This is my first time doing a full mod (the most I've done is add parts, lights, sleeve cables, etc. on my homemade computer), but it hopefully won't be my last. I have some info at my Slashdot Journal, but I'd figure I'd do well to share it here, as well, since the journal mostly holds a bunch of notes for me to remember as well. The basic idea is to take a Dell Optiplex GX110 and modify it to imitate (and mock) a "riced out" Honda Civic (for those who aren't familiar with the term--and there are some out there--"riced out" basically is a label for a car that looks much faster than it can move). The premise behind this future fileserver will be that it will look fast, but the chip inside is only a 933mhz Pentium III and holds 128 or 256 mb of RAM. Here is my mod checklist: Paintjob Head and tail lights Spoiler Ground lights Muffler Tinted case windows Front and top plastic "coverings" Body Kit Case feet with rims This certainly is not finalized, however. The paintjob is nearly finished, and cutting a window will be difficult, because, besides never having cut a window before, I will have to make them fit on sides that are about 4~6 inches in height, and figure out something to do with the vents on those sides and the buttons used to open the case. Next post: pictures!
Here is the case before painting, after cleaning (amazing how dirty it still was), and after a sad attempt at ripping off the stickers (I still need to go over everything with steel wool tonight to get some sticker poo off and to smooth the paint, then do some more coats and gloss). Here is a blurry closeup, the clean middle is where a Pentium "Made for Microsoft" sticker once was (it will be running FreeBSD anyways, most likely), showing how dirty the case was. And here are the guts of the system, which were rediculously dirty, and still need some compressed air. More in a next post (I am on dial-up and need some time to upload).
Here is the paintjob, as you can see there are a number of imperfections that will be rectified, and no, my carpet really isn't that yellow Sorry about the quality, I don't have a hi-res camera with me.
The painting is completely finished, I will take some all around pictures tomorrow when I get back from work. Many of the accidents from the previous session were fixed, but this painting is more of a back-up, since I plan to get plastic molding for most of it. On the subject, does anyone know where I can get custom plastic moldings (though not that thin cheap stuff) so I can form the shape around the case? I am probably not going to cover the whole case, but I'd like to use it for the front and the top, and have them on hinges so using CDs will be easy (although it probably won't be too necessary when I set it up as a fileserver), as will taking apart the case. I'd like to have a tinted acrylic window (for the windshield) and lights in the plastic as well, so something that can hold that. Thanks!
Okay, here are two more pictures of the paintjob, I recently got a Dremel, so once payday comes, I'll hopefully pick up some tint and acrylic and work on the windows. Unfortunately, I have so little space for them More recent pictures: As you can see, those fingerprints aren't there anymore, as well as a number of imperfections, and the paint has a little better quality. Hopefully soon I'll be able to find a higher resolution camera for this (then I'd have to find a free service to upload my pictures to, so I don't kill my bandwidth).
one of the best things to get the "stickies" from stickers off the case is cooking oil........... i had some glue, stickies left over from when i moved into my bro's old room and i used some some cooking oil (olive oil) and the stickies came right off, reall easy way if you don't want to strach what ever you are working on
Sorry about the long delay, but I don't have much money right now and I just got into an accident (last night, not alcohol-related, just an OD of stupidity), so I need to pay for repairs and some tickets, last night wasn't a good night for me (at least my home team one the superbowl!), so I'm not going to do a whole hell of a lot of work on this mod for a few weeks, but I did see a nice way to make the forms for the shaping, someone did a Strider mod (it is in a recent PC Modder) and used a sort of foam for the body and a resin (not to mention some clay), so I will look down that avenue. Again, sorry for the delay (I'm still looking for the right sandpaper to lap one of my heatsinks).
