Case Mod Questions

I want to do someting to my case, again



I want to paint the inside of it black, what do I need to do before hand, prime it?



Also, I was thinking of adding a 120mm fan to the top, would it be worth it, intake, exhuast, or forget it?



Thanks.

You can add a fan at the top. The fan you would want to be exhaust as hot air rises. So far Ive got two custom built cases going on. For my case mod stuff I go to thebestcasescenario.com. There are some awesome cases being built over there.



As for painting the inside. Most any paint you will be fine with. What you are going to want to do for a really nice paint job is to dissassemble the case. Any thing that can come out your going to want to take it out. For some cases your going to want to derivet the drive bays and such. ANd rerivet once everything is down. If you don't then your going to have a hard time avoiding running paint and such. Its easier in the long run to get a nice paint job by taking the case apart as much as you can.

Then sand down everything lightly with like 220grit sandpaper. You just want it to be lightly sanded so the paint sticks well to the surface. You don't need to use a primer if you don't go all the way down to the bare metal. If you do, then hit it with a coat or two of primer.

Once you've sanded everything, then hit it with a few coats of paint, sanding lightly between each coat. Then to protect the paint, I would hit it with a few coats of clear coat, again sanding lightly between coats.

If you want a real nice gloss finish, then you progressively lightly sand with increasing grit sandpapers. 1000, 1500, 2000. You want to make sure you put quite a few coats of clear as you don't want to go all the way through the clear with your sanding. Then use some rubbing compound and get to it. After a while of rubbing you should have something extremely smooth and shiny, like a professional paint job.




If you just want to paint it and don't care about how it looks really. Then just lightly sand it down with 220 grit or so, and spray it with a few coats of paint, let it dry and call it a day. The above takes a lot of work, but will leave you with a beautiful finish. Something you can be proud of.


Hope that helps.

Wow man, I think you need a new keyboard now



It's going to mainly be the HDD bays, the MOBO tray, actual case and a few other things like fan duct and HDD bay adaptor that I'm spraying, so I think I'll sand it down and do a few coats, I don't think I need a 'glossy' finish, I want it to be matt.



Would I have to sand it down before painting it?



Also, I know that you drill through rivets to remove then, but how do I put them back, I don't have a rivet gun... Also, I can't seem to be able to remove the other side of my case, I don't know if that's rivited in too?



Thanks!

NightTrain, I was about to suggest thebestcasescenario.com, but then I read yours. It is a really awesome site. If I get the money to afford a dremel and stuff, I'm going to try modding.

Ya, to take them out it seems easiest to drill them out. Once you drill them out, you can't use them again, so you would need a rivet gun and some new rivets.



If you cant do that, you can just sand and paint, but you will have a hard time getting into all the hard to reach areas, and you may have a bigger issue with the paint dripping because of that.



You don't "HAVE" to sand it down. But the paint will adhere better and create a better bond. You also won't have as much dripping as you would if you didn't sand. Remember, just sand lightly. Just enough to rough up the surface a bit.



That other panel may be screwed in or rivited in. Not sure. Pics would help on that one.



You can get non glossy clear coats. Clear coats also help to protect the paint. If you don't prep correctly or put clear on, where you screw the screws for your drives will start to wear and chip eventually. May not be a big deal to you, or it may.



Remember to spray in light coats. You don't have to cover everything in the first coat. Spray light, let it dry, repeat as many times as necessary.







The more time you spend on it the better it will come out.





Here is my most recent project.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ad.php?t=11231

Just started. The mouse is what I want to show you. You can see the steps as I go along. Since that I have finished the mouse with 2000grit and rubbing compound, but haven't gotten around to getting pics up in a while. What is there alone took a week to do on that mouse. So far I've spent another week or so finishing it. It just takes time, but patience pays off. Im no expert, learning to, just passing what Ive learned off to you.





And my keyboards are fine. I just type alot sometimes, too much information to convey on some of these topics.

Yeah, I don't have a rivet gun or anything, so that could be a problem, I'll try my best though. Yeah, I'll also give it a sand down before I do anything



I'll see what I can do about pictures of the other side panel too.



Wow, that mouse looks great! Nice work!

Nightrain, that's pretty cool. Love the mouse. Now I wanna do something like that. Maybe the Screaming Chicken to further show my love for Firebirds.

Thanks for the compliments guys! The case is for my girlfriend so thats where the bright green and the lizard come from. It should turn out nice. I do all my work pretty much by hand so everything doesn't get that factory feel to it, but eventually it may as I get more tools to my disposal and such. Im getting an airbrush soon so I may pick up a new mouse and redo it and airbrush the lizard instead of the way I did it there.







As for Kornowski, don't derivet it if you have no way of putting the case back together. But, You can get rivets and a rivet gun pretty cheap at any local hardware store.



If you can't get the rivet gun, just sand down everything pretty well and go real slow and light when your painting. Go extremely light with the coats so you don't get drippage. I learned that the hard way with my first case I did. If you can take out the drive bays and get them back in it makes it so much easier, but if you can't dont worry to much.

You just need a pop rivet gun, they are very inexpensive and you can buy them at any hardware store. What you want to make sure of is to get the right length rivets to put it back together.

They come in 1/16 increments, so you can start at 1/8 and work your way up in length until you find the right one. Working in the aviation industry, I have done a lot of sheet metal work over the last 30 years. It's not hard to do if you take your time.

I don't think I'd be able to do anything with the rivets, so I'll leave that... What about adding the top 120mm fan, intake or exhuast? Keeping in mind the fron 80mm fan right next to it...