Like the stupid TV show, Cold Case, bringing a case (mod) back from the dead, with many (obvious and inevitable) twists and turns

Ok, I'm bored of trying to make the Cold Case connection... basically as many of you know I started on a simple, yet extensive, case mod of my Chieftec Mesh Bigtower including a full strip-down, de-rivet, and some bodywork including aluminium mesh and body filler, orbital sanding, windows cutting, *full* paint job of entire case including plastic parts, vinyl masked painted graphics, etc etc...

In theory, there's not much left to do... complete the side panels and the front bezel/door and other plastic parts, which is mostly clear-coating and mounting the window...

So, here's a mini update on the left panel. Here's my panel, which has been cut, sanded, had bodywork to add material around the handle part. Maybe you forgot or didn't see this the first time, so here is what happened...

Cut the window holes with a jigsaw:




Used fibreglass, aluminium mesh and bodyfiller to create material around the door handle, and sanded flat:










Prime, painted:

So, I got a piece of polycarbonate sheet (Lexan) that was almost the right size, and just needed a bit trimmed off for internal clearance of the hard drive rails, and a bit off round the handle, bit off one of the edges so it wasn't too tall...




I marked out the panel, measuring and re-measuring, marking and remarking, double-checking it many times and then finally putting layers of tape down along the cut lines, also to protect the surface during cutting a bit more than the single peelable sheet that the Lexan comes with...






A lot of people ask, "how do you cut Plexiglass?" Well, it's actually really really easy, all you need is some jigsaw blades made for sheet metal, and they will cut acrylic and polycarbonate sheet (Plexiglass/Perspex/Lexan) with ease. On my packet of blades it even says plastic on the front:




Then I use my fixed speed 300W cheapo jigsaw and cut away. On the straight sections I could just cut continuously, moving forward slowly like a snail and the cut was very clean and easy. For the curved section it was easy to "ride" the trigger to effectively get a lower speed - this was easier to control when trying to turn sharply.




And, so hey presto, here's the window cut to size, showing how it will fit inside the panel:




At the back of my case, there are two 120mm exhausts, one in the "normal" position above the I/O plate, and this is over to one side with a Swiftech RadBox bolted to it on the outside, so it meant I had to cut out a section for extra clearance of the rubber washer and rubber seals around this area. Piece of cake with the jigsaw. Scuffed up the paintwork a bit, but really, I'm not bothered with paint damage on the rear lip of the panel, certainly not bothered enough to respray it lol.




I think I'm going to wash the panels and parts now so that they are ready to clearcoat tomorrow...

In case you are wondering what the other panel looks like, here's a reminder:




Lots of clearcoating to do, you should see the amount of parts...






That's like half of the parts

Nice. So after how many years you might actually finish it this year.

Took the words out of my mouth! I remember you started this whole project about the same time I started my Armor modding... about two years ago!!!

Seriously though, it's looking good. It's about time you got back on this thing!

So how many years until you finally finish it? Someone cut his internet cord

Yeah... 2 years ago Ryan lol... been running with no panels for that long... kinda good because I've been constantly messing with the guts of my main rig during this time for upgrades and RMAs...

I'm looking forward to having it completed... I'm moving house at the end of August so it needs to be done before then, I'm not moving the panels and parts separately again

Nice job just one question. When you spray paint those and everything can the paint come off easily after you painted it, like if the case gets scratched or something?

btw I can see in that last pic you must not care about the bathroom because there is paint on the sink lol But then again your moving so it must not matter

It's paint dust/overspray, the paint dries in the air and becomes dust... those pics are from two years ago when I did the bulk of the work and turned by bathroom into a workshop / paint-booth

After about 3-4 coats of primer, 7+ coats of colour, 5+ coats of clear, it doesn't flake off, but you can scratch it pretty easy with a screwdriver or like, the metal hose clips I use are quite effective at scratching it up lol...

If I do another full case, I'll almost certainly get the metals parts powder-coated by a paint shop, and the rest painted with auto paint from a paint gun... rattle-cans was a test of patience for the size of the case and number of parts... if you've ever used rattle-cans on a car, you'll know how it can take forever when you do more than just a small patch or panel

So, last night I thought it would be a good idea to wash all the parts to be dirt and grease free, and thought, "hey, I could clearcoat everything now, and leave the extractor fan on overnight to take all the paint fumes out instead of having a toxic lounge/kitchen during the day"


Woke up and everything seemed cured with just a hint of cellulose in the air (unlike last night when I needed a paint mask to watch TV lol)

When I first got the case, the front panel was damaged on the top right corner, so I got a replacement shipped to me, this is handy for spare parts as there are about 30-50 parts in the front panel/door... Here you can see the original panel/door on the left (supposedly black/silver) and my painted panel/door on the right (actually black):








The USB/audio/Firewire ports replaced:




The original panel has a space for a 92mm fan, but I think this is used in other models with different vents on the front instead of the mesh. I cut out a hole for the fan, you can see where the screw holes are, already molded in the bezel.






Because the mesh and foam/sponge sheet are very close to the fan, it would mean the fan hub and blades would be pressing against the foam sheet, so I cut out a hole to allow the fan to fit without clearance issues.








So, with the mesh in place, this is what it looks like now.






With the flash on, you can get a sort of x-ray view.




And so, a before-and-after view of the lower section of the front panel, along with the drive bay covers.




I guess next is mounting fans (5 of them) to the right side panel...

Excellent paint job man!! So everything is going black right?

Yeah... the only part that isn't black is the right panel design, and the hard drive rails (red):

It'll look badass with the red & black theme

btw how come you only got one fan on your rad

it's an old picture during a leak-test... now I have an EVGA 680i A1 and 3 fans on the PA120.3... it's the first pic I found with the hard drive rails...

ok, mini update... I did everything I can without needing to power down my computer since I'm using it... so I put the floppy drive back together (and realised I might have lost the LED light spreader... I probably have it somewhere... it's so small though lol)




I chose to use AC Ryan mesh fan filters for the MCR220 radiator intake fans, to reduce the amount of fluff/dust sucked into the radiator...






Then, I took the protective backing off the polycarbonate window, laid down some high strength contact adhesive glue, and then went to find all my heaviest text books...

I knew they'd be useful for something!






Textbooks alone didn't seem heavy enough, so I put a couple toolboxes on top... I don't want the window to fall off the panel lol...

Looks like tomorrow I'm going to power down my main rig and do a few outstanding things like trim down the radiator duct so that the panel/window can fit, and add some carrying handles because I seriously think this rig is approaching the weight of a full-grown person!

I feel you man, my rig is as heavy as hell

btw I'm glad to see you found use for those textbooks, they look new it's as if they were never used nor opened

Pretty swanky nrg...


I'm (as well as many others are) looking forward to seeing the completed build, are you gonna make another video?

If you do you ought to do a full 360 degree view, it'd be nice to see it all together from numerous angles...

However please don't blast music while showing it off...
Cookie to anyone who knows what I'm referring to

I probably will make a video... I think it will kinda deserve one after all the work I've put in lol... if I have music... it will be epic

Yeah but in the video make sure to throw in some modeling to promote your case mod lol

Dude pretty awesome. One of these days when I have the money to invest I will probably get into some case modding my self. Nice paint job and the setup looks very neat and clean.

Ok, so I wanted to get all the panels done today, and went out to Maplin to get a few bits and bobs like HDD 5.25" adapters, and some 2.5mm heatshrink that I seem to have run out of (for wiring)

First of all I test-fitted the right side panel:








All good there, no clearance issues with the two 120mm fans for the radiator duct, nor for the three 92mm fans for the 8x HDD cage.

Next I tried the left side panel:






We have a word in the UK that was very apt at this point of test-fitting: bollocks. In this context, it sums up the following: "I recognise the problem of the panel not closing, and also that the reason for it is because the left edge of the Lexan window is pressing up against the 15mm lip at the rear of the chassis."

I had measured this, and there is a gap along the left edge of the window on the inside of the panel, but because I wasn't super-accurate at placing the window when attaching it, the window was about 2mm too far back! Bollocks indeed.

Hence my visit to Maplin, to buy a rotary tool (aka "Dremel")... I didn't fancy ripping the window off the panel, it would almost certainly end in disaster, so I used cutting wheels to cut through the 4mm polycarbonate... managed it with 3 of the thin cutting wheels, they're pretty fragile even though I was creeping along at snail's pace! Maybe I should have used one of the heavy duty cutting wheels, but meh, it's done.

Turns out I don't have to trim the radiator duct after all! Bonus! Because that would have been a ball-ache.

With both panels sorted, it was time to make sure the front bezel/door fit properly too.








Pretty much done with the side and front panels then. Here's the door open:




And here's the left panel, closed fully this time:






I'm going to remove the top panel and add some solid metal handles with panel washers and M5 screws. I'll probably leave that until tomorrow. First, I'm going to tackle running wiring around the case for the fans, creating groups of fans (e.g. the 3 fans on the PA120.3 -> group) and bring the groups up to a common location around the drive bay area, in preparation for my upcoming monster 36W max per channel fan controller (either 5, 6, or 7 channels)

Seems like only minor things left to do, but I know wiring will take a while, as will drilling the handle holes (the case is made out of the hardest steel I've ever worked with lol)

That made me laugh, alot!

Nice to see it finally nearing completion!

Where'd you get the side panel done btw?

In my bathroom workshop, then in my bathroom paint booth... then finally in my kitchen paint booth

Oh and then in my kitchen workshop for the Lexan panel and extra cutting

Here's the REALLY old worklog thread: http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.p...amp;hl=chieftec

Unfortunately a lot of it is missing due to a server crash... I will probably redo the whole worklog as I think I still have all the pics

I thought that was photoshopped

nope... the clue is the pink low-tack tape used as a common reference right angle for the multiple paint masks (vinyl stencils) so that the colours line up with each other

Everything looks really sweet! ... except for the side panel with your avatar on it. It just seems "tacked on", whereas everything else is fluid. I know your avatar has a red background, but it just doesn't look as good on the case. I know it'd be tougher to do, but I think it would have looked better if you had a gradient of red-to-black emanating from the center (the stick figure), instead of just a flat red square.

Or another idea would be to use a dremel and cut the stick figure out (the black part), then just have the yellow flames painted on, but no red background. You can add a faint red or white LED in the inside to give it a little glow.

I dunno...just sticks out way too much the way it is now, and not in a good way, IMO.

EDIT: Also, did you consider spray painting the fan grills on the side panel black? Just curious why you chose to leave those untouched when you have black meshes on the top two fans on the side panel.

Lol, the design isn't going to change...

I have chrome fan grills wherever there is a fan grill... I thought about maybe getting black ones... I have a feeling spray paint wouldn't stay on them for very long...

Spray paint works just fine on fan grills:

Click to view attachment

Although I don't have watercooling anymore, that lasted me three years and never scraped or flaked off or anything. It may be hard to tell from the pic, but all the fan grills on top were spray painted silver.

THough I would tend to agree with you on the fan grills I think your being too critical of his avatar. I think it looks awesome keep it up hardnrg.

Took the words outta my mouth! I personally dig the avatar like that!