Today was cold, humid, and lame. What better in those dull time than pop some rivets?
The case has previously been stripped of all it's shiz. Looks something like this.
I am not kidding, this thing is twice as big, yet weighs half as much as my armor without all the accessories in it. Aluminum FTW.
Rivets on this case were slightly smaller than on my Armor, at least the heads were. I used a 7/64 bit in the beginning, only to realize that the difference between it and the 1/8 was negligible, and that the 1/8 ripped through the rivets a lot faster. My guess is that the rivets that held the structure together were 3 mm grip reach 1/8 inch diameter countersunks, with the head being 5.5 mm large.
As for the front and back panel rivets, those were just regular 1/8 non-countersunks that I used on my Armor.
Good luck finding the exact replica of the countersunk rivets. The steel countersunks I got from Canadian Tire are slightly different, the head being some .5 mm larger. On such small numbers, the difference is quite important, but it shouldn't keep me from putting the case back together.
What the hell is that big black border? Flickr acting wonky again? Saving to RAM on a live CD not recommended? Bleh. Anyways, you can see the red spots, that's the rivets you have to remove first, they let go of the top bars.
After, I removed the front thingies that spaces the door from the front of the chassis. Just remove all rivet on it, and it'll come right off.
And this is where I lolled. See the bottom panel and the front panel?
That's one piece of folded aluminum. Which means that this case was crafted from a 6' x 1.5' sheet of aluminum at Lian-Li's. This is the first time I've seen a once piece design like this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximerousseau/2506616127/
(Image needs to be rotated, come back later)
The drives bays are up next for the tackle. Remove every rivet you see on the picture above, and that pops right out too. The drive bay seperators can only be removed once you have deriveted the entire drive bay assembly from the front.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximerousseau/2506622977/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximerousseau/2507452608/
(Images needs to be rotated, come back later)
Lasty, the motherboard panel. Just remove all the rivets that you see in the first pic above.
Notice how close to the edge of the case the last the left-most rivets are in the second pic. Don't risk scrapping up your case with a drill bit, leave them for later, once the motherboard panel is out. Those rivets hold the I/O shield panel, and will be removed in time.
Like I said, both parts come out as one. Once they are out, feel free to give the previously hidden rivets the same treatment as the other ones. I guess this could also be painted as one, but personally, I'm not going to cut corners on this build.
The one big piece of chassis. Boy this is going to be a challenge to paint and sand properly. I'm borrowing my granny's mouse sander for this
.
Finally, you get the usual pile o' pieces. Read for sanding, priming and painting.
Update on the rad grills also, I'm currently talking with Marcus000 about getting some grills done. If I can have it my way, they'd look something like this:
This one for the top 120x3.
And this one, a bit more detailed, for the side panel 120x3. How am I going to mount 3 120's on the side you're asking? You'll see.
For now, I've gotta change this fugly generic font I used, find something more themed with the build. Be sure to shoot any suggestions you might have.