[xToaDx]

Haha, funny idea.
Yeah, those Cosmos cases are seriously beasts.

 

[ChurchofVirus]

Here is a little mini-update, a mash-up of the parts I ordered for this mod. Fans, covers, lights, water-cooling hardware and other items of necessity. Note the fan grills and the girlie 'Open' acrylic panel.

 

[mz-n10]

girls girls girls? i only see ONE girl....

 

[Ducky]

My friend, I do believe a color theme a la 'Rome Artifact' would be great here.

 

[CattleRustler]

hey, you stole mah case! oh, wait... nvm

good luck on the mod
cant wait to see the girls

 

[ChurchofVirus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mz-n10 girls girls girls? i only see ONE girl....

Troll much? I explain there will be 1 per side door and 2 fan grills in the opening post. 4 total.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ducky My friend, I do believe a color theme a la 'Rome Artifact' would be great here.

Not a bad idea, but the paint has already been done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CattleRustler hey, you stole mah case! oh, wait... nvm good luck on the mod cant wait to see the girls

Thanks man, keep an eye out for updates, they will be spaced every few days.

 

[kimosabi]

So youre converting your case into a stripjoint? lol j/k Cool project!

 

[Smokie]

This looks like a sweet case mate. More pics Please!

-Smokie

 

[rpm666]

Wait a minute, I was promised girls....or at least boobs.

:/

 

[ChurchofVirus]

Well hello again. Let's back up a moment to before I popped the rivets and dismantled the case. I want to add a fan with fan hole to the front of the case as well as one of the fan grills I picked up. I picked up one of the greatest tools ever, the 117mm hole saw and went to work.

Measuring and prep..

Now as I mentioned this was before I dismantled the case, so what I'd be doing here is cutting a 120mm hole through the front door, inside panel and front case panel. So simple I almost feel bad about it. Cut right through with a fair amount of elbow grease.

Hole through the front door..

Hole through the inside panel..

Hole through the front case panel..

And front the inside of the case we have this..

As you can see, I left that middle piece of the hard drive cage intact. I didn't mind cutting into it a little with the hole saw, as the middle piece of the cage will be getting some modification as well.

Oooo circles!

Before I mentioned that I would be 'thinning' out the interior of the case. My main focus of this is actually reducing the cover of the hard drive cage and drive bays in order to show off the resevoir that I'll will be placing in the top section of the hard drive cage. After taking the case apart I needed to put to front back together to get this planned out.. masking tape cheesecake.

I readied my Dremel and gave this baby a once over reduction surgery..

Hard drive cage..

Top panel with new mesh cover cut..

Hard drive cage rack and drive bay rack..

Top case panel..

Front panel with new mesh cover cut..

Gotta have the holes to mount the front fan..

Just as a reminder, these are the initial cuts. I still need to clean them up and do a couple other touch ups to make everything work. The two door panels will be handled last, as I want to get the case done then focus on the side doors. A hope this gives a little better of an idea of what I'm doing with this mod. Next update I'll have done all the final touchups on the cuts I have made and will be preparing for paint. I have a lot of sanding and filing ahead and still quite a bit of work to be done. See you then!

 

[Smokie]

Nice work there! Holes saws do such a neat job.

-Smokie

 

[ChurchofVirus]

I said before I had a bit of finish work to do on the places I made cuts, nothing too extreme. One piece worth nothing was the top plastic piece of the case that had the vent fins. On the underside of the piece there was an edge that had to be sanded down in order for me to place the mesh piece that I cut. I was able to sand the edge down pretty well, but along the 'supports' of the plastic piece remained these little ridges that prove the be a pain in the butt..

After some wierd angles with a file I got the ridges sanded away, and 'supports' of the piece ended up having notches in them. Normally this could be seen as a flaw in my work, but it turns out that these notches kind of lock in the mesh..

All filed down..

Same with the top piece, the front plastic cover, inside the door also had little ridges that needed to be filed down..

All the pieces with cuts finished..

I think one of the more interesting alterations I made so far was to allow a 120mm fan to be placed in the front. Recall that I used a holesaw to punch through the front of the case, and I cut a notch out of the harddrive cage tray. This is how it works..

With the pieces together..

I'd then just have to slide a fan in and viola!

Now all my finish work one the piece I cut so far is done and now I just needed to do a little pre-paint sanding. I have arranged to use the paint booth at my place of work again, but I only have access to spray paint, which is not a big deal because my last spray paint job turned out pretty well.

Big ol'pile of pieces to be painted..

I will also be painting a few of the accessory pieces of the case such as the drive locks and the hard drive cages. The button for the drive locks will be painted with this batch as well as the handle/handle holder for the hard drive cages. Also the caps for the compression fittings I'll be using will get a coat of bronze.

Here's my paints, or at least what I already have..

The plan is that all these pieces in the large pile will get a primer coat, three color coats, and enough clear coats to give it some shine. I'll be using a dark primer, with a gold/polished bronze color for the chasis and accents. Why this color you ask? Well, there tends to be a fair amount of focus on bronze at gentlemen's clubs with the poles and such. I think it'll give an attractive look for the internals. Following paint, the only finish work I will be doing will be a two-step hand buff to smooth out the finish and give it some extra shine.

 

[Ramsey77]

Another fellow Cosmos modder! Good luck to you. I can't wait to see some more pictures of your progress....

Ramsey77

 

[CattleRustler]

 

[ChurchofVirus]

Once again I was lucky enough to talk the paint guy at my place of business to let me use his paint booth again.. it really helps with keeping the area dust free and also helps the paint dry faster with the high powered fans.

Looks familiar..

The prep work needed for these pieces was pretty minimal. I started with a very fine sand paper, then followed with a cleaning solution then a tack cloth. Simple enough to encourage a little paint adhesion. I was able to use my co-workers paint racks again which also made the task of painting that much easier for me.

Some of the pieces ready to go..

My only previous painting experience was on my last case mod. I was informed that the primer coat wouldn't really effect the color coat to the extent that wouldn't give me the look I wanted, but I later learned that primer coat can have a huge impact. With that said I used a dark primer for the gold color. I picked the gold/bronze color with influance from stipper poles. The goal was a polished look.

Some of the pieces primered..

I had planned on doing three primer coats on all pieces, but ran out of primer about half way through the third coat. Not an issue though. On with the paint! Between every coat of primer, color and clear coat, I ran a tack cloth over the paint to pick up and overspray and dust I could get.

Once again my lack of experience got me. Knowing what I know now, I had put on three very light coats of clear coat, which probably made a solid single coat. It gave a decent shine to the pieces, but not exactly what I was aiming for.

After a quick car paint polish..

Not an epic fail, but I'm a little disappointed in how the shine turned out. The primer I should have used is this metallic sparkle stuff that once color is put over it, the color instead of flat or sparkle gives a solid polished metal appearance. It's a good looking paint job, but not up to par with what I wanted, so I grabbed some 600 grit sandpaper and sanded through the clear coat, where I will then give the peices two more coats of color and I'll do three solid coats of clear. It may not help as much as sanding the peices back down to bare metal and redo the primer, but it should at least improve the luster and quality of the paint.

Keep in mind the pieces I've now painted gold are just the chasis and a few accessory parts. I still have to paint all the plastic pieces(most of the exterior of the case) and a few accessory parts the other color I'm planning on doing. So next time I get in the booth, I will repaint/touchup all the gold painted pieces as well as paint the exterior pieces. I still have a bit of work to do on the mod. After I get these two lots of pieces painted I will reassemble the case, minus the side panels and side exterior trim, as I still have to do the work on those.

I'm saving the best stuff for last.. meaning, the window/silouhette and the mock neon sign, so check it out, leave a comment and hope your finding this interesting. Till the next!

 

[ChurchofVirus]

As I mentioned in my last update, I decided to sand the gold/bronze pieces through the clear so I could add a couple more coats of color, and do heavier coats of clear to try to improve the reflective look of the paint that I was aiming for. I also needed to give the second batch of pieces to be painted a light sand to help the paint stick.

Logo needs to be sanded down to give these piece a smoother look..

Then it was back to work with the paint and most of the pieces and accessories to the case. I tried a slightly different painting with aerosol technique this time around and I have to say it turned out much better than before. Instead of putting the pieces an the rack and painting them there, painted each piece individually by holding it in front of me on a wire. It helped me to give better, even coats as well as preventing missed spots.

After painting, sanding and repainting the gold parts..

The second batch of pieces, mostly the exterior case plastic parts, are going to be painted purple. Why purple? That's what was asked for the exterior color. The gold and purple should give the case a unique and interesting look compared to the usual colors that are seen. The gold, despite a lack of shine I had hoped for turned out pretty well. I wanted to copy the similiar color of the gold/bronze/brass dancer poles, with a solid shine. The purple on the other hand needed some extra 'Wow' to set the simplistic colors off. Firstly I needed to use a metallic, high sparkle silver primer coat. I was a bit worried that once I put down the color coat that it would carry the sparkle through..

Then after applying the color coat, I was pleasantly surprised. The color laid down as a very solid, deep purple with some serious shine. Also I noticed along the edges where the paint tended to go on thicker, give a darker highlight, which looks just awesome.

So basically the purple color coat turned out perfect. I doubt a person with a paint gun could have done better, and I just had spray paint. Now to really set off this paint job, I needed to add that extra 'Wow' I mentioned. The second batch of pieces got two coats of the metallic primer, about four or five coats of color, then one coat of clear, one coat of metallic/sparkle clear coat then another two coats of clear to give some depth. The sparkle clear was only added to the purple, where the gold remains solid.

Sadly my camera, or my ability, did not really take quality shots to show the paint as it appears if seen in person, but I'll get some better pictures soon to share. I'm super excited on how this turned out.

And after a little bit of elbow grease with the light hand buff..

The gold, as hoped, gained an improved shine and reflection to it, but still not exactly what I had hoped for, but it will definatly work. All in all I'm pleased with the turn out. I would love to say that I have no more painting to do, but I still have a few miscellanious pieces as well as the side doors and door trim to paint.

Here's a few couple of shots just for comparison to how it looked and how it will look..

Alright, so I guess now it's back to work, still a lot of it to be finished. You'll have to wait and see what comes next. Keep an eye out for the next updates, they will begin to really take shape and give this mod the uniqueness that it's all about.

 

[tehpwnerofn00bs]

Nice work!

and w00t for Crüe! \\m/

 

[taowulf]

Nice theme, but the "research" to get the right feel must be $$$.

"I think I need another lapdance to get in the mood for this."

 

[Ramsey77]

Why is it every time I read this thread I get Motley Crue stuck in my head??

Looking good man. I'm looking forward to when it all starts going back together.