Case Mod - In Progress Knight's Rest-Knight Rider 30th Anniversary build (12/4/13-Waiting for coolant...)

Time to shift a bit of metal...



Doesn't look like much, but that lip turns into a hanging corner, stopping a rad from going there.



Repeated on the other side...



Removing the spring steel drive holders... I have a right angle drill that will be removing the interior welds.



And the last one. It doesn't look like much, but honestly every one of these cuts took a long time to plan out, to make sure I didn't remove something else important and didn't compromise case integrity. I'm proceeding slowly, to make sure each thing I do is the proper thing to do. It's not always a simple thing.

 

This is a grille in development for the top rad setup. White Light Laser (like them here on FaceBook) is sponsoring all of my acrylic and cutting for this build.

I've also got as sponsors Ice Dragon Cooling and the local movie studio/publication house JessAndy Entertainment, who I often help with props, editing machines, etc. There's some really good fiction available through them, and I should be publishing some pieces there soon as well.

I have other stuff in talks, including a local option for custom decals, but for the moment I've still got a great list of sponsors.

Just thought news like that deserved its own post.

 

That looks pretty damn nice!

 

Sleeving proceeds apace...



I'm doing away with the Kensington lock slot to make one uninterrupted piece. The hexes are going away too-there's simply too few of them.



Metal-filled epoxy in the hole. There's excess to allow me to file it to shape.



Removing the lock slot's hardware on the case itself...



Rivets drilled out...



And lock bar removed.



Now back to the fully hardened filler...



The extra is cut off and the top scored up for filler...



Yeah. Filler.



A little thick but workable. Some time later...



And with the addition of these...



First coat done. Most of the hexes filled in just fine. High build primer and spot filler ought to do the rest. And gouges will be dotted with filler before I shoot primer for this. But all in all, a success.

Weather had to turn bad on me today. Tomorrow is a doctor day for the little one, so progress should pick back up on Tuesday.

 

Family first, as always. Mondays suck anyways - even if one doesn't work.

 

I take it you're a fan?

Pics tomorrow, but I finally finished the PSU. Self-welding tape will be left overnight to bond. Tomorrow is more bondo and such.

 

Another day, another coat of Bondo...



And sanded... This is about all I can do without a guide coat.



Instead, I spent my day doing this...



The only problem is, I have no drives to attach to it.

 

^^^My level of crazy

 

Looking great, real mod going on, will follow

 

What's so special about this tray?



Polished zinc?



Yeah, polished zinc. I have my work cut out for me getting the rest of the skeleton to match, huh...

 

Will you have to have the rest of the skeleton plated? Or will just polishing the surface suffice? (I can't see the rest of the frame's construction very clearly - from the mottling it looks like galvanised mild steel? If it is, can that zinc plating be polished?)

 

Yes, the zinc can be polished. I'll get some outside pics tomorrow to show the contrast better.

Lots of work, but it's better than the alternative, which was paying for powdercoating. I don't know how people do it-my quote was well over $200 for just a case frame.

 

This is just insanity! Great work!

 

I'd like to announce a new sponsor!



120mm Overkill Billet Fan Grills




3M Di-Noc Carbon Fiber Sheet




Thanks to MNPCtech for the Overkill billet fan grille and the Di-Noc Carbon Fiber vinyl they're sponsoring!

 

Knigth Rider !!!! Memory's from my childhood come back to me , Great theme !!! , here in Argentina was called "El Auto Fantastico" (the fantastic car)
Keep it Up !!!!!

PD :congratulation for the sponsorship !!!

 

Some more work today...



This is the polished vs bare in sunlight. Much more evident.



Another shot. The demarcation is evident.



Can you tell what's missing?



From this angle maybe? The floppy bay at the top has been completely removed to help with rad and SFX clearance.



Motherboard tray pulled, getting ready for polishing...



And some artsy pics of wire clips, because I need to know where they go back after I dye them black.



Enjoy, I'm off to doctors with the little one today(tomorrow, whatever) but I've got more polishing and such ahead of me.

 

OH, polishing. I tried that once. didn't fare well for me. too many knooks and crannies.

Take the sprout to DR and know that we are here as always. May not comment but always watch

john

 

Getting some real modding done...



This is the PCI fan mount, that's situated to blow over the southbridge, video and RAID card.



Attacked with Dremel...



MNPCtech billet grille in place... This will get cleaned up and repainted when I start painting, and when my airflow straightener gets in, it'll go in this.



There it is in place. The cover that goes over it isn't in place yet, I'm taking a look at what I can do differently.

And, an update as to what I'm working on now...



As you can see, someone tried to get into this package before it got to me.



What is it? Well, it's 1000 denier Kevlar-5.6 oz. And it's a fairly large amount-36"x70".



Along with carbon fiber cloth.

KITT was supposed to be waterproof, fire proof, bulletproof and explosionproof. Let's see just how far we can get with today's tech.

 

This wasn't expected to show up at all, but it did. Yay me!



What's in the box?



Cat! No, she's just resting after tearing through the house. Knocking over floor tiles, stuff like that. You know, cat things.



Hexagonal armor tiles. Almost every piece is in place, and one piece is something that has to be made, not acquired.

I'm reviewing the directions for my resin to decide if I can do it inside or if I have to be outdoors. I'm also looking at a few other ideas to make sure that when I put this together it's gonna stay together and work as intended. No sense in rushing, this stuff while not expensive is honestly just too nice to go and mess up.