Ozz's Totally Awesome Case Mod!

[OzzmanFloyd120]

After seeing what MKmods has done and what my friend (who also happens to be named Mark)
has done with modding computer and car parts I've been compelled to mod out my old case.
I feel that this case was pretty awesome in the first place (hence the reason I bought it) but after a lot of time with it looking at it in wonder; I think I can do so much more with it.

Here are some before pictures (Sorry for the cap-ass photography, I'm awful with a camera)












I almost forgot, I'll be giving the PSU a cool paint job too!

Anyway, to start I just took the whole damn thing apart and started to scuff up my top panel (after removing that crazy fan mounting of course!)


As of this moment it's painted and sitting in my basement drying along with the side panels.

Let me know what you guys think as I go.
More pictures tomorrow.

[jbunch07]

i love watching builds, good luck to ya, ill be watching!

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Originally Posted by jbunch07

i love watching builds, good luck to ya, ill be watching!

Thanks man, It's nice to see you back online again btw.

[jbunch07]

thanks bud. its good to be back!

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Alright, again sorry for the crap-ass photography, but here's my progress so far. (BTW I'd like my pictures to look less like I'm having a seizure while I'm taking them, so if anybody has any picture taking tips I'd appreciate them)

Anyhow, I've brought my parts upstairs to take pictures of them. If you can't tell this type of case has a removable HDD rack, I took that POS out and threw it away (Shown in pictures six and seven of first post). Afterward I drilled out the rivets that held the mounting to the chassis of the case and gave that a toss also (on the floor of the chassis in picture ten of first post) After drilling out those rivets and scuffing up the chassis real nice I laid down a coat of Rustoleum, however it was dark outside while I painted, so the coat didn't go down as even as I would have liked. No biggie though, I have more paint.



The top plate is done drying now also and is waiting for it's first coat of clear.



In addition to those two parts I've also painted the side panel that faces the mobo plate, however it's not really noticeable since it was already black and I just gave it a good scuff and hit it with some high-gloss black paint. (This will also get it's first coat of clear tonight.)

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Hmm, little update.

After the first coat of clear it looks like my black is starting to bubble up. I guess that's why I get for mixing Rustoleum with Krylon clear coat. Fact is I really didn't need the clear anyway, so tomorrow after work I'm going to scuff everything back up and start over.
That sucks, but it happens.

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Well, I've painted up a few of the odds and ends, here's a picture of the fan mounting that was on top of the case in the first pictures.



The other parts on there are the grill peices from the front of the case. (It might be kinda hard from my crappy photography)

Also I went back and re-painted and did some cutting on the chassis. I added three 40mm holes on the motherboard back plate for more wire management. I also cut out the fan grills to increase airflow. Right now I'm looking for some grommet to cover up my cutting, if anybody reading this knows where I can find some it would be much appreciated.




I added a little paint detail to the chassis afterward and got back to re-painting the other parts that bubbled on me. I'll have pictures of those tomorrow.

[jbunch07]

ahh lookin nice man!
so whats your theme black and blue?

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Yeah, it's the same color scheme that a friend of mine did in his old car and it kinda shouted out "rip me off" so I figured why not.

[jbunch07]

haha thats funny! well keep me posted man.
i think im going to pain my case soon...

[OzzmanFloyd120]

My paint dried pretty quick from the 80*F weather we've been having in my area lately, so I was able to get a picture of my chassis with some detail I did to it.



As always, thoughts are appreciated.

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Alright, heads up all one of you that are keeping up with this.

I finished the new coat of black on the top and side panel. Here's some pictures.




I also painted the little frame thing around the door, I wanted the entire system to be the same shade of black. this is how this looks now.



After I brought the frame inside I put the plexi shield back on it, this is how it looks when it's all put back together.



And then after I brought the other parts inside I put the chassis back together with the fan mounting at the top, here's how that looks now (it's finally starting to show things coming together




When I put the fan mounting back in it didn't seem to fit all that great, it was only held in with four 1/8th" screws, so to help it not break off when I go to pick it up I've put some superglue into the screw holes to help hold onto the threading a little better. I know that might pose a problem down the road, but that's a risk that I'm willing to take. Here's a couple pictures of me gluing the screws into place




Then the final touch I did last night was I taped up the covers to the 5 1/4" bays and did a little painting, this is how they turned out.




So far I'm pretty happy. I'm still trying to find myself some grommet to cover up some of the rough edges on my cuts and bondo to fill in a couple holes from old case accessories that I no longer have.

[Chicken Patty]

Hey man the modding is coming out great. Please keep up posted with the updates. Can't wait to see this puppy when it's finished

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Thanks, I was feeling a little uneasy about it at first because it really wasn't looking any different, now with the chassis back in one piece it's starting to look like it's moving forward.

Before:


After:


I think those two pictures show the progress best.

[Chicken Patty]

Originally Posted by OzzmanFloyd120

Thanks, I was feeling a little uneasy about it at first because it really wasn't looking any different, now with the chassis back in one piece it's starting to look like it's moving forward.

Before:


After:


I think those two pictures show the progress best.

yeah man, thats a big difference. Once its all back together it should look very nice. Once its together you need to get some like blue UV reactive cables and some cathodes or something. So it can have a nice blueish look on the inside, and then it'll make the outside look even better.

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Originally Posted by Chicken Patty

yeah man, thats a big difference. Once its all back together it should look very nice. Once its together you need to get some like blue UV reactive cables and some cathodes or something. So it can have a nice blueish look on the inside, and then it'll make the outside look even better.

I was planning something along those lines.

[Chicken Patty]

so we think alike

[jbunch07]

looking great man!

[Atomic Rooster]

That's cool. I like the color combo.

Hmm. . .
I was thinking, how about maybe adding a side window? They have some nice kits that include the window, molding, template and full instructions. They have a good selection here: CrazyPC.com - Window Kits

[OzzmanFloyd120]

So today I started tearing apart the PSU and gave it a good scuffing for paint




I gave the fan grill a good scuff too because that's going to get a new outfit



When I tried to get the insides of the PSU out I realized that it wasn'theld in with a traditional type screw like every other I've ever had, this one was held together with a clip, once I got it unclipped I couldn't get the cord connection out because it was too big to fit through it's own hole (for obvious reasons) and I ended up just having to tape it off. After paint this is how the bottom half of it looked.



After painting that I decided it was time to fill in the holes on the front panel where there used to be a probe thermometer and the front USB (both of which I managed to break in the time I used the case.) So I stopped by the local Wal-Mart and grabbed myself some Bondo and started work on it.
When using bondo you most always need something in behind the hole you're filling in to stop it from just spilling over the edge and wasting your filler. I like to use wire window screen for this.



Just use tape to hold the screen behind the hole like this.



And this was how it looked after I filled it in



And the USB



All of those parts are currently sitting in my shed, painted and drying. Pictures tomorrow.

[exo17]

looking good man.. I like how the bright blue goes with that black. good luck nd keep us posted

[OzzmanFloyd120]

I found this in Meijer tonight wen I was hanging out with some friends. They're made to plug into car cigarette lighters, it's blue LED and it says 12v on the case. I don't see any reason why I can't cut the wires and use a butt connector to turn it into a molex connection. The reason I walked away from it was because I couldn't find out what the air flow was on it and by the looks of it the flow wasn't good. (if you look closely you can see that there's about a quarter inch between the edge of the fan blade and the cowling)

[Chicken Patty]

Oh man this is coming along nicely, i'm anxious to see it done

[jbunch07]

coming along nicely man! looking real good.

[OzzmanFloyd120]

Sorry about the delay, I've been getting crap hours at work (close one night and open the next morning) so I haven't been able to get much done, today I got my PSU put back together though, it didn't turn out at nicely as I had hoped, but I have some black gloss Rustoleum I can paint on to cover the bare aluminum parts.



I also zip tied the cables in better fashion so they wouldn't get tangled as easily. No picture for that however. The front panel I've been having alot of trouble with paint bubbling on, I think it's a chemical in the plastic not letting the paint bond with it. What I did to fix this was sand it down about nine times and now I'm giving it a good coat of primer before I hit it with the black gloss. Let's hope it works this time



Edit: if you couldn't tell from the earlier pictures, the empty spaces on the sides of the case are for the grill pieces in the top right of the picture in post #7. You can ALMOST see what they looked like originally in the first picture in post #1.