ReinV3nT3d Case mod (Build log).

[Ickyness]

Here's a build log of a recent computer that I built about 4 months ago. I built it for a friend, and we decided to give it a face lift about two weeks ago.

The whole project took about two weeks, but it was our very first painting job. In fact, it was our first time to ever really use spray paints.

Anyway, pictures and comments below!

Hardware:
AMD FX8120
Asus Crosshair V mobo
Corsair H100 CPU cooler
Radeon 7770 2GBDDR5 GPU
Thermaltake 850W PSU


Comments are at the bottom of each picture.



http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/193170_510191542325880_395638338_o.jpg
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/622764_510191642325870_1353028124_o.jpg

Everything was done in my shop. We used all the proper safety gear/Star Wars cosplay items.



http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/57481_510189998992701_225574716_o.jpg

At first, we just stripped the case of all the parts and cleaned every thing really well.



http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/p206x206/10509_510190135659354_1799627523_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/133050_510190348992666_281001655_o.jpg

Then we got each of the pieces primed. We were using self etching primer.

It's worth noting (but I don't have pictures) that we had to tape off the top plastic piece at this time. We didn't want the whole thing to be red, so we taped off what we didn't want red and left it black under the tape. We later went back and taped off that top piece again to paint the white on it after we had painted it red.



http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/200917_510191688992532_560697234_o.jpg

After we'd given the primer enough time to dry (about 30-45 minutes), we put the first coat of paint on all the parts.



http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/456242_510190572325977_1523817899_o.jpg

And this is those same parts about 4 coats later. I think we did 4 or 5 coats altogether. Now, the piece that's in the upper left corner of this image is the one that I was talking about a few comments up. It's the top piece that needed to be taped off. You can't see it, but the tape we used was a bright green color. It's the Frog brand painter's tape.



http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/133224_510193562325678_1599796018_o.jpg

We also painted all the mesh pieces that came with the case. At first, we actually tried to get them to be chrome. That was a huge failure. We eventually repainted them white, and I think it turned out better for that.



http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/621253_510191932325841_34541458_o.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/53322_510191982325836_1492136731_o.jpg

We came out to check on the parts at one point, and much to our horror, the paint had begun to crackle for some reason. I think perhaps it was much too humid of a day to be out painting a metal case. The odd part is that it was only this one side panel that did it. Every thing else looked fine. We're still unsure of how or why that happened, but it was the greatest thing that could have happened to that side panel...



http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/191450_510192362325798_23906859_o.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/621274_510192858992415_182516301_o.jpg

We took to the sander. Sanding was stupidly difficult at this point, and hours of work only got me so much progress. We had to try something different.



http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/78025_510193682325666_1505187062_o.jpg
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/615362_510193038992397_1626316086_o.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/615557_510194258992275_7764212_o.jpg

We ended up buying some he-man strength paint thinner and scrubbing it into the panel and let it sit for about 20 minutes. We started pressure washing 4 to 5 coats of paint off after that. Then I applied another round of paint thinner and sanded the whole panel down to the bare metal. It was beautiful. I used 600 grit sand paper because that's the finest grade we could find near us. But it went beautifully.



http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/247299_510559648955736_1065147916_n.jpg

After that, we just let everything dry and assembled it. You can see how beautiful the side panel turned out.



Additionally, you may have also noticed that there's a white sideways "V" on the right side panel of the case. After that panel was painted and had at least 5 days to dry, we taped it off and painted the white strip on it with the same white paint we used on all the mesh pieces. That's how we did that.

 

[crowz9]

That's awesome, mate!
You can actually paint some object. A skull for example(that is the most basic). Like they do with XBOX consoles.

 

[p4nz3rm4d]

awesome build!

 

[hellfire24]

cool.

 

[Lutfij]

nice work by making this build log icky! hey mind sharing the tools of your trade to get this mod/build the way it is now ? would need to be sanding my case for my vintage case mod project

 

[babayface22]

Awesome job! It look really good!

 

[Ickyness]

nice work by making this build log icky! hey mind sharing the tools of your trade to get this mod/build the way it is now ? would need to be sanding my case for my vintage case mod project

Heck yeah man.

I just have a plain old sander. You can buy whatever grit paper you need and cut it to fit the sander. I've heard that having a mouse sander is much easier to get corners and smaller precision spots. I'll probably purchase one soon myself.

That's about the only real tool I used in the paint job. I used some super he-man strength paint thinner to help remove the factory level of black paint, and just used regular high gloss spray paint to paint once I had it primed.

The key to sanding seems to be to use a rougher sand paper to geth through the paint to the metal, then once you are down to about 95% metal, with just small patches of paint here and there, you wet-sand it with a fine grit sand paper until the whole surface is equally smooth. It'll shine more the more you sand it until it gets to a point where it feels like the sand paper is no longer doing any good.

 

[Lutfij]

thanks for the helpful tips - yeap thinking of going smart and getting a mouse sander.

Hey another thing - you've named this case - Reinvented huh? then why not have it as Project *title* build log

and later If you have all those parts under real watercooling - there's a watercooling build log thread in the watercooling section.

* might want to jump over to my build logs...in my sig and give me some feedback

 

[Ickyness]

I'll do that sometime.