well, i have looked and looked and found that this is probally one of the most helpful forums out there, i want your help. so i have decided to mod a new case. i got a brand new box for 19 bucks and no sooner did it get unraped, did it get worked on! i hope to have this look really really clean. this is what it looked like when i got it out the case... i really liked the ports all in the front bezel, so i decided that i liked them and i did not want to cover them up with filler or such, as i went on with the modding. so i just cut out a front window, and added two 80mm fan holes. aand i cut a few windows in the top panel: next i found that when i cut the two holes in the front of the case, the small vents that i liked so much, would cause all sorts of trouble if i tried to add bondo to them. the filler would just flow all into the vents and look gross and would be hard as hell to remove after dry. so i found a way to get around that and keep the vents: after i did that, i added filler and putty and sanded everything down. i also wanted to add the fans to the chassis. so those went on spacers to be moved close to the front bezel holes. a shot amount of fan ducting will route the fan exhaust back to the holes in the chasis. here is the fan spacer problem fixed! next i had a slight problem with the front window. the curve of the door was leaving a slight gap from the door and the plexi, so i cut a piece to fit the gap: so, i guess that is all for now. im having a hard time trying to find a place to paint, since its still very cold here. and i dont want to pay to have this painted; costs too much. i also have not found a good color also. that is tough. anyone know any good color combo's? thanks for all the comments and critiques!
looks good so far. nice work with the bondo. what are your overall plans for the case? would be nice to know so we know what to expect. anyway keep on modding
you know, im not really sure where i want to go with this case. i want to etch the side panel plexi with some flames and add 2 80mm fans on the top as blowholes. i really need to pic a color so that i can get things going along with the theme and everything. like i said, im thinking a hot orang with black will do nicely. the chassis will be painted too. like a semigloss black to really show off the orange. its just really hard to do this time of year for me. water cooling is a must! maybe orange UV coolant? black light, also looks real nice with black and orange. so, time will tell.
respect for needles blowhole ^^ this is mine http://users.pandora.be/Silenced/mod/DSC00536%20333.JPG greetz, Thomaz
Ok, i got side tracked here! but im back on it... i decided to just post everything up to this point. hopefully i can get some good feedback to help me out! thanks all!!! mod on! updates soon! damn me hand and shoulder hurts something fierce! for the past few hours i have been etching in plexi. i tell you what. that sucks. my first time. i took it slow and it came out... well youll see! i practiced on like a 4 inch piece but i soon got impatient and decided to just jump into it feet first. well, i know i should not have done that, but.... then i decided that i needed to know where the mobo that i was going to use will go so that i can cut holes in the mobo tray so that i can have nice neat wires, so i went to the mobo website and downloaded a pic and made it as close as i could to the real size and printed that bad boy. then i taped it up so that i could see: then on to the ETCHING!!! oooo aahhhhh.... as i said, it was the first time, but i still have some more to do to it. and a few more panels will get the same treatment. the color test that i did with the CCFL's is only test, a different color will be used in the actual case. enjoy! lights off please! while looking around the house, i found a large source of mesh!!! my trashcan!!!! woooooo! i was able to paint my chassis and lay the first coat of black onto the front bezel today also. now let it set for around 24 hours and sand. boy this might take a while! i also got a few more things in the mail today! im going to take all those damn stickers off first though!
ok, this is only the first of many coats, i have to sand, then paint, then sand, then.... well i am following the guide from Linear. great guide.. followed before. thanks for the heads up though! well here is a big UPDATE! well for me anyway!!! first things first. i started taking the keyboard apart so that i can pait it... wow what a mess! here is the color that i want to paint the case, along with black parts came in today! fun for me! decided to do some more etching, here is what the front window will look like now onto my favorite part! well, i got a few clear blade fans to see if i could shine some light behind them and get a cool effect, well i dug deeper and well the pictures speak for themselves... i still have some cleaning up to do on them, but the idea worked! flame on! (i mean dont flame me, just quoting johnny flame from fantastic 4! ) just one more
got a few things done with it. onto more sanding!!! boooooo ok, i decided to change some things up a bit. i will not use the side window that i planned and i will be adding a few things too this case. i put a lot of it together to see the full picture, and i was kind of dissapointed... it looked to plain. so i decided to accent it just enough. you will see what i mean, when i am done, but for starters, i have changed the PCI slot covers a bit. now the insides are orange, but the outside is silver/chrome like. so is the PSU bracket. a few more things will be painted silver too. time will tell! tell me what you think so far, i need feedback on this one! inside outside another pic, with the flash just if you were wondering... i will be sanding that chrome and painting again to get it real smooth. not like the whole case, but so that it is a nice smooth finish! now, that i look at it, and it was brought to my attention, it looks like a harley davidson! aw crap! oh well. i did not mean it. well chalk that up to a non original-original! haha till next time!
really really nice going mate.... dead jelous of those fans mind!!! you take christmas wish lists? my subscription is already going for this project...... i did really like the side window etching!!! how come u changed it? i think if you layed the perspex down and then drilled some very short small holes horizontally into it (like ur front door i think) and place some small leds into the holes all round the window it would make the flame etching jump out of the window something wicked see ya on the next update
Eerything looks really great. What kind of cooling are you thinking about for the video card and CPU?
Really liking that etch. The drive bays are looking pretty schweet too, great choice of colour. Subscribed
i am not reallly sure yet, i wanted to use H20 but i dont know if i can get a real nice color match to go with this case for the water/coolant. any suggestions? i found that the Black Ice Micro II dual 80mm rad will fit perfect on the back of the case on the dual fan mount. i might be able to find some orange UV Dye or something similar? i kind of want this case to be quiet along with really cool as in temps. Its going to be an Athlon 64 system. nothing super fancy, just a good solid rig that can play games well. but work is going well, i have been sanding all weekend, just taking my time. its a **** load of work that goes into painting and sanding all the panels, especially when you have multiple colors that have to go on! i have done a few things also that will change the overall look of the case, i will post pics of this when i resize and load them onto my host.