SmasherBasher

This morning has already gotten underway and it's only 9:30 AM.
First, I wanted to test the effects of clearcoat on an inconspicuous piece, so I grabbed the HDD cage which tucks under the optical bay. I may not even use this piece so I do not care at all if it's totally borked.
Here it is in black primer and sanded



First coat of copper

Second coat.

First coat of clear.

Second coat of clear. Note the milky white stuff. I don't know if that's incompatibility with the clear/paint or if maybe I put it on too heavy?

Here's another side that has its second coat of clear. I'm betting it's just laid on too heavy and running. Good thing this is a test piece.


Third coat of clear.

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Slider46

Yea some clearcoats will appear milky white until they dry.

When I did my clear I applied heavy coats but all my parts were laying flat so I didn't have any runs. You could just do the horizontal surfaces first - applying a nice heavy coat (so it's almost really wet) then let it dry for abut 30 mins - turn and repeat.

The clear looks good so far though. Looks like you still get some metallic flakes to show through also.

Nice

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SmasherBasher

Yeah I don't know how its turning out so nice. I've never had good experience with clearcoat - which is why you'll notice on all my other mods, clearcoat has always been omitted. I'm not going to clear the interior of the chassis because it is so hard to hit everything and get nice even coats. I put a 4th coat of clear on the HDD cage and here is the result - exactly what I'm looking for.

And here's the former trash can









It is so hard to get a good, clean shot of mesh with my camera. Hopefully these pics illustrate how good it really looks.

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zlojack

Looking really good!

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SmasherBasher

Thank you! I plan to have it all finished and ready for reassembly first thing in the morning with a big photoshoot. The hard drive cage with 4 coats of clear on it came out perfect. I will be doing the rest of the parts with a combo of gloss black, copper, and clear. I am at a standstill for now until I can get to the store for the gloss black. I will be doing little things here and there - which reminds me - I need to unmask the chassis and get some shots of it in the daylight.

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Slider46

Awesome job! Keep goin!

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SmasherBasher

Here she is. All dry and unmasked.




Here is the mesh with a coat of clear.


And this is the basic idea of how it will be against the black.


And just for S's & G's here are a couple pics of the hdd cage inside the chassis to compare clearcoat vs no clearcoat

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nbrider88

Wow !
That looks solid.
Good choice with the copper

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SmasherBasher

Going to the store for paint and out to lunch. When I return, I am going to do the optical bay and PSU housing. While those parts dry, I will be installing the channel over the cuts I made with the dremel and mounting the mesh to the chassis. While I'm at Home Depot getting paint, I am going to pick up some #4010 clear mounting tape. I have the grey stuff, but I think clear will look better.
Also, Should I break down and remask the whole thing and attempt to clearcoat it or leave well enough alone?

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SmasherBasher

Update. Got some new paint that I think is teh sex.





That was only a test fire on wood. Can't wait to see this stuff on prepped metal.
Speaking of prepped metal:



Those were sanded down with p220 then p400 then rinsed and set to dry in the sun.
Priming right now. Will snap more pics shortly.
Stay tuned! It's only gonna get better.
Almost forgot. Got to have a nice beverage when working in the heat.


Update to the update:

Thats the paint with clear on wood. Looking gooooooood

Primed


First coat of black



I am in between coats so keep checking back. I will update this post as I progress or until OCN doesn't let me put any more pics in this post.
Self explanatory




Time to let sit for 15 mins to tack dry then i will flip the pieces over to get the underside. Then I will start shooting clear. Hopefully it comes out as nice as the HDD cage did.

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