Big Case Mod

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Peter.Cort

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***THERE'S A PIC OF THE CASE AT THE END SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO***

Case: Apiva X-Discovery

ok so yes I've fallen victem to case mod fever... I have a great many ideas for my case, but don't really know how to do a couple of the things I'd like to do.

one thing I'd like to do is put something on the top of my case, not sure exaclty what. I'd like to put like an air tunnel type thing, with an opening, I made a cute paint pic to kinda show how it would look.
caseideasbi1.jpg


as you can see, the first one, it would be a bent piece of something that would go up and in it I would house 2 80mm fans blowing air out of the case. the other one would be a 120/200 mm fan that would be tilted up with some metal supporting it, and it would be blowing out air. The thing is, it kinda has to be a above the case exhaust system, only because there isn't a lot of space between the top optical drive, and the psu, so it has to be away from the inside top of the case.

also another thing I'd like to do is get a piece of tinted acrylic (maybe, might just keep the clear acrylic on as it looks nice) and put that in on the side, and maybe do some etching on it, but I have no way of etching anything on it.

the final major mod I'm looking at doing is making it so I can fit my back pannel on. I have a removable motherboard tray and a really nice setup on the back of the case, so all my wiring is back there, and as a result I can't fit my back panel on, so what I'm looking at doing is making like an extension piece, that would house all my wires, and I could basically line it with fans for superior air flow. It would look something like this
extensionpieceua7.jpg

If you've read this far I'll give you a cookie :D
Basically my question is how would I mount the extension piece, I'm thinking the easiest way would be to just cut come notches where the extension piece would meet the case, so it can just drop and attach.

So you can see what I'm working with.
casepicdf5.jpg

Finally I just need a little advise on proper painting procedure, as the last time I tried to paint it ended up horrible wrong. So I'm going to go for a purple and white theme, and here's what I'm going for. I'm going to do it all in a high gloss finsh so it's really really shiny and great looking. (I'm gonna do all the inside white as well) To start it off since the drive bays are plastic, I'm not going to touch them so they will stay black. There's a mesh part that I'd like to paint with some Chrome paint for a nice touch. From there I don't really know what I'd like to do. I'd like to incorperate both the purple and white paint in some sort of really nice looking design, just don't quite know what to do. I have a couple ideas, but need to draw it all out before I start stuff. And yeah, to the main point of painting, how do I want to do it? Do I want to sand down to bare metal or just sand enough so the white primer will stick to the case?

So thank you to whoever read all this. Hoping for some good feedback
 
Chrome paint doesn't work btw...

For sanding the side panels and such, bare metal is not necessary but not bad either.

Make sure once you've sanded you lay down a couple coats of primer with some sanding in between each and about a day to cure between coats.

Once done with that do the same thing with the color.

Finally, lay down a nice thickish coat of clear coat. Then sand with 2000+ Grit, and then plish with rubbing compound and a polishing cloth/pad.
 
ok, so to replicate a chrome'd look on the mesh, any ideas? Would a high gloss silver work? Or should I just not bother with it and leave it black. And is it really neccesary to wait a day between coats, like even between primer coats?
 
Anytime you sand between coats the paint needs to harden. This is called curing and takes at least a day.

This is even more true when you start using the higher grit sandpaper and need to wet sand. If the paint is completely cured it will just screw up your finish.

Finally, using spray paint it is not possible to get a chrome effect.

Take it to a local chrome shop and have it plated.
 
I don't have a local chrome shop.. not that I know of atleast. lol. how much is it to get something chromed. Today I'm working on my list of stuff to get and what I need for paint and such. Also I'm working on the designs of it all and hopefully working out the measurements for all the pieces I need so hopefully I can go out and get the sheet metal. I'm really excited to start this mod project, and I'll defintely keep a log up of all my activities.
 
I'm thinking about making this thing a themed mod, and I have a few ideas in mind, just don't really know how to apply them so there are 2 questions on my mind at the moment and I didn't feel like making a new thread for it.

1. Is air brushing hard/expensive? I don't need anything professional, and I don't thing there is any other way to get the look that I want on the design other then to air brush it on. I want a very complex design with lots of shading and such.

2. If it airbrushing doesn't turn out to be a thing that is possible for me, I'd like to be able to just print out a design and put it on. Is it possible? I know it is to put a design on a shirt, like iron it on, and was wondering if the same ideas apply with metal, just in a different way. So is there a design to get a design from paper to metal.
 
My advice, find someone who does car airbrushing, like motorcycles and the such.

Offer them like 50 bucks to do something or offer to fix their computer ;)
 
Well he's already at Lowes buying paint for his Monster Case, and on the case it says.... well I won't give it away..
 
ha, nice job vern :D giving a bit of a teaser but not too much to give anything away. :D

yeah I went and stocked up on stuff and I'm basically gonna knock most of it out this weekend... Atleast I'm hoping too. I'm really excited to get this thing under way. It's gonna be sick when it's done.
 
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