Contagion - My 922 Haf Mod - **Finished**

[jdayton1@comcast.net]

Here is my first mod. I finally broke down and bought a new case. I have been using my CM Caviler since 2004 and I have been looking at cases for awhile and this had everything I wanted, including amenities for future expansions.

The only thing I was going to do when the case arrived was paint the interior, back, and the bottom. I just wanted to get rid of the gray. Once I started working, I was having to much fun to stop. I also started working on one of my kids cases also. I'm having fun modding, and it helps me stay sane and the wife likes me doing it, probadly cause it keeps me occupied outside.

I am glad that I was able to enter, I have seen many of your (contestants) work and it is all incredible work. Mine is not incredible, but as I said I enjoy what I am doing and figured I might as well join in with you all and see how it goes.

Good luck to everyone.

(P.S. My pictures in the next few updates are not the best. My camera broke and I had to use a crappy camera. As of today I finally got my canon semi working, just no lcd screen (that's still broke). But I can take them old school, just like before we had digital cameras. But at least I can say that pics from today and on pics will be better quality.)

Opened it up to get started and take a closer look at it.

Crappy pic (was still getting use to pos camera) but you get the jist of it. I did not like the side vents, so I would do something with that.

So this side of the case is to plain for my taste, going to need some work also.

I couldn't stand looking at the inside of the case. Needed some fixing.

The back of course needed help, can stand not uniform colors.

To plain for me inside, will color the fan blades and change out the thumbscrews.

Striped down.

Taped and ready for action!

As you can see, I did not take pictures of in between. The reason was, this was my first paint job and I actually had no issues painting it. Of course once it was painted I decided I needed to cut out the current fan mesh in the front and back.

Inside is my little custom screen for the bottom vent.

Sleeved up to the front panel.

My heat gun somehow broke, lost low heat and melted the clips for the switch, I was able to fix it with some hot glue, back to good.

Cut out for the 120mm exhaust fan.

Cut out for the 200mm Intake

Replacing the Red Led's for yellow Led's,

Here is the 120mm fan that came with the case.

Took off the fan blades.

Here is also an extra fan painted, along with the grill. Ended up not liking the grill so I will be redoing that.

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[jdayton1@comcast.net]

Well I am trying a different way of doing my designs. In my other mod, I tried all different ways of painting and trying to stop bleeding and general mistakes. I bought some stencil material and some adhesive from our local craft store and its really working pretty good. Until I find a better way. Currently trying to get the wife to get me an airbrush kit for my birthday, at least it gives me time to work her till that day.

Laid out in potion and all edges staying down.

If you haven't noticed the arrow on the panel, it is there to keep me from putting it upside down. I did that by accident and had to strip it all down and do

it again, then I almost put the stencil on again upside down....hence the arrow for my old brain to focus on.

So this is what I ended up doing. I thought it looked kinda bare, so I thought I would enhance it.

At this point I was still using standard vinyl floor warning tape. I tried adding more to the design and didn't like it. Also I did not like the look of the off yellow on the tape and decided I would paint the stripes on to get a more uniform look. Back to more of my current pastime, sanding. I seem to sand more than anything, at least I have to option to fix my mistakes.

After a long time of trying to remove the left over glue (used rubbing alcohol, actually wasn't bad) I am finally back to work.

I still thought I needed an outline so I made it thinner for the paint job and laid out. Painted the black on the box first and once it dried I laid out my black lines.

Painted the black lines and laid out more tape when it was dry.

Time for the yellow paint.

Some over spray as always, after a light sand I laid out some more tape and took care of it. I realized writing this. I use a lot of Tape..

Sanded and removing the 20 layers of tape.....really it was like 2 but in every direction, just seemed like a lot.

He is the finished product. I think it is a nicer color instead of the orangish yellow.

Different view.

Of course I needed to redo the window side. Off with the vinyl tape and painted my stripes.

He you can see the smoke transparent acrylic, I cannot find the pictures of the window cutout but I am sure you all have seen it numerous times by now.

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[jdayton1@comcast.net]

Once I did the sides, it did not look quite right. So I decided to continual my pattern to the top.

I had to make sure that I painted the edges of the top to keep the flow going.

I also decided I need to enhance the black lines, so I covered my yellow lines up with tape and used a semi-gloss black.

A little touch up on some over spray, then finally removed all the tape.

This is what it looked like once I was done painting.

So we move on to the top panel that I painted a few days before. I thought it looked good but wanted to see what it would look like with cuation lines.

This of course was a big failure!!! I couldn't stand it. So off it came.

Once cleaned up again, I was happy with the original design.

Threw it on to see the outcome. Looks pretty good in my eyes.

Just a different view.

I laid the side panel next to it for a better view.

Another shot at a different angle.

Leaned the front panel just for a reference for myself. I thought it needed something. And the wife suggested....

Paint the border of the front connectors.

Put back in the rest of the connectors. Not sure if I am done with this front yet.

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[jdayton1@comcast.net]

Here is the front Bezel that I will be working on in this update.

You all know what it looks like, but I did not like the lower intake area.

So I laid out where I wanted to cut, made sure I was not to close bezel.

Used my stencil and adhesive on front mesh and taped it up.

Flipped it over and taped it.

Here is some of the stencils I made, saved them all along with the male part of them in case of a future need.

This is the completed job on the mesh,

Put back in the front bezel.

So I seem to like to put things in the wrong place. Not this time....I made me a square, scuffed it up so the badge adhesive would stick and perfect centerline....and if I put it in upside down, im still safe on this one

There she goes..

And it sticks.

Here is the badge in place,

A look at the front bezel.

I wanted to cut down on the frontal light. The red 5mm where really bright with the bezels intact, so I decided I would go with 3mm yellow ones.

The 3mm yellow leds installed. and a look at night.

Added a little extra light so you could see the fan not just the lights.

I love this bit, makes life easier.

Drilling the front fan holes to a 1/4"

Will be putting in the bushing to reduce sound from the front fan.

In and

In. well four actually, but think you get the point.

So after all that, it just didn't look complete. So off I go to taping the front bezel/

Making sure I get the tape into the small crevices.

Done....only took me about 2 to 3 cups of coffee to tape this up.

Off we go to painting again.

Tape off and looking good.

Some test fits

Another

And another

And a last one. So we talk about the lettering and it needed something, still not happy.

Here is one of the Drive Inserts.

Here is is after a couple coats of paint, without the outline painted.

Here is the Top IO before painting the lettering.

Here is the front after a few coat of paint.

Here is the top. My camera really sucks, these came out really well.

The right hand corner when the leds are located have a lightning symbol and a hard drive symbol. I wa amazed at how well these came out.

Just another one full view. I am going to try for some better shots later on.

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[jdayton1@comcast.net]

Making stencil for my case name. I used an old soldering iron to cut out the letters, as I was not looking for a perfect crisp lettering, was looking for something different.

Cutting out the symbol to go under the case name.

After I cut out the symbol I sanded down the edges. Spent like a hour doing it.

Panel is all papered up and waiting for her title.

First coat is light on the name and heavier on the symbol.

Another coat.

The case name comes bursting out

Well there was some light peeling on the edges, that weren't quite dry yet.. So I covered up and gave it a quick shot.

Sanded down, now for a few coats of clear.

Closer shot of my sanding job.

Here is the finished look.

She finally has her named inked on her:)

I have more that I am building on now. Hopefully I can get some more on here soon.

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[jdayton1@comcast.net]

This is what I used to do the small lettering through out my mod.

Here are the 3.5 Drive Bays completed,

The 5.5 Drive Bay Tool-less buttons.

A larger view.

Here is the Front IO Panel lettering. It looks much better then just the indented black.

Top view, you can see the top buttons better here,

Well since I looked at it, I needed to do the same as I did to the front bezel, to continue the effect.. So off to taping again.

Getting ready for action

Of course I needed coffee when Im doing this.

Here is how the IO panel came out.

With the power button in.

Sanding down some thumbscrews to prepare for painting. And yes that is the mesh from the side panel.

A few coats lightly sprayed. (I forgot to tak of a pic of it being primed...ah well it was a gray beforehand)

Closer look.

I just like this picture.

Even the backside had to be done.

All done. Waiting on their entrance to the case later on.

Before with stock thumbscrews. (yes I know it is dirty, it is still outside in my workarea)

After...looks better..need to get a better pic still.

Making something for the inside of the case....Ill show more later when Im closer to being done with it.

And finally a look at the semi- finished pieces. A few touch ups here and there...it might look close, but there is still plenty more to do...I have like 2 pages of things Im still trying to finish.

Hope you all enjoyed it, more to come!!

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[jdayton1@comcast.net]

Here is the other morning, probadly a little after 6 am.

A few minutes later. It went from bad to good in minutes. At least it did not rain on me.

So I had some left over black acrylic from another build I am working on and I decided I wanted to put it to use. Any ideas? I laid out what I need and got ready to trim this up.

Cutting in my little cardboard paint and cut booth.

Cuts are good for now.

Ready for some bending.

Making it straight.

As you can see, I am making do with what I have for tools.

Took my time,

And I come up with this?

Well I was going to do a test piece before, and decided just to do it. So I need to chop off some of one side.

Back to cutting...left a little extra on to try out something.

I bust out my old belt sand and rip it up. Actually wasn't to bad.

Sanding the edges to a smooth finish. And now you can see that I also cut out a hole for something.

So did you guess it? A wire cover. I figured if the Haf-X people can have one, I can have one too, albeit a smaller size.

You can see where the wires will go through.

A better view.

And a closer one.

Something looks off to me. For it its seems an inch to long and about a half inch to high.

It just did not look right, to much room around the psu.

So I set up to bend again. making sure I mark the right spot and side. Never know with me.

But instead of doing the wrong side. I broke it, I was done, but it wasn't staight. It need a 1/4 in from the bottom. And of course, I snapped it, I cut off the bottom previously, that did not break.

Off to JB Weld. Let it dry for the four hours.

Then sanded it down,

Made it nice and smooth, but still some small irregularities.

You can see them to the right top side.

Back to painting. A nice semi gloss look.

Back to where I should have been hours ago.

Another angle, came out nice.

Now to lay out where the name and symbol will go and what size.

Did not like this either, Symbol was a little small for what I wanted.

Still a no go.

Ok this is the one. Unanimous vote. (The wife and I.)

Taped and painted. More coats on the symbol, less on the name.

Not bad.

I like it.

Thinking this will look good in the case.

Here you can see the cables out the front.

Here they are going out the side. Look straight in.

Cant see them, except the other side. This was a fun little project. Made a nice looking wire cover from some left over material. Even with the break, I still enjoyed making it. And I am glad I did not just throw it out like I was thinking of doing once it snapped.

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[jdayton1@comcast.net]

So I wanted to do something with the reset and led button. So I used some that I bought awhile back. I was going to try yellow on black, but changed my mind before paiting.

I primed them up, and gave them a nice sanding and then a painted them black.

Once the paint dried, time to lay out the lines.

Close up,

Light sand, then paint the lines.

All painted.

Removed the tape.

I tried two different layouts...easy enough to redo, But it was not meant to be.

Well I has to do something with reset and led button since it was decided upon that the buttons I just sprayed would be to intrusive on the top. So I still stuck with the same theme, just used it on the existing buttons.

Off with the tape.

They look pretty good,

Better than I thought. You can see the outline of where the larger buttons would be, over the reset button.

So what to do with the buttons? Well I need one for the DVD eject button. Just trying to see if it would look good on the bezel,

I told it looks good, but I have my doubts with the upper case badge.

Here is a larger view. What do you all think? The wife says to keep it, I just havent decided. I will be stealthing the drive, and a button here would be easy to access.

I needed to do something with the fans, The labels are bad, and the black is well just black. So I cut out some of my stencil material to fit both fans.

Sanded down to make it smooth then painted.

The finished circle. This one I wasnt going to sleeve all the way up, and I was not going to use electrical tape.

So I cut out another piece, and sprayed it.

Nice and covered. I used the same adhesive that I use when I do regualr stencils. Just an extra coat, and it is a nice glue.

I had to do something with the chrome grill. Cant have something silver in there.

So I hung it up, prime it, a few coats of yellow, and a clear for durability.

And this is what I have.

All the pieces together.

This will go in the bottom of the case, to bring in some extra air. On the bottom is my screen, then fan and grill. I have some bolts and nuts to be painted before I can install this.

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[pcjunkie209]

Very nice! Keep up the good work.

[jdayton1@comcast.net]

Very nice! Keep up the good work.

Thanks pcjunkie. Hoping to get another log up this weekend or tomorrow.