Case Mod Project: Steampunk'd TJ11 DONE!!! October 2012 MOTM Winner!!!

[Fuganater]

Originally Posted by Baguette

I'd definitely go for option one for all exterior. It looks much cleaner, and the accents of the weathered items on the inside will pop much more! (Notice the rads on the side, I love the way their coor blends with the leather)
As for the inside, that's a tough call...keeping option 1 isn't something I'd do, since it's just too dark...I'm leaning for option 3 on mobo armor. Let's see what the other folks have to say!

Thanks! Someone brought up that the leather may heat the mobo up too much so I'm actually going to paint it with rust to match the case.

Originally Posted by GuilleAcoustic

OM NOM NOM .... steampunk, tuuuuuubes, metal, rust and leather !! Wad' a perfect combo. I vote for option 1 too .

I'll keep a good eye on this project

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Sarakon

Option 1 on the outside and option 3 on the mobo

Thanks!


Thank you everyone for taking the time to vote!! Its pretty much come down to 1 and 3 where where the 2 that I liked to begin with. I'm going to go with option 1 because it is a bit more subtle and it won't take your attention away from the accent parts that I'll be painting. Some people have expressed concern with putting leather on the armor as it would heat up the mobo too much. The Sabertooth P67 is already a hot mobo to begin with and adding another layer of insulation might not be the best idea so I'm painting it to match the interior of the case.

A modding update is coming very soon!

[Sarakon]

I guess you are right bout the temps, but the 3rd leather option would have looked really cool on the mobo

[Baguette]

How are you going to paint the plastic to match the rust? Oh well, you're already a finish magician, so I'm sure you'll come up with something :P

[Fuganater]

Originally Posted by Sarakon

I guess you are right bout the temps, but the 3rd leather option would have looked really cool on the mobo

Originally Posted by Baguette

How are you going to paint the plastic to match the rust? Oh well, you're already a finish magician, so I'm sure you'll come up with something :P

I just painted it the same way. I'm about to post an update so you will see

[Fuganater]

I got tons of work done so this update might be a bit big.... sorry but at least it has lots of pictures for you

Up first is the 50mm assist fan for the mobo.



You can see that the cable is quite long. So I need to fix that.



After I got it to the correct length I plugged it in and the wire instantly broke at the connector.



So I did it again thinking I screwed up but it happened again! So the fan is in the trash now and I ordered a new one from Xoxide and hopefully it will be better quality.


I cut and straightened out the part of the thermal armor by the MOS block. Looks good now.





Here is a shot of the RAM. Nice Corsair Dominator!





I wanted to do a test fit so here are all the blocks on the mobo.



Time for some sleeving so I got out my trusty box of MDPC-X sleeving and went to work. This color works best I think to kinda match the rust.







Next I painted the 360 and 240 rad, mounted the grills and fans on them and sleeved the fans. I'm short a few fans and fan grills so the 240 does not have them on it yet.



I also painted the XSPC rad brackets.





I've heard good things about the LutroO sleeving tool so I figured I'd pick one up and try it out. I'll be using it for the PSU sleeving.




Since I decided to paint the thermal armor to match the interior of the case I wanted to remove some of the little indentations on it. So I got out the Bondo and lathered it on.













Next I sanded it down just a little bit because I wanted to keep some of the imperfections.

















I then coated it with primer and the iron paint.



And here it is after a few coats of the rust solution stuff.







Put some clear coat on and put it back on the mobo.















That's all for this update.

Here is what I'm currently waiting for to arrive:
Gold paint
Spray adhesive
50mm Fan
120mm Fan grills
Lamptron FC10

I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of right now. I'm travelling for the next few days so I probably won't have any work done till next weekend. Hope your enjoying the mod.

Cheers till next time,

Fuga

[Baguette]

You have indeed found a solution that ended up being better than the original leather thing!
Quite surprisingly, this looks very clean! XD

[Nexxo]

I am liking this more and more! Your rust treatment looks very convincing.

[Pranja]

This looks great.

Will you put rust on WC blocks?

[Sarakon]

That looks really great!!

[Liighthead]

very nice work sir

[Vetalar]

now that light ram locks is out of color...

[Mechh69]

The mod looks great so far nice thinking out of the box. I have one concern, let's just say you missed a little clear coat on the MOBO cover. Are there steel parts on the MOBO that may rust? Just a thought. Another thought is covering all of those holes in the Armor will that not raise the temp of the MB and some of the parts under it? It may cause issues is my point.

[Fuganater]

Originally Posted by Baguette

You have indeed found a solution that ended up being better than the original leather thing!
Quite surprisingly, this looks very clean! XD

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Nexxo

I am liking this more and more! Your rust treatment looks very convincing.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Pranja

This looks great.

Will you put rust on WC blocks?

Thanks. No, the WC blocks will be painted gold so that they stand out. (Not 100% decided yet though...)

Originally Posted by Sarakon

That looks really great!!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Liighthead

very nice work sir

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Mechh69

The mod looks great so far nice thinking out of the box. I have one concern, let's just say you missed a little clear coat on the MOBO cover. Are there steel parts on the MOBO that may rust? Just a thought. Another thought is covering all of those holes in the Armor will that not raise the temp of the MB and some of the parts under it? It may cause issues is my point.

I got the entire underside of the thermal armor coated with clear coat where it touches the mobo so no worries there. Heat will not be an issue. I will have the assistant fan installed which keeps the temps down. + I am keeping the 2x 180mm fans installed in the TJ11 which move a ton of air.

[Elladan]

Wahouu!! just awesome job !! Can't wait to see it finished

[oliverr97]

This is looking great, keep up the good work

[nagyizom]

Awesome project so far, I'll keep my eyes on this!

[xSoMBrAx]

Looks very nice!

I think you should invest on a crimper so you could solve the problem with the wire and the connector by building a brand new one instead of ordering new fan!

Keep it up!

[rchiileea]

Keep up the good work, I found it so hard to decide if i was happy with a worn used look, god knows how your doing it with a rust look, it would probs take me about a week to get happy with each part.... I constantly found myself adjusting and thinking does that look right and that is just with a worn look.

Liking this so far

[Fuganater]

Originally Posted by Elladan

Wahouu!! just awesome job !! Can't wait to see it finished

Thanks!

Originally Posted by oliverr97

This is looking great, keep up the good work

I'll try!

Originally Posted by nagyizom

Awesome project so far, I'll keep my eyes on this!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by xSoMBrAx

Looks very nice!

I think you should invest on a crimper so you could solve the problem with the wire and the connector by building a brand new one instead of ordering new fan!

Keep it up!

I think it was just a cheap crappy fan. The crimper that I have works fine on all other things I have made.

Originally Posted by rchiileea

Keep up the good work, I found it so hard to decide if i was happy with a worn used look, god knows how your doing it with a rust look, it would probs take me about a week to get happy with each part.... I constantly found myself adjusting and thinking does that look right and that is just with a worn look.

Liking this so far

Thanks. I like it more and more each day.


Hopefully I have time to post an update tonight.

[whyte]

I really hope you do... having a difficult time containing anticipation....