The Real Proyect Mirror Finish

[Tordek]

I had some hosting problems with my pics before. Now they are solved so lets start with the proyect...

 

[Tordek]

Today i'll just present the working scenario and some background on it.

The Victim:

This cheapo case here is simply the best you can get where i live. (See my location, its bellow my nick on the left).
I plan to give it a sharp glossy dark green finish. One that would reflect me on it...

You should also notice that the top part is not dissembled from the case, well it can't be, it seems to be a whole structure rather than connected to it.
And also that big round hole on top of it, thats my new exhaust. (I didn't have time to take the picture before I made the hole... )

I also plan to put two black handles on either side of the top part...

These are the Tools:

These are my tools of the game. The list is:

- Krylon Rust Tough Prime (Galvanized Primer).
- Krylon Acrylic Clear Coat.
- ACE Rust Stopper Acrylic Enamel (Dark Green)
- 3M Super Duty Rubbing Compound.
- Wet/Dry Sanding paper (220, 320, 400, 600,1000,1500)

Again from where i live (see bellow my nick) this is the best i could get. Really. And it didn't came cheap either, $29.59 in all.

As you may have noticed, my bezel comes with a light gray thingy that came off. I'm accepting any sort of suggestions on what to do to it. My idea is just to paint it the same color as everything else but if you differ, please let me know.

Thats all for today folks.

Tomorrow i'll start sanding everything and maybe post some pics as i go.

 

[Xeese]

Leave the contrasting thing on the bezel silver until you get farther along in the project. if you decide to paint or vinyl dye it - no worries later. But if you did something and decided you liked it better silver, very hard to get it back =)

Overall not a bad looking case shell for a pre mod.

 

[kill_emma]

the case wasnt a premod, you can tell by the perfuration on the side at the window cut, he did the modding himself.

 

[Tordek]

Yes this wasn't a premod, the blowhole was cut with a rotary tool.

The guy who I paid for to do this didn't understand what CENTER means rolleyes: ) and before i could stop him, he started drilling.
Hence the mark. No biggie actually, since ill sand it off anyway...

I'll start with it this weekend. I am starting exams the next week ( ) and i probably should concentrate on that.... but what better relaxation therapy than sanding ...

 

[Morphes]

this is gonna be a strange worklog since its just a paint job... you plan on doing anything else? LCD or sumthin special about it? anyway good luck with ur mod

 

[Tordek]

Besides adding two handles on the top, nutin more to the case.

Afterwards if this goes well ill do the same with my monitor and keyboard though... But that is a long while from now...

 

[jpnelson83]

I did a similar paint job on my computer except w/out the enameled finish. I used hunter green Krylon and then my bezel was such that I could do this.

Don't mind the blotches and scratces, I was a tad bit hasty, first mod and all that. Anyway it came out pretty good and the colors really compliment each other. For the gray I used some medium gray model paint I had lying arround and airbrushed that on. Then I covered the entire thing with some Krylon satin clear coat. The lighter gray areas is where I didn't apply the clear coat (the clear coat made the paint a tad bit darker). I'd paint the drives to match but I'm going to be getting another case to put those in and will be painting them black with some vinyl dye then.

 

[grjr]

dude I got the same case as you (well the older version)

 

[Tordek]

dude I got the same case as you (well the older version)

How much did you pay for it?

How is it holding so far?

I just started sanding today. The bezel is all done. i need to sand the left, right and top panel now.

This is my first mod and lemme tell you, this sanding thing is really messy, especially being that i am removing black paint... But it was kinda fun too. I took a lot of attention to detail, when i finish ill show the sanding results to show what i mean by detail...

 

[8Complex]

Ironically I have that same case as those two pics above sitting a few feet from me. IIRC, I paid $32 for it with a power supply at a local computer sale event (like this computer sale meet that is hosted at a college once a month). Mine is about half painted so far... flat black for me. As for it holding up... I've been sitting on it for about 2 years now, so I think it's fairly decent.

 

[jpnelson83]

LMAO. I paid like 45 for it. I came stock w/ a 250w PSU and I had it upgraded to a 300w. It's held up great so far. I riveted another hard drive cage to the bottom and cut a blowhole in the top and there's another fan blowing on my PCI slots. When I get my new case I'm gonna put this one on the back burner and see if I can do something else with it. I was thinking of a WOT theme and then making it a lan box or something. I dunno. It's a good case though, I'd buy another if I got the chance.

Wait, whats IIRC mean?

 

[Techx]

Originally posted by jpnelson83


Wait, whats IIRC mean?

If I Recall Correctly

 

[1337m0dd3r]

can't wait to see the finished product on this one

 

[Tordek]

Ok, I need some ideas of what to do with this people.

This is the front bezel:

As you can see, there is a hole right smack in the bottom middle of it. Something i hadn't considered before. The frontal usb ports are supposed to be there....

This is the hole in a close-up:

And a close-up of the hole from the back:

My question is:

What would you do to it, considering i want that mirror finish on the whole case?

I thought the following options:

- Leave it as it is (i'm not really fond of this one but it might not look as bad as it sounds)
- Cover it up with something.
Be covering i mean really covering... putting something that would make it seems as if there never was a hole in there...
- Put some gizmo on it. (maybe a led or something, im game for anything that would make it look good...)


Any suggestions?


Thanks

EDIT: If you notice, its already sanded so i did make some progress this weekend anyway....

 

[jpnelson83]

BONDO!!!! That or make a little door thingie to cover the USB ports. Make it so that when you push it, it retracts up into the case. I'm just kidding. Serioulsy though I'd bondo it then you can sand that to match the contours of the bezel and no one but you and us will ever know that there was supposed to be something there.

 

[Shinare]

Originally posted by jpnelson83
BONDO!!!! That or make a little door thingie to cover the USB ports. Make it so that when you push it, it retracts up into the case. I'm just kidding. Serioulsy though I'd bondo it then you can sand that to match the contours of the bezel and no one but you and us will ever know that there was supposed to be something there.

Agreed, Bondo is the way to go. Just putty it in there. Dont worry about too smooth of a surface while applying as youwill be sanding it down later by hand for that oooo so smooooth finish.

 

[Tordek]

Ok guys, you are going to love this.

I was doing some search for bondo on a local hardware store and guess what i found:

This seems to be a local bondo knockoff but the guy said it was high quality... Hope it holds.

I also decided what to do with the gray part of my bezel. I'm going to paint it black...
I am not showing much creativity here but since my drives are going to be black its better to keep the colors matched...

These are some more tools i add to the ones i already had:

Keep tuned to see how do I fare with this "BANDO" thing...

 

[Grammar Nazi]

bahahahaha what a blatant ripoff brand

 

[Tordek]

Ok, here it goes:

After a complete afternoon of "Bondoing" and sanding, this is how my working enviroment looked like:

Pretty much a warzone but it was finished... all the initial sanding has been done. Plus i covered the front usb port hole with Bondo:

The finish on the hole is perfect, you can't notice its there. (well the color kinda gives it away though... )

Sanded it to the bone... (or aluminum...) It was hard, It took me about 10 hours to finish it all...

BTW, i used the a cross sanding technique (i came up with the name myself ) What I did was to wet sand everything in one direction (up/down) with 220 grit and then sand it again in a perpendicular direction (left/right) with 320 grit....

This left the surface pretty smooth... Though you could notice the sanding scratches...


Thats all for today, this weekend I'll primer the whole thing... (hopefully... I have a c language programming project for monday...)

Keep tuned for more updates...

 

[222 1/3 evil]

Looks tight to me so far.... good luck on the rest of it...

/me dodges snow storm...

 

[dave326]

I was hoping it was going to be polished aluminum....I've only seen one of those (the cubit) and it was cool.

 

[Grammar Nazi]

just for kicks, you should reassemble the case when it looks like that for the ultimate ghetto mod

 

[Tordek]

I was hoping it was going to be polished aluminum....I've only seen one of those (the cubit) and it was cool.

Sorry its a paint job. If you wanna see my goal, check out:

http://linear1.org

he has the mirror finish i'm aiming for...

just for kicks, you should reassemble the case when it looks like that for the ultimate ghetto mod

My thoughts exactly... This weekend ill assemble it and take some pics...

 

[linear]

You've definitely got the right idea.

Like I point out in the article, The key to the mirror finish is flatness. I'd say you have a great start on that.

From here out it will take a lot of patience--you need to sand every coat flat before applying the next one. For the primer that's a breeze, it usually only needs to set up for an hour or so before you can sand it. But let your color coats and clear coats cure a couple days before you go after them. You'd be surprised at the difference in how wet sanding goes on a piece that's cured two days versus one that's cured three days.

jpnelson83, grjr, 8Complex, I've got about six of of those Apex supercases. That's what I painted in my articles.
http://linear1.org/gm/archives/00000156.php
http://linear1.org/gm/archives/00000157.php

 

[Tordek]

Hey i just noticed my Rubbing Compound says its machine applied.... What would happen if i apply it by hand?

It says Super Duty Rubbing Compound Heavy Cut

any ideas?

 

[linear]

That should work fine. IT may have less cut that some other types, but you'll get the fifnsh eventually.

 

[Tordek]

This is the results of the first primer coat.

The background is my own pool and jungle theme

And this is the top part.

This is first problem, see this uneveness here... Any ideas of what to do with it?

Its the part where i bondoed... (Guess the guys that said it wasnt going to work were right.. )

My ideas where to put a sticker or something there once the whoe paintjob is done...

 

[fLiPaChu]

wow, i was gonna say that guy just did an AMAZING job doing that case and was thinking i've gotta leave him a message about the paint job i want to do... and i looked at the reply-poster and it was linear himself haha. linear that was an aluminum/metal case right?

flip

edit: i'm still confused on how the gloss just "emerges" after the rubbing compound? also, would there be a difference in technique if applying to an anodized aluminum case?

 

[Morphes]

maybe sand it and continue? i dont really see the problem here, might just be me but whats really wrong? i see that one part is grey and one is shiney but that might just be reflection, kinda hard to understand in the pics

 

[Xeese]

Give the area you filled in with the Bando another thin layer, It just needs built up a little more. The primer helps show the height issues for you.

 

[heyheyhey]

Originally posted by chinoquezada
This is first problem, see this uneveness here... Any ideas of what to do with it?

Sand it with 1000-2000 grit sandpaper and primer again

You should do that anyway for a true mirror finish

 

[linear]

Originally posted by fLiPaChu
haha. linear that was an aluminum/metal case right?

flip

edit: i'm still confused on how the gloss just "emerges" after the rubbing compound? also, would there be a difference in technique if applying to an anodized aluminum case?

Nope, it was a beige steel case originally.

As for the gloss emerging, let's look at it like this:
you start your finish sanding by flattening out all the orange peel with 400 grit. That leaves scratches. So you step up to 600 grit and sand at an angle ot the scratches. That removes the 400 grit scratches and replaces them with 600. You sand with 1000, 1500, and 2000 if you can find some, and each time the tiny scratches get smoothed out by tinier ones at an angle to the originals. As you go higher in grit there's less and less "cut" and more and more polishing action.

By 1500 grit, you're looking at a hazy mirror. When you make the jump to compound, you're pretty much trying to remove the haze in the mirror. If you get that 3M fine cut stuff, it's really fine, has almost no cut and is equivalent to several thousand grit sanding (I don't know precisely). Then the hand glaze, that tends to fill in and even out those tiny tiny scratches left by the rubbing compound. So it's a process of making hte scratches more and more fine, and the surface gets a higher and higher polish.

As for painting anodized aluminum, I've never tried it (I know geezer did one though). Any differences in process would be at the stage before you apply primer. If you want the mirror look, you have to remove the brushed texture before you even shoot your first primer coat. Sanding that off will also remove the anodized layer, which is only a few thousandths thick. I'd be using a reandom orbital sander at that point, I've about had it with hand sanding at this point (except finish sanding, which has so much touch/feel to it, you just about have to do it by hand).

Originally posted by Xeese
Give the area you filled in with the Bando another thin layer, It just needs built up a little more. The primer helps show the height issues for you.

I pretty much agree with that 100%. Don't shoot any color coat till your primer coats are flat.