Alright ive started finally on my first hardcore mod. ill be using a Istar Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811165008 although i forgot to take pictures before starting the mod theres a link of the case. ill be cutting holes in my side panels for windows, which ill be raising about a inch off the side of the panel. also ill cut two other panels just below the Radiator for my Koolance liquid cooler. within the two windows below the radiator ill be putting 4 80mm fans, two on each side, so that when the fans blow through the radiator the other fans shall suck the "hot" air out and there for keep the case cooler. on the main side window ill be putting a 120mm fan and on the opposite side of the fan ill be doing an etching i found on the net of a burst of feathers to help with the name of the case. after cutting out what i dont need from inside the case, ill be sanding it down with 220 grit, 800, 1000, and 1500 and polish the inside and the rear of the case to give it a "chrome" look to it. This will also be done to the Motherboard Tray. Ill be cutting parts out from the face plate to create a vaccuum sort of look to it, while having it connected to another 120mm fan. After all the cutting and sanding is done, ill put the case back together, use spray foam to create a form for my fiberglassing. After the fiberglass dries overnight, ill used Body filler to help give it a smother texture to the case, sand it down first with a 80grit sand sponge for shaping, then a 120grit sandsponge for smoothing. Ill be using the Car Paint color Black Metallic to paint the case, and use a High Gloss clear coat i got at Hobby Lobby, in the airbrush department. Ill be using the Mod guide for the PSone screen to mod a screen i got offline at ebay, to put in my face plate, the screen will be high and center of the plate. I ordered a dual Harddrive cooler from Koolance, ill be also ordering a Swiftech 120mm extra Radiator for extra cooling, the ordering will take place in the next couple days. Now for some Eye Candy if you will: this is the back of the motherboard tray, i wont be sanding this part down because of the fact that you wont see it, but im showing you so that i can show how it used to look before i polished it. these are some pictures after i have polished the side that you can see. this is the side panel that i had cut for the windows as you can probably understand a little better of what i was talking about above about the windows underneath the radiator. these are pictures after i have made the 1" lift off the case, i used 18" steel ties i found at Home Depot for about 97 Cents. this is the opposite side panel that i have sanded off the paint.
Project: Fallen Angel Update 2-20-07 Alright well after cutting what i didnt need out of the case and painting it first with a silver paint, that i truthfully didnt accept, and later painted gloss black. here are some Pics of my case after i have cut and painted: the hole on the top is for my drop-in Koolance kit. as you can probably tell that there is a soft reflection from the light, the reason for this is, because when i painted the case a second time i wasnt thinking and didnt take off the first layer, but in person doenst look as horrible as it looks in the picture. Also today i was lucky enough to receive some things i ordered for my case: Everyone could use a Radiator by Swiftech for extra cooling this is a wonderful dual HDD liquid cooler from Koolance, later i hope to gain dual RAM Coolers from Koolance as Well. yes 7 fans, 3 120mm and 4 80mm, although i was under the impression that they were chrome, not just the fans, but non-the-less, all have white LEDs and im happy either way. these lovely things are 10mm-6mm tube reducers (the ones on the outside), once again i gained them from Koolance, and in the middle is a Button with a white LED ring that i ordered from Performance PC these are pictures of my "Power Center", im using the wonderful idea of using RCA/Phono hook-ups as a power connector. each set of 8 is for a different Voltage such as the three im using: 12v, 5v and 12v+5v. the 3 sets will be attachted to a box im creating out of acrylic and will be powered by Molex connectors, either on top or next to them on the side next to them. since this is all done, ill finish sanding down the panels, top, and bottom (recently i decided to put the feet back on the case so i can paint the bottom to look the same). after the sanding is done, ill be using spray foam and cutting the forms im looking for. after the forms are cut, ill fiberglass pretty much the entire case. Updates coming within Days from now.
The RCA Panels i picked up at my Local RadioShack and costed about 3-4 USD each, i also have theses metal RCA/Phono male ends Here thier really nice looking, and i think that they will go great with my case.
Alright well i tried my first go at it making a form out of spray foam, the form is going to be used to make my fiberglass. well Here's the link of what happened the first time. after knowing more about the foam and what it does, ill take a second hack at it tonight and hopefully start the fiberglass tomorrow.
Update 2-23-07 K well after the disaster of my first attemp of the spray foam, i bounce back again with a little bit more control. here are some pics, of the case with tumors (foam) on it. and here are some pics after i have taken the excess foam off: Now for some "precise" cutting with my pocket knife and some sandpaper: Sorry for the horrible pics, its about 2 AM here and well ive been working on this part for a while now and was getting tired of holding my camera up and taking pictures, i took much much more but some of them turned out horrible because of the lighting and my shaking arm. On the Flip-side of things, the foam is formed to a good measure were the fiberglass will cue up the rest, and the body filler will take care of uneven places. the Fiberglass is hoping to be done friday (feb. 23rd), and then the body filler will also hopfully be done on saturday. and everything sanded down to perfection on sunday. GOOD NEWS ALERT: a guy from my college is loving the project and is getting ahold of his brother who happens to own a computer company in Texas, USA. i guess his brother works directly with Microsoft and with their Vista OS. The reason behind the good news alert, is that he is going to try and get me a sponsor with his brother. It seems his brother is huge on projects and he thinks he might be intrested in mine. As of yet i havent talked to him, nore do i know the company name, ive tried a couple of times today to get ahold of him myself and will try again friday. So if all goes good ill have a sponsor hooray, but im going to try to keep myself from getting to excited in case nothing happens.
Alright, well today was a good day for Fiberglass. After about 5 hours of fiberglassing and about 6 hours of drying, the final product is here. Although the pieces are not cut and properly sanded at the moment, ill be waiting till the 24th to do that, but here are some pictures of the prep and mess that i made, after i have the peices sanded and ready for body filler ill take more pics and post. Your Lovely Modder: Now for the Prep: And the the Mess: Sorry to say but the Art Department at the school lost a willing pair of scissors that day to fiberglass and the resin, the pair died after continuous use from risen soaked latex gloves then procceeded to be set on loose ends of fiberglass. the scissors had a small funeraly as they made their way to the dumpster just outside the doors or the Department
Although this post instant an update, its just a question to see how i should mount my HDD's, Since the case has them mounted sideways, and i have the Dual HDD cooler from koolance for them, should i: A. mount them the correct way so that you can see the tubing or B. Mount them the opposite way to it hides the tubing, but also hides all wires from being seen in the case window when done.
either B. or if you have enough money and believe in your skills than make a cover for the drive cages and mount any which way.
ya know i think i might be able to turn my mounts 90 degrees but it will take some drilling out rivets and bolting or glueing them back to place, that would work since the cable i just got in today were much much smaller then expected. thanx for the idea
DOUBLE UPDATE Alright well some of the pieces arent done curing and well since my plans today was to trim, sand and body filler it. Well since that wasnt going to happen i decided to take pictures of fiberglassing. Side Panel 1: This Last picture is of a part that happen to get air in it, and well much to my demise, i didnt catch it until it was too late, its ok i believe that after i sand it down and put the filler in it will be ok. Side Panel 2: I do have to say that it isnt that bad for doing fiberglass for the first time. what you think??
k this is my second part of the update The Case & Face Plate: This little beauty is a glob of fiberglass strands that i guess got stuck on the opposite side of the cloth i just laid down and didnt seem to notice...once again hopefully body filler will take its toll. if not then ill get a fiberglass repair kit. Well thats the case at the moment, tomorrow ill be cutting, sanding, and putting on filler.
some of the pics are, i just got my camera in the other day, i used it while taking the pics of fiberglass in progress cause my phone is easier to replace then my camera, and it has insurance on it. i understand that camera phone pics are not supposed to be used as pics but its either use it, or screw up my camera from the fiberglass.
when posting for the projects, your not supposed to use a camera phone cause the pictures as you can tell dont turn out as well, but it was either that or use my camera and screw up my camera, which doesnt have insurance on it. and to Hellas91: oh yeah it turned out much better, but the more i think about it, i believe that the can i used before was a bad can and must have been sitting on the shelf for awhile. the main reason for believing this is because of hte color variation between the trial run and the actual molding, the trial run was a yucky yellow while the actual mold was much more white. And after that i believe that i can do better and better as time goes on.
ditto keir. The first batch of pics are horriffic, the second beautiful, then bad again. comone please use the real camera? very nice job with the fiberglass, it should turn out great, hopefull you can get rid of the errors. keep it going strong!
