Case Mod - In Progress A Tribute to EVH

Alright, I'm new here, so please be somewhat gentle on me.

Having said that, I am a huge Van Halen fan. A few years back, I got bored with my boring beige Pentium II box and painted it like one of Ed's old guitars. Looked like this:



Long story short, a fellow VH fan needed a computer for a home fileserver. He still has it, and it's still running with the PII in it.

I've decided to remake what I have dubbed the 'Frankenstripe' computer. I've got a friend in the town where I live that basically runs a junk business--he places an ad in the local paper offering to pick up old electronics and then scraps everything out. Occasionally he comes across something worth salvaging, and if he does, I believe he either puts it on Ebay or sells it to one of the computer shops here in town. After looking through his stack of computers:



I came across this boring beige box :





So, I shall cut to the chase and show you where I'm at currently:









Those last two pics are the current state. While browsing my local Ace Hardware store, I came across a stryofoam faucet cover. I am now trying to figure out how to get this modded into the front panel, because according to everything that I have read, fiberglass resin will eat through the styrofoam pretty quickly. I kept the top part for trial and error runs, and I shall see what happens with bondo in the morning.

Also, I'm thinking that side panel is going to get changed. Radically. But the 4 1/2" hole that I have cut in the side needs to stay, because I'm planning on mounting a magnifying glass (of all things!) in that area.

Some serious work will get done on this in the coming weekend, as my wife and I are heading out to my parent's place, which means I get to play with dad's tools!

Thanks for looking!

Thumper

 

WOW!
just, omg, wow.
im modding THE SAME CASE.
anyways, im interested to see what you do.
with mine im painting the interior, exterior, putting in 2 bulgin switches, cutting out that front bezel, putting in mesh, and placing the cd drive at the lowest spot, and placing mesh with a fan behind that too. and with the side, im cutting out on the inlays.
if you want, i can send you some pic's of what i have done so far
p.s. suscribed

 

Actually as far as i know most resins won't eat through styrofoam. Resin cleaners... acetone and methyleen chloride will. The standard resin I use will do very little damage to styrofoam.
A test would be best, but if your just looking to mount that to the case you should be ok!

 

kewl stuff ... i have a few old cases i might screw around with as trial runs before hackin into something worth anything ..

 

that a massive pile of PCs he gots there, just a little worried about the rain getting into them [looks like there piles outside of a house/shed]. im curious how that faucet cover is gonna look at the end, good luck

 

wish I had a stash like that nearby to turn to when I wanna do a project.

bondo should work...

 

I'm not worried at all about the rain getting onto the electronics, since I'm going to migrate my gaming rig into this case once I'm finished. Also, that's just one section of the computer junkyard--the shed to the right in that picture was full of 1st generation P4s. I do believe he put those on Ebay

Exactly what I'm doing. I don't have the balls yet to mod a pricey name brand case.

Good to know, thanks for the heads up. I found out Tuesday that bondo adheres quite nicely to styrofoam.

Sure man, pm me, and I'll give you some contact information. I'd love to see what you've done.

Better yet, do you have a worklog posted here?

Its quite nice to have a stash like this--not too hard to get the contacts for one either. The first place I would suggest looking for is a PC recycling center. If you have one of those in your area, see if you can get in good with the workers there.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I didn't have much time today to get anything at all done, other than cut on the front panel some to get the faucet cover in place. Here's some pics from a few different angles:







And yes, that is a 4 1/2" hole in the top. I'll be ordering a smattering of fans for this beast in the near future.

Along with a 1000 watt PSU. I've got some serious ideas going in regards to lighting. Think lots and lots of red.

Thanks for looking!

Thumper

 

This looks intresting. Im on board with ya Drum!

 

Interesting....waiting to see how this turns out.

 

0o this looks nice that guys electronic pile looks like my room use to. full with old dead computers.

 

cant wait for some progress on this one.. looks kinda interesting ...

OOOOOOOO me likey red!!!!

 

Are you going to fiberglass that faucet cover? I feel the need to warn you that Krylon will eat styrofoam!

 

Wow...I kinda forgot I had this page as well. And I see it's been damn near a year since I've updated anything on it, so...here we go, I'll give ya the cliff notes version:


Tore the case completely apart because in my ignorance, I dropped this case while mocking up the new and improved side panel. Beat it back into shape and gave it a good coating of gloss black.


Chopped a hole for a fan. I'm taking a bit different approach here: instead of the run of the mill blowhole, I've busted out the bondo and made a new face:


Obviously, got a bit more work to do here--will hopefully get some of this said work done tonight.

The new and improved side window:


And most recently, a fanguard for the front:



And a mockup of what the final product should resemble:


I ran into a bit of a problem during painting the back panel--this could have happened for any number of reasons:


I'm thinking those problems happened for two reasons: It was a bit on the cold side (45ish F) in the garage, and I most likely didn't prep the area all that well. I was going for a 'historical' approach (black paint, tape, white paint, more tape, then red). I have since jettisoned this approach for a more cost friendly approach of masking.

I'll keep everyone posted, until next time, happy modding!

DT

 

I really like that fanguard

 

woop! that paint job looks so sweet!
i like this one!!

 

\
Night shot of the LEDs on the bottom.


Plexi has been mounted.

.
Uncovered.



Etched.


Finally done with the bondo work. First time I've ever used the stuff, likely will not be the last.


Primed. Will wetsand today, and put another layer of primer down, along with primering the three metal panels. I've also got plans to cut a false bottom to hide the LED wire mess, and chop away on the window side of the frame--due to how I've got the plexi situated, I cannot put the side panel on, as the plex is blocking the cheap hook and latch system on the bottom of the case.

 

The fan grills and the etch look great! I had paint do that to me on an xbox one time. It was because the different brands of spray paint didn't work too well together, although the same type of paint. As for prepping, I always give my pieces a good wash then wipe it down with alcohol, and then primer. You may be past that stage already, just a friendly tip for future reference for you or others. Keep it up and I love the theme.

 

I'm not a big fan of Krylon. That reaction is why. It will do that to other brands of (cured) paint and even if you apply a 2nd coat too soon. It did that to the air cleaner cover on my car. It wrecked the factory basecoat, and I had to strip the whole thing and start over.

 

Duplicolor > Krylon IMHO. It really all comes down to the prep though. I'd recommend picking up some SEM Self-Etching primer:

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone, it is much appreciated.

I'm going to give the Krylon one more go, and if it does this to me again, I'll be switching paint. Like I stated, I'll be taking a less wasteful approach this time around.

Hopefully, I'll be giving more of an update on Tuesday.