Well this is my first serious mod. I started with this case Yes you are seeing rite its a dell xpsr-350 case. Sorry for bad quality pic but thats a original shot I found on the web as I forgot to take a pic of the case before starting work. Well I decided to remold my faceplate on it and this is a inbetween shot of it. and another shot I am using wood filler on plastic and it works realy well and sands easily and smooothly as well as it dries fast (30min its bone dry) this is what i ended up doing to the faceplate Well this the faceplate. I will take more shots when I finish tuching it up and sanding it with fine snadpaper. In the face plate I have imbeded two homemade vandal switches two led holes that I will use led mounts on and embeded usb ports as well as headphone ports and finaly a place to put my digital thermostats and my rheostats. I will take pics of the way I made my vandal switches and closer shots of the front things in it.
Definiteily subscribing to this! The wood filler, what are you using behind it? What brand? How does it take to fingernails?
This is how the vandal proof switch looks like and the rheostats in place and notice how the usb ports are imbeded insted of mounted in place. this is how i made the vandal proof switch Its pretty mutch two coper pipes that i cut and they are actualy a regular 1/2 inch pipe and the nipple pipe that i cut and in the smaller one I fit the switch and the switch head witch were pulled away from two like cases. they were the reset switches. Things that are left to do is cut the metal of the case with snips so my radiator can fit as im planing to water cool it and I have a 2.5inch lcd that im going to imbed in the case ontop so it flips up. Also notic ethe small slits in the case as those will be where the cd rom trays pop out but I will make new bezels for them.
the wood filler is easy on fingernails and dosent stick too well and if you finish withought it drying you can just wash your hands with regular water and soap.
almost forgot the wood filler is stuff my pop gets from home depot as its parkay floor filler. My pop is a contractor btw so thats why im using wood filler . the brand is Pro Finisher Parks. it says its for wood floors and white oak type Also depending on the type of cunstruction on the face plate I am using some plexiglass and metal tape. I used metal tape for the old switch holes and plexiglass for the new extensions for it.
Well time for a small update. I told you guys that Ill be using water cooling but most of the watercooling parts havent been purchased yet. In fact I only purchased three things so far. I purchased a ford heatcore and took the original tubes out as they were way too long. so I had to buy some 1/2 inch elbows to replace em but I havent sotered it in yet because I dont know what kind of barbs ill be using. The rad is h=10' w=6 L=2 so here is a shot of it. And another shot.
What kind of Ford is that out of? And I meant [ sorry I wasn't so clear ] how does it take to scratches by a fingernail? And OH MAN that looks so sweet.
Its a new heatcore that would normaly go on a econoline ford van. and its made of bronze or copper. It cost me $17usd from autozone. And its very high flow. I guess I dint understand your question. It dosent cratch easy at all. Its got about the same strength the plastic does after a day of full drying. But its dry enuf to sand after 20-30min depending on the temeperature. Future parts for the water cooling will be the Hydor L30 pump and ddmaze4 gpu and cpu blocks and a swifttech or something else northbridge cooler. All of the blocks and fittings will be 1/2 inch o/d and the reservuar will be home made from pvc pipe. ps: thanks for the compliments guys.
That looks exactly like my heatercore. Except mines a slight bit taller looking. I have a 1976 Caprice core. I ghetto rigged it with JBWeld and plastic 1/2" automotive elbows. Drilled holes in the top of the tanks and glued there. Took quite a while to plug the holes. So, I do NOT recommend my method. Your better off actually soldering it or bending off the original pipes and putting a dab of glue to seal it off. Unless your going to make use of the original tubes. I recommend rustoleum protective enamel if your going to paint it. It takes to less then perfect surfaces and makes it super smooth and high quality. Even as a base coat. I ended up doing that and spraying on chrome afterwards. The smoothness as the base made it look awesome with the chrome. Heres some pics. http://heavytank2.gotdns.com/custom/custom24.jpg http://heavytank2.gotdns.com/custom/custom25.jpg http://heavytank2.gotdns.com/custom/custom35.jpg Not trying to highjack. Just giving a pointer. Btw, Good start, looking very slick.
wow that rad looks nice man. I am going to take your advice and use the paint you recomended. Thanks for the compliment
so does any one have any feedback? It dosent matter if its negative or positive. Any advice would be apreciated.
This Is the the cut I made so the radiatorcan fit in the case withought interfering with the side door. And the rad in place. Yes its a very tight fit but it will make it. These are the cuts i did to the back grill and the backplate hole so i can fit my new mothrboard backplate and reduce air resistance on the fan. I plan on putting a punisher grill on it Btw. Hopefully inside and out of the case. This is the side window I put on my door. before I decided to start a new project with the old voyager.
Ok update time. I told you guys that I am going to integrate a lcd in the case but before I was thinking about having it flip up ontop of the case but that didnt apeal mutch to me. The lcd is a 2.5inch color lcd. This is what this lcd used to be. This is the start of the process. This is further along the cutting and glueing. This is the molding being done in the case. As u can see the woodfiller is not dry yet in the pic.
I wish people looking at this thread would at least coment on my project. But I guess no one is realy interested in a good old mod.
What I'm wondering is what the **** that playstation controller/LCD thing was! On the project side, you're lookin' good man. I'm lovin' the sort of recessed rheostat knobs.
the ps2 controler thing is made by a company called hip gear (google it) They make thse controlers with small color lcd's in em and they do xbox versions too. I bought myne for the sole purpose of the lcd only and this one was in the bargain bin at comp usa and I got it for 10bux+ tax. But it retails for 29bux or so witch is still a good price for the lcd alone. I am going to use all of the circuitry in it including audio. the lcd originaly had a headphone plug and speakers but the speakers are not going to be used and the headphone plug is going to get wired to the one alrdey planed on the case so it will provide a headphone amp as well.
