what i think he might have meant that he didn't think the bondo(i think) or some of the welds would have held up in the oven used to bake the powdercoating on. correct me if i'm wrong.
no you are correct, powder coating requires a baking process to cure it. Car paint when baked in an oven when there are time limits. often car repair shops that re-spray cars dont want to be waiting 24hr between jobs and 7 days to apply the laqure. so the oven dries and cures the paint. Basically its dont to save time.
As both 500mph and Burnout (talk about a coincidence you 2 posting after each other!) have stated to powdercoat a case it needs to go into an oven at quite high temperatures. The paint is applied as a powder and the heat is used to 'melt it together' so to speak (someone who knows more please correct me). The epoxy glue i used to secure the rear panel to the case would probably be ok but the alumiunium putty i used to smooth things over might have melted and i didnt want to risk this after all the effort that went into it. As you can see i ended up sanding, priming and spraying without the need for an oven. On the one hand i am glad i ended up doing this as i am pretty pleased with the result and i did it myself. On the otherhand powdercoating is much more durable and i think i woul have preferred this. I hope this answers your question. If you have any others please PM me or post here. Cyp.
Note: Just got a bandwidth warning from my hosts - so the pics may go down. I thought i had unlimited but obviously not! Will sort this out ASAP. Cyp. EDIT: Should be fine actually. I have used 40 out of 44 gig this month. Stop looking at those pics now! Which reminds me i took some more today...
Thanks to 500MPH and Burnout. That goes the same goes for Cyprio for the heads up for explaining about paint cans and oven baked case... I got another question for you Cyprio- Did you modified the Lian Li Removable tray for this project? I found one online for a good deal.. Was there a certain model did you use and I noticed the shape is different. I'm assuming that you had to cut the Lian Li to fit onto the back part of apple with epoxy glue correct? What I'm getting at is the Lian Li itself had to be cut to fit onto the back panel correct? Sounds like I'm repeating myself here... Reason I'm asking is I have a brand new Apple Case G5 with the works minus the Power Supply part which is fine anyhow.. As of right now i'm doing my homework. As for the mobo specs and all.. I have ASUS MSN-SLI Deluxe with 4200+AM2, Zalman Cpu Fan, Raidmax power supply ( I may get another one with lifetime warranty and use this one for a possible future modded HTPC), Also to top it off with the Ram is Corsair XMS2 up to 3 gigs. Dunno what OS I'll use for this though.. Anyhow So I'm doing some research here of whether to take the same route you did or go with the way Mr.Bean did his case. Perhaps a combination of the two of you and Mr.Bean? I dunno yet and am in no hurry to rush to invade the G5 until I know what I want to do and how it looks. Looking forward to your future pictures and more work you may do with this G5 of yours... I'll tell you You have done a beautiful job with this every time I look at it.
Yes, eNoremac i did have to trim the motherboard panel to fit the cut i made in the rear of the case as you can see in this pic: The panel is the one i linked to from Performance PCs on the previous page. Looking forward to seeing your project! Cyp. ps As yours is a newer G5 case i wouldn't automatically assume that the dimensions are the same with mine. I would check these to be sure that everything will fit. My psu only just fits in the top of the case. Its very, very tight. pps My bandwidth is dangerously approaching my monthly cap so i do apologise if the pics go down for a day or two. I am trying to up this with my providers.
I think im gonna have to do this to my case aswell, I cant afford powder coating. Check this spray job with my previous case. Sorry Cyp for posting pics on your thread, just wanna show you my spray painting skills. You doing a awesome job
Yeah, its pretty amazing what you can do with a bit of paint and technique! ps hosting is taken care of. Would lke to thank dragon2309 for offering me some of his in a case of emergency! Will update tomorrow. Cyp.
UPDATE (29th October): Bits and Bobs Hey all, This is a bit of an odd update in that the pictures are from the last few days and not a one off 'modding session'. As such it's a bit of a mixture of: starting to mock up the watercooling loop, figuring out and attaching the door mechanism, making an attempt at cleaning the case holes, starting on the inner perspex work and some of the lighting. Bits and Bobs Lot's of people (me included) have been eagerly anticipating getting some hardware in the case. Although i am not quite sure what will be going inside i decided that at least i could make a start on some of the things that we definite. Here is what the case looks like with the broken ASUS P5B Dlx motherboard i have been using for measurements and the 2 rads. I attached the PA120.2 by fixing some nuts to the holes inside the lip of the rad and screwing in some countersunk screws that match the rest of the case and also allow the door to shut as normal. I have decided to use 11/8mm Tygon for the loop and so i had to use some reducers for the PA. You can also see the drain port in the background. I cant really do more work on the loop until i finally make up my mind on the hardware. Door Mechanism: I have been putting off this job for a while as i thought it would take me a while to figure it out (aka remember how to put it back together!). As it turns out Apple designers not only produce great looking cases, they also design very functional engineering. This is a close up of the little hooks that go into holes in the door. This is the whole mechanism in place. The grey bar is attached to the flap on the rear of the case. Pretty neat eh? Finally for this mod sitting, i made a start on cleaning all the gunk from the holes in the case that was leftover from polishing the paint... THIS WILL TAKE AGES!!!! No prizes for guessing the clean holes! Perspex First off a big thanks to Graeme at Kustom PCs up in Scotland for the quick shipping of the perspex sheets. His shop has one of the best ranges of modding supplies and also the best customer service in the UK imo. The plan is to have black perspex covering the top of the case (you can see the bare metal divider in the first pic) and also to make rad shrouds out of the same black perspex. I have also bought a very faint UV blue sheet that i might use for highlights, but will play this by ear depending on what mockups look like. This is the sheet (with white protective covering) held in place with some double sided tape for measuring. I needed to cut a hole directly below the PSU exhaust fan and wanted to acheive the same effect as the rear case fan i.e. have aluminium mesh inside it. You can see an ACRyan 120mm fan grill in the pic below. First off a hole in the middle to then draw a circle and some rough cuts with a dremel. Now, in order to push the (very rigid) fan grill through the hole i had to make some cuts in the side to allow the sheet to bend. I then shaped it by bashing it ontop of the Mother's polish tin! And bashed it some more to get the edges flat... Before i mounted it with countersunk screws i couldnt resist peeling back some of the covering to have a peek... As the metal dividing panel is not flat i had to use some rubber grommets i had lying around to even things out And this is what it looks like in place. LED lighting Thanks to everyone who replied to my thread in the Modding section of the forums on this. I havent got a clue about electronics in general but am good at following instructions so the wizard that provides you with a circuit diagram was a godsend! I decided to go with lots (5 rows of 3) of ultra bright 1.8mm LEDs to provide the backlighting (i will also be adding UV LEDs to highlight certain sections of the watercooling loop). Line em up! All working nicely. It was very hard to get a good dark pic but here is one that came out the best. The LEDs are just held in place with tape as i didnt have time to mount them properly. And with the door held in front of them I will end this update with a random pic that i dont know why i took! I think it looks great though so wanted to include it! Till next time, Cyp.
Are all those LED's done up in a Daisy-Chain? This is looking amazing! And its now near completion too!
Not sure what you mean by daisy chain, but its all from the same 12v molex if that is what you mean. They are in 5 rows of 3 with a resistor in each row. I used this wizard (http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz) - just plug in the different values and out pops a wiring diagram that you can solder together.
Yeah, as I am not too keen on the 'fairy light' effect of just having them taped there. I just did that to see if they were bright enough to illuminate the contents through the window. Cyp.
hey dude i just got some UV leds for my mod an wired 9 of em so farim using them to highlight the uv reactive flow springs im gonna be using,just thought id let ya know that they are a very directional light source ie.ya gotta point em where ya want em.ive now decided to get the loop in place before mounting them so i know that the lights pointing at what im wanting it to point at. just thought id let ya know caus ya said ur gonna be using some to highlight ur loop,dunno weither there all the same or not,but if u get some an there not directional let us know caus it would save a big headache......lol looking good dude
Thanks for the tip Khanage. I've heard you can sand the glass to get a softer effect... I need them to be 'spot-lights' though as i will be highlighting the blocks.
4th November: Lighting I dont have time for a full update right now but here is what i have been working on today:
