fixing up an old case...

[booman]

I just finished modding an old Gateway case. Made a "gear" window by cutting it out with a jigsaw and filing down the edges. Painted a cool glossy rust color with hammered finish and painted the old face black.
It turned out pretty good for my first mod. The plexi-glass fits perfectly between the door and the case so I don't have to glue it in, and can remove it at any time. Then I installed all my second-hand parts- cd rom, hard-drive, floppy, powersupply, and cables. Got the new motherboard.....
and trouble....
I didn't check the sizes of the motherboard and the case. the MOBO is too big for the mid-size case. I've learned my lesson, allways measure the case and check the MOBO sizes. If the board just had 3 PCI slots instead of 5, I would have been ok.
But, as luck would have it, I had just received another old Gateway case from work that is a full-size, and BINGO!! it almost fits perfectly.
The only thing is that those cases have pre-cut In/Out panels. So I had to cut a rectangle out of the case to fit the IN/OUT panel that came with the motherboard.
But I don't just want a regular Gateway case, so I am modding this one also.
I'm cutting out a window tonight. I'll add some pics tomarrow to show you guys.

[captaincurran]

how bout some pics of the case that was too small?

[Favu]

Can we get some pix of your first case mod also?

*EDIT* Snap captaincurran !!

[booman]

that was quick! I just wrote that about 5 minutes ago....
Yeah I'll attach some pics of the old case tomarrow.
I'll have to remind myself.

[captaincurran]

snap?

yeah, the only thing to go faster than warp speed is news of a mod

[Favu]

Snap!

Snap is also said when two people have the same idea

[captaincurran]

ah, yes the card game. i knew of that, but i had no idea what you were meaning by it. well they do say great minds think alike

[booman]

Got the pics up on the old case and the new case in progress
Case Mod

[kellamne]

Looking pretty good - did you say this was first mod? Is a nice colour.
You know you can put pictures in the forum?

[booman]

Thanks for the compliments...
Yep, that was my first mod. I don't know what to do with it because
I don't have the cash to spend on more hardware and I am modding
the new case. So I guess I may give it away or something.
I figured the forum has to link to a photo from a server and the
my.homewithgod.com server will not out-source pics, so I just made
my own html.

[Phat Pat]

Originally Posted by captaincurran

snap?

yeah, the only thing to go faster than warp speed is news of a mod

What about ludicrous speed?

THE'VE GONE PLAID!

Back on topic:

The original case looks really nice, and the new one seems to be off to a great start. I look forward to seeing it completed!

[booman]

Just added another coat of appliance epoxy spray paint to the chassi last night. I will probably add another coat tonight to make the coats even. I painted the face plate, but because it was windy I had to spray closer than 12 inches which caused some of it to drip. I'll probably sand it a little and coat it again.

[captaincurran]

i really like the copper colour. it's a good looking case. Are you doing the same coppery colour on the second case as well?

[booman]

Yup. I was at Home Depot looking at other colors of the same finish,
they have grey, silver, dark green, a darker copper, and black. They all look very cool, but since I allready have copper I figured I would just use that again.

[captaincurran]

what was the brand of the paint you used?

[booman]

Man, I'll have to check at home. Home Depot didn't have too many brands to choose from. If you go, just look for the ones with the "hammered" finish. they are all glossy (I think), and easy to use.

[Rhodesy@uk]

nice case for the first attempt." like it "

got to have a go at case modding once ive got every thing i need to o/c my cpu a lot more

must say though there is plenty of insperation coming from these forums

[Favu]

Dude! This is some awesome stuff!

[Staz]

That bottom case with the Gear window is a Micro tower, not a mid tower. It is for mATX motherboards.

[booman]

Thanks for the tip Staz. Now if I decide to keep the case I know what size of motherboard to get. I ordered a regular ATX style thinking it would fit in that case. But it didn't. It fit well in the new case though.

On another note:
does anyone know about any complications with painting the inside of chassi? I just painted one with an epoxy appliance paint that is non-scratchable. And is there any issues with coloring the powersupply and/or drives to match the chassi. I know that some of those get pretty hot and I don't want boiling or cracking paint on them.

Last of all, to answer your question captaincurran... the "hammered" spray paint is made by Rust-ol-eum. I think thats how it is spelled. Home Depot mostly had Rust-ol-eum spray paints.