Project Blu-V (Construction completed! Machine delivered. Buh bye!))

I havent had that problem before but I have only painted 2 cases so far with Dupli Color Vinyl dye (love the stuff!!). Maybe it was another freak thing with this case! As far as the "soak" thing goes...per their website and many other modders (including myself) it seems to go just that, bond with the material.

Well i hope you dont run into anymore issues. Again the case is looking great - keep up the great work!!

*Hey are u going to CPL Winter Tour. in Dallas?! Just curious... since ur a lot closer than me...

 

thats some nice painting there

 

Well, cant say as I am. I bone headed it and had not been paying ANY attention to events scheduled in the Dalas area and missed this one. Scheduled other things to happen this weekend b4 I knew about the existance of this dang thing.
<shrug>

That'll learn me!

 

I know the feeling...i could have went too but totally forgot about until i was reading someone's post about going. I checked out site and saw the last day was yesterday.

*Thought to myself Friday night*
Mmmmm 4hr drive there...stay for 6hrs or so then another 4hrs back...mmmmm not worth it. Oh well!

I figure I'll just make the next one which is in the summer.
http://www.thecpl.com/summer2004/

Back on track of the post. The case and painting looking great man!!

Sorry to everyone else about getting off topic.

 

I just finished the sanding, and 2nd coat of metal flake blue paint. Came out nice!
I then fogged it 2 tone with black against the front bezel fading to blue at the rear. I've got pics and will have them posted sometime later this evengin (after kiddo is in bed and I can concentrate on the post)

Also need to start getting the OS loaded on this thing and make sure it is good to go.

More in a bit!

 

I wanna see...

*waits....and waits some more*

is it evening yet?!?!?

LOL

 

Oh.. the anticipation!!! Must... Have Update...

Must have the bling bling... put some photos in da ring!

 

Sorry bout that... spent a bit longer working on the wiring and lost track of time. Compressing and uploading. 15 minutes and they'll be up.

I'll have more pics up tomorrow showing the case together and the bezel on, drives mounted and lit up. (need the OS installed tomorrow since this is an Xmas gift and all!)

 

Ok... update time.

I wet sanded (2000) the first coat of paint and then popped a metal flake on top of it. While working through that, I then (due to time constraints) applied the black metal flake "fade" from front to back. The pics of the fade I'm not happy with, as I performed more "evening up" and aligning of the fades after the pics were shot. I'll get the improved pics up tomorrow after I've given at least 24 hours for the paint. Oh yeah, I etched my Lexan window with a tribal logo. Need to even it up a bit before I mount it in the case, but I was quite happy with the results of my first etching!

Enough about me, on with the pics!



This is to show off the metal flake effect. The pics just dont quite capture the shimmer, but it is quite nice!







Here is the only "fade" pic that I took that even came out 1/2 way decent. I'll get more up of the case, as the effect is much more dramatic than what this pic captures.


I'm using a black metal flake as well, and prior to evening out the fade effect, this pic shows the flakes on both colors fairly well...



I started putting the computer together tonight. Ghod, I hope this motherboard is still good. I will absolutely sh*t if it quit working during all of the build and testing... we'll see!

More pics tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the support!

 

Beautiful work there. I like it... nice fade effect!
Make sure you polish that nice and smooth, and give it about 3-5 layers of clear coat to give the color some deep sea depth.
Paint the colors and massage them smooth with some colorsanding of the base coats... be carefull or you will eat up the fade effect... then do a light 1500 wetsand scuff all over after you even the color orange peel then apply the first clear coat let cure, then a #2000 wet sand scuff and next layer then rinse and repete... (the tingle lets you know that it is working)
Anywhoo that is how I did it on cars at my shop... they came out mirror like glass!!!!
then after a month or two of curing... give it a nice even wax jop to seal it!. but remember to let the layers dry thuroughly (SP!)
or you will get a antique crackle effect....

 

I just realised something with reguards to your latest pictures, your case is very very simmilar to my Red Sonja rig, except for the front bezel (mine looked a lot better stock).


Anyway, awesome painting job, and nice fading effect. Gotta love metal flake paint. But definately clear coat the thing, would be a shame to see all that hard work just "scrach off" within a month or two of use, and because this is for a kid, the degredation will just be more-so, as children often are rather rough on things. Ever think of encasing the case in plexi or lexan to prevent static electric shocks? As I can for-see in the near future, you get this thing finished, and all the kids friends come over "oooo, wow, nice computer!!!" and ~ZAP!~ hard drive dead.... Some food for thought

 

Hey Bender...
Is there an issue to clear coating a paint job prior to it curing? or do you treat it like another layer of paint, and apply while the paint is setting up?

Also, because time is of the essence on this, I cant have it apart beyond tomorrow night, is there a prob with 2-3 layers of CC, sanded down, then 2-3 more layers? I want to make this as durable as possible, but I'm fighting the clock here and trying to find ideas.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

*munch* *munch*

...

Mmmmm...
Tasty!

 

Welp, what you ~can~ do, if your willing to do more work on it that is, is give the case some clear coat, then finish up the project, THEN, give the case to the kid/dad whatever, but include with it a "will finish project asap when time is available to you". And just explain to them that you wish to finish up the paint, but the computer on the whole is done. I've had to do this before, and most people don't really mind it (though, there are some that are the exception). Ya know what I'm talking about?

 

you do need to give it some proper curing time so it dosen't bubble or crinkle... try a *Warm* oven... like a sauna, but barely comfortable to keep your hand in to speed the curing...
then do it one layer at a time... that will help speed it up a bit..
then after christmas, just wax it as a whole.

 

I think I am going to combine the 2 suggestions. Thanks guys!

 

Another question... when I was wet sanding yesterday, the water caused a bit of adhesion to the surface of the computer. This made the sandpaper and block move across the surface with a bit more force than I was wanting it to. Is this normal?

 

if it is dragging, use running water like tub or hand shower, and be light about the sanding... no need for force.

 

That was the wierd part.. .I was not pushing down. I was dragging the block across the surface, basically letting gravity and the weight of the block do the work. No force (except directional pushing and pulling) were applied to the block.

I'll try the running water trick. Thank you for all of the pointers!

 

the dragging is caused by the water being worked out of between the paper and the paint, and the paint that has been scratched off to gum up in between...