Intel Mack Truck Mod

[booman]

I have a friend at Church that works at Intel and his department has been commisioned to build a computer mod for Intel & Macintosh. So they bought two RCA Mack Semi's and started brainstorming. I've been asked to do the painting and some work to mount an LCD screen on the back of the cab.
They are using a super small motherboard with a Core 2 Duo, laptop hard-drive, slim optical drive and an AC adapter.
Its going to be at a show on October 25 so I have 2 week to complete the painting and they are working on fitting & mounting all the hardware.


Some pictures of the final Mack Truck Mod






This is the original rendering they eBlock team put together for the contest. It won them a comission to build this mod.




This is the real Intel Orange County Choppers Mack Truck we are using as a model for the mod. We are doing our own decals but I'm coloring the whole thing black except for some blue highlights at the front.

[booman]

I had to begin by peeling off all the original decals from the model. This is an absolute pain because they are really stuck! I had to soak them with mineral spirits and then use a palette knife to peel it back. All the while I was trying not to scratch the plasic.




Finally done with the stickers, now I have to sand down each panel so the new paint will stick. I'm not using primer because when I paint the cab it will be way to hard to sand every little edge.





I am also mounting a 7inch LCD screen that slides out with automation. Its made for an automobile so you can put it in the stereo slot. Instead I'm constructing a storage area made of plexi-glass that will hide the LCD chassi and appear as if it was part of the cab. Here I'm scoring the plexi-glass to break it in even intervals.




Here is the LCD screen inside the storage component. It fits well but unfortunately I've started over from scratch. I got to impatient and starte epoxying the plastic before I cut it to fit.




finally the trailer is finished. I used a cool appliance laquer that come in spray cans. It has a fairly smooth finish and is pretty tough. Its almost impossible to do a perfect finish but it will do. If I had the time, I would do a clearcoat and polish it down until it was as shiny as a car.

[cloasters]

Wowsa, this is one heck of a project! I hope it turns out like you want it to!

[booman]

I'm only doing half and the rest of the guys are taking on the motherboard/hd/optical/power/wiring/etc so my job isn't too hard. The only thing that is pressuring is the time...

[Daniel ~]

You've gathered a crowd! So don't leave us hanging! Great project!

[Samuknow]

This is cool stuff. I love these high end mods.

[booman]

If it wasn't for Intel I wouldn't even have a chance to mod an LCD like this. Its pretty fun and takes a lot of planning.
I'm supposed to have it done by this weekend and I'll take a lot of pictures. Craig Corbin (Intel) said he took pics of the cab with all the mounted motherboard/hard-drive/optical in place, so I'll try to post those also.
He should have mounted USB ports on the side door and some speakers in the cab. They were planning to light all the leds that area exising on the cab, like the headlights. Then a power button will be mounted on the cab also.

[Daniel ~]

I wouldn't hope for much in the way of gas milage, but your going in style! ":O}

[booman]

The guys at Intel told me that their original plan was to have the RC still function but they tried it out and the wole rig didn't drive very well and one of them didn't even turn. So they gutted it and plan to put all the hardware inside.
Imagine a driving computer....
....some day...

[Daniel ~]

We are almost there now, except the computer is driving the car! ":O}

[booman]

Craig has the motherboard and parts all mounted an wired. I saw it in action last Friday. He's wired the leds from all the lights to their own powersupply. He did a great job getting everything to fit. He even glued the speakers to the sides of the cab.

Here I started to scrap off all the original stickers so I could start masking and sanding. I didn't care if the paintjob was scratched because I'm going to do some sanding.




All stickers removed and I used mineral spirits to get that nasty adhesive off. Nice shiny cab, but not for long. I threw the LCD on back to show where its going to sit. I also masked off anything that couldn't be removed like the speakers, headlights and power button.




Here is the first coating of blue before I do the fade. It really didn't matter which color I used first but blue seemed good after a lot of sanding. I didn't have time to use a primer so I coated it at least 5 times to make sure the red didn't come through.




This is part of the LCD mount I have fabricated from plexi-glass. I'm beveling the edges so it has smooth corners when the pieces are attached. I have filed so much this last week that I am getting sore.



I'm going to finish it tonight and take some more pictures. It won't be totally finished because the rest of the team has to put all the electronics back in and wire it up. Wait till you see where I put the DVD drive...

[Daniel ~]

This is fun! ":O}

[booman]

After a lot of painful painting I got it finished. I'm pretty happy with the end result but with more time I could have made it better. I didn't have a chance to clear coat it but the black laquer finish is pretty glossy by itsself.




I did the fade by painting several coats of black first, then when it dried I did coats of blue and just sprayed back and forth without going past the fade area. Spray paint naturally fades so I just took advantage of the spray. For some reason the fade area has a matte appearance. Maybe something to do with the difference between laquer and enamel.

[Daniel ~]

So what happens to her now? ":O}

[booman]

I didn't have a chance to take any pictures of the accessories on it but the guys at Intel will stick on all the decals and assemble the motherboard/hdrive/leds/LCD and get it fully functional. Then its finished.
I can't believe I did all that work in 11 days. That is the fastest mod I have ever done, with help of course. Just don't ask my wife how she felt about me working on it every night.

Then on the 25th, Intel is having a private internal event for their new Mfg. Facility in Chandler Arizona. Members of the press, media, and local government officials are going to be there and the computer will be on display. The guys at Intel will send me pictures of the computer on display and I'll post em here.

[Daniel ~]

That's great! Talk about a nice gallery to show your work in! A lot of people will get the chance to see your teams work up close and personal! Congrats! ":O}

[booman]

here are some of the decals that they came up with for the trailer

[booman]

This is the eBlock team before I painted the cab. Craig was showing me how he put the hardware inside. Thats me way on the right in the gray shirt and Michael popping his head in. Cliff is taking the pictures.




Here is a close-up of the motherboard and power supplies. Craig did a great job mounting that motherboard without a mobo tray. He ended up using a lot of JB weld for the mounts. You can also see the two other power supplies he added to operat the leds and the DVD optical drive.



Here is Craig (left) and John (right).

[booman]

Installing Vista audio drivers on the 7" LCD that lifts out automaticly.
All the hardware is fully functional and all it needs now is decals.




An external keyboard is used for accessing the Operating System. The LCD screen is also a tablet so a mouse isn't necessary but the motherboard has PS2 ports incase the user perfers it.




Michael cutting out the decals.

[Daniel ~]

"Keep on tuck'en mama, truck'en my blues away!" ":O}