Yet another project...

[CapnBFG]

If there is one thing I am notorious for it is having many projects going at the same time. I often get bored if I am only working on one thing, so I start up many other things on the side to keep myself from becoming disinterested in any one of them. This time I am modding one of my old cases. It's an old mid-tower case that was made by JustPC USA a few years ago and houses my Athlon XP rig.


Here are the mandatory before pics:








My plans for this project are not huge. It already has four 80mm fans, and the top on I modded in three years ago. It's a pretty nice case overall, so I'm just going to give it a nicer paint job. I also will organize the wiring when I put it back together, because the wiring right now is atrocious. I won't say much about the paint scheme yet because I haven't finalized it in my mind yet, but I do have some nice ideas so far.

I have already disassembled and cleaned the case, and I put a first coat of primer on.





Tomorrow I will prime the other sides of those parts that I didn't do yet and will try out some of my painting ideas on scrap pieces of wood to see how they look.


BTW, if you are wondering why the mobo tray is separate, that is because in this case it is hinged and removable. It lets you work on the main assembly outside the case, incluing all your expansion cards, and then bolt the whole module into the case. I like it because I am always hesitant to install CPU coolers without the motherboard secured, but it is such a hassal with the mobo already in the case. I approve of this particular design.

[Clue69Less]

This looks like steel. Is the mobo tray steel too? Looking good!

[CapnBFG]

That is correct. The only part of the case that is not steel is the front panel.

It's kind of heavy for its size. <-- opens up for all kinds of sexual jokes

[EnforcerFX]

It's kind of heavy for its size. <-- opens up for all kinds of sexual jokes

Thats what she said.

[YMAA]

Looking good so far! What other mods do you have planned for it?

[CapnBFG]

I don't really have any other mods planned since this is an old computer and the case already does everthing it needs to. Do you have any suggestions?



I bought some spray bombs yesterday from Advanced Auto Parts, I'm pretty sure all of them are Duplicolor brand. I went with metallic red for the inside, gloss black for the outside, and dark metallic gray for the various trim parts. These paints are thinner than the Krylon and Rustoleum stuff that I normally use so they require more coats, but fortunately they also dry a lot faster. The black and gray that I got are actually engine paints with ceramic addatives and they should be more durable than normal spray paint.

My plan for the paint scheme is red on the inside, black on the outside. The mobo tray is gray, which will partly show on both the inside and outside. The front panel separates into two parts, the topmost of which will be gray. I also painted the fan guards and filter covers gray. The drive bay covers are black, and I will probably paint the Zalman fan controller black as well.

Here are some updated pics. You can see that more coats of paint are needed before a uniform color and fill will be achieved.

Miscellaneous outer parts


The red turned out nicely on the inner part of side panels


On the main part of the case I had trouble with the paint crackling in a few places. I probably just got carried away and sprayed it a bit too thick. I'll have to sand and fix that tomorrow before I paint anymore.


A closeup of the metallic gray paint. It will be much darker before I am done. I probably should have used a black primer instead of white...live and learn. Hmm, now that I think about it I may spray some black over this piece before continuing to do the gray...


My camera batteries died before I could get a closeup of the metallic red, so I will do that tomorrow.


One of the ideas that I had for painting was to use some kind of fine mesh to spray a dot pattern onto the outer case. That way my gray parts could be more like carbon fiber in appearance instead of solid gray. I tried it on some scrap metal though and it didn't work well at all. The paint is so thin that it all just ran together.

[YMAA]

Have you thought about a mirror finish? You could do something like in this video:

YouTube - Case Mod: Qmicra v2 SFF Computer Case Paint Job

[aliG da taco]

you should get one of those rocketfish cases, they're dirt cheap, and they're actually jsut rebandaged lian li cases, through in a pump+radiator in the bottom and you just got yourself watercooling el cheapo style. In fact if I had the money I would have considered getting on myself to house the phase in, I don't actually plan on keeping that long since I'll need the money for a car soon, so I'll need a case housing in order to sell unit once I actually get time to work on it

[Clue69Less]

My plan for the paint scheme is red on the inside, black on the outside.

It's gonna look good.

[CapnBFG]

@YMAA
Mirror finish is actually a great idea. I don't have the exact engine enamel that he used in the video but I have something similar (competing brand). He says to wait 2 weeks before wet sanding though and 30 days before polishing, so that means I'll have to do it when I come again home in May. This paint is nice and glossy as is, so I can see how it would take on a shine like in that video. Thanks for the idea dude!


@taco
Those cases look good for the price, but I don't need to do water cooling and I am more interested in painting this case. I will keep those Rocketfish cases in mind though since I will be building a cheap rig soon to house my 1900XT for folding. Thanks.

[aliG da taco]

no problem, I thought you might be interested since they're still lian li cases which makes them great for modding, you can find them at best buy for like $70

[CapnBFG]

Here's a closeup of the red:



I ran out of red paint while touching up the main part of the case this morning. I'll have to go buy some more before I can put another coat on the side panels. They are looking great already though. The paint turned out to be darker/deeper after I let it dry overnight.

Today I will be painting the various other parts with black and gray. I'll take some pictures of those parts tomorrow or the day after.

[anticupidon]

Spray painting computer cases ftw!
captain you are a modding freak ..keep them coming!

[CapnBFG]

Just a quick update here. After letting the red paint on the side panels cure for a day I removed the tape and remasked them to paint the outsides black. I also finished up the red on the main part of the case and will remask it tomorrow. The front panel pieces are nearly done, I just need to sand them and put one more coat on so they turn out nice and smooth. The mobo tray and miscellaneous pieces are completely done now.









The Zalman fan controller panel was a translucent bluish-purplish color, so I painted the back side of it black.



I also painted the floppy drive black. If it still works, cool. If not, no real loss.

[CapnBFG]

This is another quick mod that I did today. I would have included it in the last post but I needed to take a break for other things. It also kind of fits better by itself. I took a bunch of sequential images since this may prove useful to some people. I'll also format this post as more of a quick guide than just an image update.


While I was waiting for paint to dry earlier today I looked through the box of loose parts from this computer just to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I turned out that I had missed something. The hard drive heatsink that I had removed is gold in color. Although it didn't really match anything in the computer before, with the new paint scheme it would really stand out, and not in a good way. I decided to strip the annodizing off so that it would be silver in color.

For anyone who doesn't already know, a quick and easy way to remove annodizing from aluminum is with lye. I prefer Easy-Off oven cleaner, but anything with a decent concentration of NaOH will do the trick, such as some products for clearing drains.



Apply plenty of cleaner to the heatsink and let it soak for a while.



A brush is handy for removing the foam, but not much scrubbing should be needed since the lye does a great job of dissolving the annodized surface. Try not to get the foam on your skin, unless you happen to fit one of the following criteria:
1. You are SuperFly
2. You really want to find out how a chemical burn feels



If you rinse off the heatsink you will see that it is partially done.



Go ahead and reapply the cleaner. You may need to let it sit for 10 minutes or so to completely dissolve the annodizing.



Repeat the soak/rinse cycle as many times as needed until the annodizing is all gone.









The result is a bare aluminum heatsink. Notice that in this case the painted lettering was unaffected by the lye. That may not always be the case, so watch out for paint that you don't want to risk ruining.







I haven't decided yet, but maybe I will paint this heatsink the same gunmetal gray that I used for the other parts. It's not like my hard drive gets very hot, so painting it won't really hurt anything. There is also the possibility of leaving it out altogether...

[SirRobin4ever]

Nice tip on how to remove anodizing. Painting the Zalman faceplate was also a great idea. The Maxtor HDD on the other hand....

[CapnBFG]

Hey now, Maxtor has served me well over the years. I have owned 5 of their drives (2x 20GB, 1x 40GB, 1x 80GB, 1x 120GB) and all of them still work perfectly. The only drive I've ever had die was a 6GB Quantum Fireball, and my brother had a 20GB WD kick the bucket.

I'm a WD guy now though. I have four 500GB WD Caviars in my main rig

[YMAA]

Nice job on removing the finish! Looks very cool.

[SirRobin4ever]

I'm a WD guy now though. I have four 500GB WD Caviars in my main rig

Good. WD all the way! I still have a working 2gb WD Caviar drive from 1995 that I use once in a great while. I do have some Seagates as well, but they seem louder. (Nice drives though)

That's the exact Maxtor drive that Grady had fail on him. It did this:

[YMAA]

He's an angry elf!