maniac
New member
So, as promised to Feronix, here is my current project, hope i'll kill some of your time. I'll try to keep the info as short as possible and upload a ton of pictures, I know you love pictures 
So this is a mod of an old oem case I had laying around, it was originally beige, then for some odd reason i painted it blue and gold as you'll see after I sand it down, and then was painted black but the paint job was really horrible and it felt like sandpaper, so here I am trying to make it look sexy all over again.
Note: This is just a case mod and no hardware will use it as a habitat For now atleast.
Main goals in this mod :
Improve cooling - Done
Sand and paint the Interior - Done (will be matte black)
Cut a side panel window - Done
Sand and paint the exterior - Pending (will be enamel red)
I am still waiting for a couple of switches to come from abroad and for someone to sell me an internal usb hub (there is a wanted thread in FS&W) to be able to complete the external paint job as I found that if I paint parts in different conditions (like temperature), the colour may differ so I need to paint them all at once.
Here is how it looked before I started this mod, I have no pictures of how it was originally or after the first paint job, sorry.
The hard drive cage and the power and reset switches painted.
This was the paintjob before I started this mod.
cut the front 80mm fan, not perfect but this was my first try.
Planning the layout for the window.
This is how the interior looked before painting.
Before cutting the bottom 120mm fan.
and after.
The first coat of the interior. ahh a sigh of relief.
A piece of plexi to fill the 4 optical bays, took its fair share of time to make it as perfect as I possibly can.
and the first bump in the road hit me !
the side window plexi cracked while i was buffing the edges.
the interior got its 2nd coat of black spray and is now hanging out in the sun.
beautiful day here in Malta.
sanded down the side panels/ top, they are a single piece. here you can see the first paintjob pretty clearly.
took a break from modding and did 2 sets of 10 reps dips, and yeah thats me
the front panel sanded and ready for paint.
and the first coat of primer goes on. not perfect but will be fixed.
sanded down the imperfections.
and sprayed it again, much better now.
managed to get another piece of plexi, cut it down to size, buffed it and its nice and shiny, the sides arent perfect but I cut it 1/2 inch larger than what I needed.
The real challenge starts. cutting the side window, it needs to be as perfect as I can get it as I am trying to avoid using u-channel.
initial cut is done, this part is fairly easy
and then I had to file it down
took me more than 2 hours and my hands are still shaking more than 4 hours after. But, atleast I'm pleased with the results
cleaned and ready for the next stage.
Please leave you thoughts and/or suggestions, even negative ones, this is more of a learning journey for me.
maniac out.
So this is a mod of an old oem case I had laying around, it was originally beige, then for some odd reason i painted it blue and gold as you'll see after I sand it down, and then was painted black but the paint job was really horrible and it felt like sandpaper, so here I am trying to make it look sexy all over again.
Note: This is just a case mod and no hardware will use it as a habitat
For now atleast.Main goals in this mod :
Improve cooling - Done
Sand and paint the Interior - Done (will be matte black)
Cut a side panel window - Done
Sand and paint the exterior - Pending (will be enamel red)
I am still waiting for a couple of switches to come from abroad and for someone to sell me an internal usb hub (there is a wanted thread in FS&W) to be able to complete the external paint job as I found that if I paint parts in different conditions (like temperature), the colour may differ so I need to paint them all at once.
Here is how it looked before I started this mod, I have no pictures of how it was originally or after the first paint job, sorry.
The hard drive cage and the power and reset switches painted.
This was the paintjob before I started this mod.
cut the front 80mm fan, not perfect but this was my first try.
Planning the layout for the window.
This is how the interior looked before painting.
Before cutting the bottom 120mm fan.
and after.
The first coat of the interior. ahh a sigh of relief.
A piece of plexi to fill the 4 optical bays, took its fair share of time to make it as perfect as I possibly can.
and the first bump in the road hit me !
the side window plexi cracked while i was buffing the edges.
the interior got its 2nd coat of black spray and is now hanging out in the sun.
beautiful day here in Malta.
sanded down the side panels/ top, they are a single piece. here you can see the first paintjob pretty clearly.
took a break from modding and did 2 sets of 10 reps dips, and yeah thats me
the front panel sanded and ready for paint.
and the first coat of primer goes on. not perfect but will be fixed.
sanded down the imperfections.
and sprayed it again, much better now.
managed to get another piece of plexi, cut it down to size, buffed it and its nice and shiny, the sides arent perfect but I cut it 1/2 inch larger than what I needed.
The real challenge starts. cutting the side window, it needs to be as perfect as I can get it as I am trying to avoid using u-channel.
initial cut is done, this part is fairly easy
and then I had to file it down
took me more than 2 hours and my hands are still shaking more than 4 hours after. But, atleast I'm pleased with the results
cleaned and ready for the next stage.
Please leave you thoughts and/or suggestions, even negative ones, this is more of a learning journey for me.
maniac out.
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