Smooth old school Corsair 600T

[Pugsport]

Well I was looking around on eBay the other week for a case i could use for my NAS so finding one that would hold a few hard drives was not as easy as i thought it would be. My original plan was use an old hp case etc but the only ones of them i could find would only hold 2 hard drives and then i stumbled across a video Tom made from a few years back and then started searching eBay for a Corsair 600T, I had wanted one of these cases for a while but have never really had the need for a pc case until now although it is fairly big so will take up some room on the desk but i guess i can't have everything right.

Anyway had a load of hassle with buying the case off eBay, mainly due to eBay and not the seller but i tried asking for a partial refund because the front panel that covers the lower fan has two broken clips on it so no longer stays in place (need to find someone with a 3d printer to some out) and it also has a broken clip on one of the drive bay covers so although that will stay in place its not the best. I have hunted around on eBay and the googled looking to find replacement parts to get it all as it should be but i have been unable to find anything. I thought i had found a top panel that i could buy and cut the clips off to plastic weld on to the front panel but the top panel that was for sale on eBay also has broken clips on it, so that idea was out the window. Now if i can't find someone that can print them out i may have a bash at building up some plastic where the clips should be and using a file to shape them, then hope it works.

This is the case as i got it

In this photo i had super glued the clip back onto the front panel which lasted all of 5 seconds (as soon as i removed the panel to get it ready for cleaning the clip fell off again)

first job after cleaning the case in the bath was to start stripping the old paint off the case which was not applied very well at all and had started to show sign of lifting as you might be able to see from this photo

So 15 minutes with the rotary sander and the radio on the outside of the first panel was paint free

I marked out the dents i could see and feel

little did i know that they were worse than i thought and i could not get behind the worst one to knock any of it out because there was a return edge on that side

this one i did manage to hammer and dolly fairly straight

with both side panels now in bare metal and with some help from a mates son (he wanted to learn so i thought this would be a good project for him) we made a hammer form

We then cut out some metal for where the window will be in the side panel

He then spent some time forming the metal around the plywood form

He was a little heavy handed with it at times and you will see the result of that a little later but we all have to start some where right and thats what they make filler for to.

After he had gone home i spent a little time making sure that the outside of the side panel would still sit flush with the plastic surrounds of the case

we then started the job of filling the rear panel and to touch it never felt this bad but it was very wobbly
started off the filler like this but it won't feather out on the edges

so ended up with a little extra

and yep you guessed it a little extra

until we gave up and it ended up this

so now with the filler work done on the rear panel done can make a start on the front panel. Most of the filler on the rear panel is very thin but it was all needed in order to get the panel flat, seen or not it would bug me if i knew it could have been better and i left it

I never wanted the fan controller, firewire or the bodged USB 3 port on the front panel so we plastic welded them up
top side

Underside

He then applied some filler over the area that was plastic welded to smooth it all out and lose the low spots ready for paint.

its now left with this much filler in it although it may need some more after primer but we will have to wait and see

then set about scratching up the rest of the parts ready for some adhesion promoter (better known as plastic primer) where needed and then primer

Also lost the two water cooling holes in the back of the case for a more smooth look

as the window will be bonded in place like a car window there is now a lip on the inside of the panel that could become a place for dust and dirt to settle so that had to go to

today we started some filler work on the side panel that will be seen and found out that the hammer forming for the window had not done that panel much good, although i am unsure how bad this panel was before we started as i never checked but it is still usable and with a little work you'll never know
second skim of filler, not sure what happened to the photos of the first skim i am not sure if they got lost or i just forgot to take them

filler work done we just straighten up the edges around the window a little as the forming had not created a nice sharp edge so we just used some fibreglass (the green stuff)

and the last job from today was to start making the hammer form for the new motherboard tray as i only want the holes in there that i plan to use and nothing else. i want to try and keep the case as smooth and clean on the inside as i can. i am not sure if i will cut the designed by corsair stamp out the original motherboard tray and weld that back in or not yet

can't do anything else to from until the 35mm holes saw turns up i ordered and the new sheet metal for the tray and covers.

so thats all the progress for now.

i am still torn on how brave i want to be with the colour combo on this one. not sure if i want it to match my desk so grey outside and burnt pearl orange inside or if i am brave enough to try it the other way around

 

[Pugsport]

this was the finished up side panel that won't really be seen but its flat now at least

 

[AlienALX]

Woo nice !

 

[Pugsport]

Cheers, i kind of wish i had done the window part myself to save having to put loads of work and filler in the windowed panel but it's done now and one of them things i guess.

cut out the CPU whole in the motherboard tray form

then the sheet metal turned up so got that marked out and ready to go

then formed what i could as i still don't have the right size hole saw for the job. folding the returns on the motherboard were more of a pain than i thought they would be and yes after i folded them i thought what an idiot you should have folded them the other way so that once its all together they would have not been on show but that will be a job for another day and a lot of it will get cut off anyway

quick test fit of the tray inside the case just to make sure it would fit okay

 

[Pugsport]

Got the hard drive cover folded up this afternoon but not much more than that sadly as even though the weather looks nice outside its rather cold outside, roll on summer

Placement of the window has turned out pretty well

i did have to knock a few bits off the inside of the side panel to get it to fit with the hard drive cover

just need to get the PSU cover done and then its the painful task of removing all the old powder coating ready for painting

 

[Pugsport]

Managed to get a little bit done on the case this afternoon

I gave making the PSU cover in one a go but found it left to much of a gap on the right hand side for my liking so scraped that idea

I got the 24 pin power, 8 pin CPU, Front panel switches, sata and LED's holes Cut in the motherboard tray. I did order up a 10mm grommet for the hole that i will run the switch cables and LED cables threw

Added a cut out to the hard drive cover with some mesh welded in place to help airflow and also welded the motherboard tray and hard drive cover together

Testing the hard drive mount and its a little tight so i may end up trimming the side off the cages that sticks out to stop any rattles

Then set about the PSU cover, this time making it in two pieces with the left hand side piece being 110mm wide but used a joggler to put a step in the right hand side of the panel so the second piece can sit on top of it and be supported along with hopefully not sticking out like a sore finger. on the plus side it is a lot easier to get in out now being two pieces

this is not fixed in place yet so i am hoping when it is it will all sit better and the right side will also have the weight of some plexi glass to help hold it down.

 

[Pugsport]

Marked out the PSU cover for Corsair logo i grab off the net

started to chain drill around it as i knew if i was to use the jigsaw it would make a mess of the metal, it would no longer be anything like flat so the rest will be filed and done with the die grinder and a burr tool

removed the old paint from the outside of the top panel

used scotchbrite on the inside part and any scratch marks were sanded with P180 paper

I spent some time getting the hard drive cover flat and ready for painting then thought it would be a wise idea to nail the case back together and make sure it all works before i do to much more, just in case i have to change something. so here is how it sits at the moment

Then tonight i thought o well as its nailed together now i may as well test a motherboard and psu in it

i couldn't fit the second grommet because some how there seems to be fibreglass in the hole that i have not take off yet. as you can see from the backside

But it all fits so hoping for some good weather tomorrow or very soon so i can start putting some paint on it as i could really do with using it now

 

[Warchild]

If you can pull it off. I think that logo will look better as an outline rather then cutting the whole fill area out completely.

 

[Pugsport]

If you can pull it off. I think that logo will look better as an outline rather then cutting the whole fill area out completely.

Just for you buddy

the LED tape was just thrown under the psu cover to get an idea of what it would look like

The smaller part of the PSU cover had some filler

Removed the sharp 90 degree corner where the motherboard tray meets the hard drive cover. applied filler and then with a finger dipped in paint thinners smoothed it out so thats why it looks wet

10mm piece of plastice turned up this afternoon to so folded up a mount for that. this will be bonded under the PSU cover to light up the Corsair logo

PSU cover with the LED lighting up the plastic
https://i.imgur.com/8PnyP0i.mp4
https://i.imgur.com/seu95Kg.mp4

setting up ready for epoxy primer

finally some paint on. Epoxy primer on

it never laid down to nice and i couldn't work out why but after i had done i pulled the gun apart and found some nice wear to the end of the needle (not sure how well it shows up on the phone camera though - dark area at the end is wear from spraying epoxy primer)

now i need some nice weather within the next 48 hours so i can get some primer on without having to scratch the epoxy up

 

[Warchild]

Logo looks awesome!

 

[Dawelio]

Logo looks awesome!

Yup, on this. Awesome idea there Warchild!

 

[AlienALX]

Awesome. Hope to see some exotic colour painted on it too

 

[Pugsport]

Logo looks awesome!

Cheers buddy

Yup, on this. Awesome idea there Warchild!

Aye but don't make Warchild head to big . I wanted to do something with it rather than leaving it a solid cut out once i chain drilled around the edge. I thought i should have laid it out and drill holes but i thought that would not work unless they were all small other wise the smaller parts would only have one or two holes, i also thought about just using the off cut of mesh behind it. I had thought outline but i thought to much work and how would i do it then Warchild commented and i just saw a challenge rather than the comment.

Ill be honest though i think it took me about four or five hours to do and baring the photos of the completed case/build they won't ever be turned on again, i'm not a big fan of RGB LED's i think they look a little tacky like the 90's car scene. I run my daily PC with the RGB turned off on the motherboard and the ram

Awesome. Hope to see some exotic colour painted on it too

Erm its going in my office on the desk. I was thinking just clear coating the white primer

Being serious though if it turns out straight enough then i maybe brave and paint the outside burnt orange with some grey parts and the inside grey with orange cables etc. I want to build a PC for the bedroom so i have been looking on eBay etc see whats about i can go with. All the effort and filler has been because there is a chance i may go pearl orange on the outside with it.

Got first coat of primer on this afternoon. Two full wet coats

Heavy on the PSU cover as the epoxy primer never flowed out very well and epoxy does not sand very well at all so hoping this is enough to bury it

This is going to need at least one more round of primer as there is a high spot on the windowed side panel that will more than likely need hammering out

does not show up to well on camera though

Well the metal parts can sit for 3 days to a week now to let the primer shrink back and do what it needs to do before it gets guide coated and blocked back.

On to the plastic parts of the case now i guess and i hate spraying adhesion promoter

 

[Pugsport]

Guide coated the windowed side panel this afternoon

then blocked it back down with some P180 paper

i knew there was something a miss there and turns out there is a little low spot

I carried on blocking the whole panel and was left this at the end

Bit of filler in the low spots and hopefully all is well now

Treated the PSU cover to the same, blocked with P180

this is a complete nightmare to get flat as the panel has very little strength to it being just flat

then cleaned up ready for some adhesion promoter and primer

Power and Rest buttons held with some Kebab sticks

Then this is where the nightmare starts
First coat primer and it's gone from white primer to pink.

Even after a second heavy coat of primer its still turning it pink

It is doing everywhere that has sanded back threw to the bare plastic so i am going to guess its the oils in the plastic. Hopefully once this round of primer is dry it will seal it up and the next two coats after sanding will stay white

I also had a quick go at bending plastic as i have never had the need to do this until now. The left hand side of the window needs a small bend in it to match the panel

Turns out bending plastic is not to bad and should be okay hopefully so the only thing i am crossing my finger for is the plastics to stop changing the colour of the primer but i wont know about that for 3 days to a week

 

[AlienALX]

You need a sealer dude. You could also use plastic primer.

 

[Pugsport]

You need a sealer dude. You could also use plastic primer.

Options for sealer are barcoat but i dont really like using single K paints in between 2K paints, 2K primer with no or very little thinners or i could have used epoxy primer/sealer on it as a last chance.

No such thing as plastic primer mate, its just adhesion promoter but its marketed as plastic primer for the general public but you can use it for areas you can't get to with scotch brite, sandpaper etc to key up. just apply adhesion promoter to get a nice key, i wouldn't recommend using it thought unless you have to as a scratched surface is always a better idea if you can.

Well i wanted to flat the solid side panel back and see how good it had turned out as i have not done any bodywork/filler work since 2019 so was interested to see.

Guide coat on side panel and crossed fingers

Block sanded the side panel back with P320

I am happy with that after so long, only the one high spot on the panel which the next coat of primer should cover up nicely

Now on to the plastic headache

Guide coated up

Again sanded back with P320

Same treatment for the PSU cover, guide coated up and then blocked back with P320. a couple of little high spots from hammer forming the panel

Motherboard and hard drive cover also got blocked back after guide coat

Plastics got one coat of 2K primer with very little thinners 5% if that

it is looking like that has sealed the plastics up so the next time i will just be able to use the 2k primer with the right amount of thinners in it and it should be white and ready for basecoat after 2 coats of primer

The next stage is to get the inside all painted up ready to go back together

 

[WillSK]

I loved my 600T back in the day. What a case!

Edit: did not mean to necro this thread, it came up as a suggestion after a new thread I was reading. Whoops!