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Project Shades of Black

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CWynn

CWynn

Member
​
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Location
Batavia, IL
Here's a project that I've been working on for about a month, mostly on and off. The goal of this project was to make a quiet watercooled case that can adequately cool a SLi setup. Also, another goal was to fit everything inside a single case. The trend nowadays seems to be to hang whatever you can't fit inside the case on the outside. I see rads hanging off the back, reservoirs sticking out the side and what not. I wanted a "clean" and sleek look.

I named the project "Shades of Black" not only because the inside will be flat black and the outside is a metallic black, but also as and homage to Machine Head's "Descend the Shades of Night."

But anyway, enough typing, on to the pics!
 
Fitting the Rad:

34578%3B2723232%7Ffp337%3Enu%3D3254%3E748%3E56%3A%3EWSNRCG%3D323339583392%3Cnu0mrj


34578%3B2723232%7Ffp338%3Enu%3D3254%3E748%3E56%3A%3EWSNRCG%3D3233395833933nu0mrj



Bondo-Work on the bezel and side panel:

34578%3B2723232%7Ffp336%3Enu%3D3254%3E748%3E56%3A%3EWSNRCG%3D32333957%3C%3B49%3Bnu0mrj


34578%3B2723232%7Ffp338%3Enu%3D3254%3E748%3E56%3A%3EWSNRCG%3D32333957%3C%3B49%3Anu0mrj


34578%3B2723232%7Ffp336%3Enu%3D3254%3E748%3E56%3A%3EWSNRCG%3D3233395833935nu0mrj
 
Last edited:
gvblake22 said:
Nice job so far, looking forward to seeing what the final coat of paint looks like! :drool:
Click to expand...

Check out this thread: I tried the color on my cell phone first. http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=430391

The hole on top for the rad exhaust will be filled in with a stiff mesh. I still don't know weither to leave it shiny stainless steel, go flat black, or the metallic black. What would you guys do?
 
Nice cell phone!
Back to the case:
I don't know what the rest of your theme looks like (fans, wire sleaving, etc) so I can't be sure about how it will all look. But I think you should make the mesh the same metallic black color to match. The only way I would leave it silver is if you cut the hole very well and it was an interesting design (maybe an ellipse/oval or a rectangle with large rounded corners), but if it's just a rectangle, then you should make it the same black :)
 
gvblake22 said:
Nice cell phone!
Back to the case:
I don't know what the rest of your theme looks like (fans, wire sleaving, etc) so I can't be sure about how it will all look. But I think you should make the mesh the same metallic black color to match. The only way I would leave it silver is if you cut the hole very well and it was an interesting design (maybe an ellipse/oval or a rectangle with large rounded corners), but if it's just a rectangle, then you should make it the same black :)
Click to expand...

You can see the hole cut in my pics. It's a rectangle with large rounded corners. I cut it to match the side panel.

The rest of the theme will be mostly black, silver/chrome, and UV blue. I have 4 blacklights that will go in the case, the motherboard is black, the tubing is UV blue 3/4", the powersupply has black sleeved wires, and there will be chrome grills on the fans.

One reason that I thought the polished SS would look kinda cool with my theme is because you can see the front of the 120mm chrome fan gaurd through my duct in the front.
 
Oh, ok, well, I guess depending on how much chrome you have, it would definately look cool. Guess it depends on how much attention you want to draw to it. The silver will obviously draw the eye there. I think if you had some of the same mesh somewhere else on the the case (like in the front or something) it would help balance it out. But I guess depending on how many chrome fan grills you have going it might be ok. You could even make all your fan grills out of the silver mesh! That would look pretty cool to stand out from all the black!
 
Added new pics. The color turned out really great I think. I still need to let the paint cure for another day and a 1/2 and then I will sand, and buff out the clear coat. It should look great.
 
WOW, that paint job looks great! You have obviously have a talent for this stuff. Can't wait to see this all put together!
Keep it up! :thup:

How long did it take you to do all the painting? How many coats?
 
gvblake22 said:
WOW, that paint job looks great! You have obviously have a talent for this stuff. Can't wait to see this all put together!
Keep it up! :thup:

How long did it take you to do all the painting? How many coats?
Click to expand...

Oh man, it took a while. I did a lot of sanding an a lot of coats. I pretty much kept going at it until the surface was flat and there wasn't any cut-through or blemishes. The pics that I have up are of the clear-coat stage. I still have to sand, and buff that out to a mirror finish. It should look much better once the bit of orange peel and surface imperfections are taken care of. I might have to do another application of the clear if i cut through as well.
 
BioTuned said:
sweet color man...i wonder how will the final peice look like...:D
Click to expand...

I looked at your "mystique" project and that is a really nice color too! I was thinking about using the paint by dupicolor called "mirage" I believe, which looks simliar to your case but the black matched everything in the room and it was a lot cheaper. I would have probably needed 2 or 3 kits at $15 a pop to do the whole case (it's huge!).
 
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