Project: Satan's Deuce

bonzanego

Gawd
Joined
May 16, 2002
Messages
888
This case project has been hanging out in my sketch books for about 2 years now. I have been waiting for a customer to come along who would give me absolute freedom to make this project as thier own. By now I am tired of waiting and I am just going to build it and get it out of my system. Sometimes you just have to make what your brain keeps smahing you over the head with. So instead I will be donating this case to Controlled Insanity.com to give away after it is completed as I really don't have a use for it in my own home, I hope one of you out there will enjoy it in yours.
The worklog is also mirrored at Controlled-Insanity and
Gruntville. If you just want to see pictures and no posts or text you can look directly at all the images of the case by going HERE

The Project Summary follows with photos, here are a few things not shown yet so I will just briefly describe whats going to happen.
The front bezel will be movable to allow drive access, how it will move is not decided yet, it may be hinged or operate on a slide moving up and down, time will tell. The new bezel is fiberglassed foam (think surfboard)
with a handmade aluminum grill.
The inside bottom of the case will be upolstered in a tuck and roll fashion in deep red faux leather, the idea being it would resemble the seats in the car.
The flames will be hand painted, this is where the Satan part comes in, I am going for a twisted organic mass of tourtured faces/souls in various shades of red/orange/yellow, the pinstripes around the flames will be incorporated into the painting rather than just painted on over the edges of the flames. The unflamed parts of the case will most likely be black, but i might do somthing called interference black, which has a slight navy blue tint to it in varying light. Clearcoat covers the whole thing. the chassis will remain stock aluminum in color.
The front side-byside 80mm fans will be replaced with a single 120mm front intake.

IMG_2915.jpg


The idea is for this case to resemble the hood and grill of a 30's era hotrod, the days of coffin hoods and flames. I chose this and the name based on my love of this era of cars. These body styles are among the most beautiful cars ever made. The bezel will be replaced with a grill like bezel and the top of the case will be bulked out into a tapering domed shape. The idea is not for it to look exactly like any one car make or model, but to be somthing entirely new borrowing from all.
p166590_image


flaming-ford-coupe.jpg


Both side panels are windowed with flames.

IMG_2886.jpg

IMG_2887.jpg


The coffin shaped top panel in foam and fiberglass, the flames are symetrical and wrap over the top of the hood and down both sides.
IMG_2913.jpg

The hood top cured, filled and partially sanded.
IMG_2916.jpg


got the bezel sculpted and cored out, ready for skin.
IMG_2961.jpg

IMG_2962.jpg
 
This is going to look really nice!

You should put vantec tornadoes in it to make it really loud.
 
robberbaron said:
This is going to look really nice!

You should put vantec tornadoes in it to make it really loud.


haha; plus a harley engine!
 
as always Bonz you are going to do a great piece...funny thing is I didn't look at the posters name and when I saw the sketch book I thought "hhhuuumm...that looks like Bonz's work"
 
This is going to be one cool mod! :cool:

I'd be interested in hearing details on how you created the bezel/grill......
 
w00ty w00t for Bonz, this mans work is nothign short of amazing!

a great contributor to our site, this is going to make one lucky person VERY happy! :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
as always Bonz you are going to do a great piece...funny thing is I didn't look at the posters name and when I saw the sketch book I thought "hhhuuumm...that looks like Bonz's work"
The minute someone copies my work let me know so I can kick thier... oh wait.
Seriously, if someone thought enough of it to try and copy my style I would be pleased to be so admired.


yeah that stuff is cheap! holy cow at thier prices for chromeing the un-chromable, but really neat technology for sure. The shell is not chromed it will be painted. the handmade grill that will be inserted into the shell will be polished aluminum.
 
Oh man...I love those things. ZZ Top's Eliminator was the first I ever thought was a "cool car". This is gonna be good.
 
wow looking good so far.

There seems to be a lot of good projects undertaken recently. looks like I'll be spending a lot of time here.
 
are the groovy lookin' dice gonna be incorporated into the case design? :p

keep up the shnazzy work!
 
Holy shit was that spendy stuff
yeah i looked at it as a way to chrome fan grills made from non conductive materials, holy crapola is it way to much money. For the prices they suggest i could just make it out of metal and have it chromed!
 
bonzanego said:
yeah i looked at it as a way to chrome fan grills made from non conductive materials, holy crapola is it way to much money. For the prices they suggest i could just make it out of metal and have it chromed!

if it makes you feel any better, it looks nothing like chrome up close. :D It's tough to find a chromer that can do plastics and stuff. My chromer says he knows a guy that'll do plastic stuff but i'd have to wait at least a month or more to get my stuff back. Lame.
 
ShadyModGod said:
what makes chrome so expensive??

/off topic

Chrome plating on steel is cheap. If you have to get a layer of copper on, that makes things more expensive so it helps to have an already smooth surface for them to work with. Aluminum is spendy because you gotta go about it in a diff way. Plastic is entirely different and few places do it that I know of.

Chrome paint is just another gimmick like colorshifting or candy paints. The prices are outrageous. It costs as much to paint as it would to actually chrome plate and entire car. :D
 
Looks like a fantastic project. I love hot rods so I'll be watching this thread. I realize that most of your grills don't really go with the theme of this case but I'm going to laugh my ass off if you don't throw at least one in there somewhere. :D
 
Qtip42 said:
if it makes you feel any better, it looks nothing like chrome up close. :D It's tough to find a chromer that can do plastics and stuff. My chromer says he knows a guy that'll do plastic stuff but i'd have to wait at least a month or more to get my stuff back. Lame.


Ok crim says I'm wrong......he says it looks exactly like chrome.....because of this, I am wrong :D
 
Love it. But i think you should rename it. That name to me just does not really go with it.
 
Love it. But i think you should rename it. That name to me just does not really go with it.

The name is so for the following reasons; Satan's- The hell fire cutout on the case and the painting of writhing faces/souls/demons that will be put on those flames. Deuce- for Ford duece (1932) coupe, the most commonly recognized car that shares characteristics with the shape of this case, but also defines a whole generation of cars from many different auto makers from the 1930's.

Qtip42: Yeah that chrome stuff does work, but oh at what a cost. The most common ways to chrome plastic outside that companies goods involves, more or less the following...
1: a vacume chamber and releasing atomized nickle disolved in a toxic chemical solution into said chamber to then deposit onto parts. This was how plastic was chromed for parts made in the 60's like the instrument bezel on a 1966 Mustang. Really not somthing you can do in the garage.
2: A heat xfer process that uses a thermoform plastic sheeting covered in "chrome". A vacume/heat is applied to form the sheeting over the part and adhere the "chrome" to the plastic. Notorious for peeling/chipping off too easily.
3: Spraying the part with conductive spray paint made from real silver flakes/particles in suspension, then actually chroming it in a similar fashion as metal parts.
The real silver spray paint for this is 30-50$ a can though.
We can go into space but damn plastic is hard to chrome!!!

Aluminum is tricky because it oxidizes as soon as it hits the air so you have to dip it in a solution to strip that off and also deposit a layer of zinc at the same time so the specialized copper bath will strip off the zinc and deposit copper on true bare aluminum. A lot of extra steps, special solutions and a lot of extra money.

here is one of the flame panels about 80% done. You will notice some drawing on it, I am trying to decide if I want to alter that middle flame ffrom the original layout.
IMG_2964.jpg
 
The flames look like they could be randomized a bit--the pattern looks like it was repeated--otherwise...some shnazzy metal cutting!
 
Can slot load ROM's be mounted on their side?
That might be a nice creative way to do it. Slide the CD's between the billet grill into the ROM. Use windows to eject, or a coin to push the button? Just shooting that out there.
 
Very cool. My vote is to lose the part on the middle flame that is colored in black. Keep up the good work.
 
normally Im against chopping up nice cases like Lian Li's, but for you, I make an exception.
 
warmace said:
Can slot load ROM's be mounted on their side?
That might be a nice creative way to do it. Slide the CD's between the billet grill into the ROM. Use windows to eject, or a coin to push the button? Just shooting that out there.
or wire it up with a remote eject switch...with the buttom mounted..say..on the bottom of the case?
 
:eek::cool::eek:
I like it!

The idea of using a sideways slot-load drive seems very cool.

I think this is one of the few recent casemods that I'll actually follow. When compared to something like the Doom 3 Mars City case, this is relatively subtle, but that's a good thing here. Keep it up!
 
I dig on all the ideas for slot load cd-rw's and such but this case wont have a pc of mine in it. The finished case with lighting and fans is all thats going in it since it is begin given away as a prize in a contest from controlled-insanity.com. The winner will have to mod in such things if they want them. Would be pretty sweet to have a cd just pop out from between the grill bars. Gives new meaning to keyless entry.


I fit the flange on the bezel that leaves room for the drives behind the grill and I also started skim coating the bezel to get it ready for sanding and fitting. no time for pictures today, i will try and find time to do some tomorrow.
I think this is one of the few recent casemods that I'll actually follow. When compared to something like the Doom 3 Mars City case, this is relatively subtle, but that's a good thing here. Keep it up!
Since this case is a prize in a contest it needs to be somewhat practical and easy to maintain. I don't think it should be overly complex for the potential owner, who just wants to put thier pc hardware in it and rock. This mod is about improving the bare Lian-Li look with just enough paint and holes to blow a stock lian-li away while still accepting any hardware and no specialized mounting. I like scratch built cases, but I think they can get overly complex in hardware placement which can lead to problems replacing a piece of hardware that fails down the road. I try to avoid making the hardware blend into the mod so if your painted, heavily modifed cd-rw drive dies you dont have to stick a beige one in the hole to replace it.... Lian-Li has spent many dollars and hours designing the interior chassis of this and other cases, throwing it out the window in favor of somthing built around a specific motherboard it not always a good idea for every pc user. The volatile nature of pc hardware's lifespan does place some legitimate limitations on the finished case. If the mod is going to be usable 2 years from now with hardware made 2 years from now it is a good idea to leave some flexibility in the finished piece, or else it goes from being working sculpture to collecting dust as an attractive empty box in a closet/basement/attic.
 
is the case gonna be a prize for the april LPANE lanparty that you guys (bonzai-mods.com) are sponsoring?

if so i pray that ill win this case there

if not whats the contest gonna be?
 
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