and wetsanding. i used this site as a guide, although i have some remarks on their metallic guide.

http://www.pc-workshop.net/articles/...int101-1.shtml

anyway, here you go

[g.l.amour]

primer on the modded front bezel

Q? where are the leds and the keyhole?

the pic gives a somewhat distorted view, the led- and keyhole are still somewhat visible. with my little theory, that will fade after some more layers of primer.

[g.l.amour]

for your eyes only

[g.l.amour]

hope i ain't boring you to death with this...

[Puzzdre]

No, you don't.

The keyhole is still just a tad visible, but the paint will surely cover it all.

Congrat's on the job with that polyfilla and sanding, it looks much much more industrial than I expected. If you manage to put the same thick layer of paint on that wavy surface without the paint running, you'll have one helluva nice box!

Keep posting m8!

Cheers!

[Pritorian]

Keep em comming, Really nice work so far..

[Zhentar]

looks great, now come do it to my cube

[g.l.amour]

f00k that, this is more expensive than haute couture. the hours i have spent on ... almost nothing really. this is just 1 side and front.

the most important lesson, time will get anything done... filling up the keyhole ... the compound can only take 1 layer of 1mm per drying session... this means that filling those gaps takes you a couple (we still got some working hours ey?)

[g.l.amour]

polished and ready

[Puzzdre]

Post new pics!
Post new pics!

[Zogthetroll]

love that paint job, keep the good stuff coming. so, locking mechanism aside, are you going to put a latch of some sort on that door, or a way for it to stay closed? or is there a magnet or something built in already? anyway, i think if i did that i'd replace the lock with a solenoid or some sort of internal latch that could be tripped elswhere. just an idea

[g.l.amour]

thx for all the comments, first time i can get myself calm and relaxed enough to do it slow and precise.

@Zogthetroll: there is already a clicking mechanism to hold the door shut. no worries there.

ok; after some time off to play the new c&c expansion (and get ass-kicked alot). i've gotten myself into the next round. i'm gonna give the painting a little rest and go about mounting the radiators.

the next pic shows the psu mounting and hdd mounting area. psu is factory default at the lowest spot in the case. for my intention this is not good since i'm gonna need all the 'basement' area to fit the pump and res. a psu taking up half the area would make that impossible. so the plan is to move the psu to the top and mount the radiator at the bottom. as you can see in that same pic, i'm gonna have to make a custom plate, riveted to the case, to hold the radiator.

[g.l.amour]

there you go, template almost ready. still need to drill some holes for riveting. adjust the height. and paint the template + the cuts in the case -> notice those catch some rust after a while when not surface treated.

enough for today. maybe tomorrow i can get psu plate mounted and the painting done.

[g.l.amour]

metallic painting has proven to be a total fluke. so after numerous repaints this is the best finish i have been able to come up with.

i know i still have to do massiv cleaning inside the case, looks like a warzone atm.

[Puzzdre]

Nice job m8!

If that's a CD stand reflection in right upper corner on first pic, you did a great job.

Think that you cannot achieve better finish with ordinary spray paint from the store. See if you can find automotive repair store that will fill the can for you with really good quality paint. I just found one here, it's 400 ml can filled with automotive lacquer paint for 10 Euro a can (paint and filling into the can with propellent), though this is the price for the ordinary paint (non metallic, non pearl, just paint) and the can is 400 ml, but you get much less paint (dunno how much really)

Cheers, keep it on!

[g.l.amour]

i'm glad i can FINALLY present something that doesn't have anything to do with painting.

lets first start with doing some inside cleaning on the dtek radiators + getting some action on my ancient maze2 (i'm not prepared to dismantle my main rig atm).

[g.l.amour]

these next pix show some radiator mounting, better than i have ever mounted before. you can lift the case by the fan without anything bending. notice how between the shroud and the rad there is a gasket (by dtek) and between the rad and the case there is some double sided tape to give sealing + dampening.

thank you bigben, i'm not sure if anyone gave you the idea to mount the radiator with straps, but you sure as hell gave me the idea; works like a charm.