Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

welpert · 2011-02-01 17:52:08

Hey Guys,

I'm building a little home webserver out of old hardware and I want to put it in a second hand good-as-new low profile micro-ATX desktop case. I read an old topic a week or so ago about someone who did an Arch paintjob on his netbook, and decided I would do the same this week for that second hand case. I intend on using this case when I upgrade to a new system in a year or so anyway, then my current main system will become a server (currently my vga/sata controller cards are not low profile, otherwise I would have put my main system in there). Until then I'll have something nice to look at

Today I decided to go to the shop to get the primer and paint. I took some 'before' pictures. I am going to clean the case to remove any grease tonight. Tomorrow I have to work all day but I will put on the black primer in the evening. I will then have to wait a while until the primer sets adequately.

After the primer has set and I begin the actual paintjob, I think I'll spray a patch a little larger than the size of the logo in the metallic blue paint, then wait until the blue has dried (a few days?), then cut the logo out of stickerpaper and stick it exactly over the blue area, then paint everything black and wait until that dries (another couple of days?), then remove the sticker. If anyone thinks this is a bad idea (e.d. will the paint stick to the stickerpaper or other such disasters), please give me a heads up. This is my first paint-job!

EDIT: I've decided to do it proper and sand the case down properly first, then clean it and put the primer on. Also, I've decided to paint it black first, then go for the usual method for applying the Arch logo - using a cutout.

These are my 'before' pictures:

Case top:

Case front:

Primer and paint:

I have light metallic blue for the Arch logo and semi gloss black for the rest of the case. I just hope there is enough black paint in that little spraycan. The guy in the shop said it should just about cover it and I said I'd come back for another can if it doesn't (shop is around the corner).

Stay tuned!

Last edited by welpert (2011-02-01 18:33:46)

milso · 2011-02-03 04:24:55

Man I can't wait to see this, I need to start a project like this.

redhalo · 2011-02-06 03:38:39

Hey, this is something different for around here. And MicroATX, my favorite form factor. Looking forward to the results.

Labello · 2011-02-06 21:56:24

Bundesagentur für Arbeit?

Ist ja ma witzig! Geklaut?^^

welpert · 2011-02-07 16:32:38

Labello wrote:

Bundesagentur für Arbeit?
Ist ja ma witzig! Geklaut?^^

Poster asks: 'Bundesagentur fur Arbeit?' (Federal Employment Agency .. see text on the case).. 'Isn't that funny, did you steal it?'

To which I reply:

'Ich bin Niederlandisch, nicht Deutsch Aber nicht geklaut, gekauft auf marktplaats.nl.' (I'm Dutch, not German It's not stolen, I've bought this on marktplaats.nl which is a kind of Dutch ebay)

Anyhow, sorry for the delay, looks like I'll be needing some Bundesagentur fur Arbeit since I was informed last wednesday that I'll have no work at my current employer for at least three months.. Oh well

Today I bought some sandpaper:

I'll sand, clean and prime the case tonight.

P.S. sorry if the pictures are a little blurry, seems the trusty camera is giving the ghost..

Stay tuned!

Last edited by welpert (2011-02-07 16:44:05)

Unia · 2011-02-07 17:11:04

welpert wrote:

seems the trusty camera is giving the ghost..
Stay tuned!

Du weisst.. nee ik hou het bij Nederlands. Je weet toch wel dat dat geen Engels gezegde is? (Of zit ik er nu finaal naast?)

welpert · 2011-02-07 17:27:12

Unia wrote:

welpert wrote:
seems the trusty camera is giving the ghost..
Stay tuned!
Du weisst.. nee ik hou het bij Nederlands. Je weet toch wel dat dat geen Engels gezegde is? (Of zit ik er nu finaal naast?)

I don't count writing in German as one of my talents And let's just keep it English here for all followers. To give up the ghost is valid in English, I just left out the word 'up'. But who cares about making other people feel bad about their language skills, when this is about my paintjob! Take it somewhere else please.

Unia · 2011-02-07 18:16:19

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you in any way by asking about that ghost thing; I just thought you were making up your own translations like many Dutch people do. (and with the 'du weisst... nee ik hou het bij Nederlands' part, I was referring to my own German skills, not yours)

welpert · 2011-02-07 18:40:32

Unia wrote:

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you in any way by asking about that ghost thing; I just thought you were making up your own translations like many Dutch people do. (and with the 'du weisst... nee ik hou het bij Nederlands' part, I was referring to my own German skills, not yours)

Alright, my mistake then. Just thought you were trolling in ehm.. typical Dutch fashion, criticizing grammar Maybe I should stop frequenting Dutch boards for a while to partially reverse the conditioning And well, I guess I do make up some of my German

Anyway, planning to start sanding in half an hour.

Last edited by welpert (2011-02-07 18:41:19)

welpert · 2011-02-07 19:33:32

So, now my main camera ran out of batteries so I had to see if the broken samsung phone would still take pictures (it did!).

Sanding down:

Just want to rough up the paint a bit so the primer will attach firmly.

welpert · 2011-02-07 22:01:11

I had a picture of the cleaning process, which I did with ammonia on a piece of cloth, but it seems to have vanished from the phone. After almost choking even though the window was wide open, I let the ammonia evaporate for 15 minutes until it was dry.

In the mean time I had myself a cup of black magic coffee.

Hmm

After this, I proceeded to spray the case with primer:

Finished off some details (I've covered the led-areas with small bits of blue-tack):

Don't forget the drive placeholders:

All primed:

Now all we have to do is let the primer dry over night. I'll have to look up how soon one can paint over this kind of primer before painting tomorrow (whoops, tilted picture!).

Stay tuned!

Last edited by welpert (2011-02-07 22:01:44)

welpert · 2011-02-08 00:07:45

In the mean time, I made a cut-out for painting the arch logo on the case later:

Last year's study material put to good use

killerturtle · 2011-02-08 21:22:49

Dude, i'm gonna follow this one

Leuks zeg, nog enkele hollanders met een Arch fobie!
Succes!

Greetz
Sven

thechitowncubs · 2011-02-14 22:22:24

Update please

ftornell · 2011-02-25 08:27:10

cool!

welpert · 2011-02-25 17:25:46

Okay guys!

First of all, sorry for the rather long delay.

So today I found the time and energy to continue this cool project!

First I took a piece of toilet paper to rub off the excess paint that still rubbed off when I would touch the case.

Next, after blowing off all dust and particles left by the toilet paper I proceeded to spray the case with the semi-gloss black paint.

In order to paint the front of the case I had to cover the LEDs again, so I cut two tiny circle-shaped pieces from the edge of a bandaid and stuck them over the LEDs.

After painting everything, here is the result of the black semi-gloss paint layer:

Don't forget the drive placeholders!

A final shot with flash the flash turned on (so you can see the semi-gloss finish a little better):

So now I'm waiting for the thing to dry so I can paint the blue logo!

Last edited by welpert (2011-02-25 20:16:07)

welpert · 2011-02-25 18:56:08

Allright!

I've painted the logo on, it didn't quite go as planned so I had to do some emergency operating! While I was removing the stencil, I accidentally dropped a piece of blue paint-covered cellotape I used back onto the case. It made a huge mess on the nice black surface and smeared a bit of the side of the logo.

I immediately grabbed a piece of toilet paper with thinner on it to remove the mess. Unfortunately this removed some of the paint including primer (nothing too bad though) so I had to respray black to fix that. I used an envelope to fix the logo.

See the pictures below.

... EMERGENCY OPERATION IN PROGRESS - NO CAMERAS ALLOWED IN OPERATING ROOM ...

And the final result:

As you can see, there are some little blue spots that need to be removed. They do seem more visible on camera than in real life though, but I'll propably just use a small brush to fix them.

All in all not a bad result though! What do you guys think?

Inxsible · 2011-02-25 18:59:24

Very nice !!!

Congratulations on a job well done (almost, if not for the Emergency Operation )

welpert · 2011-02-25 19:58:26

Inxsible wrote:

Very nice !!!
Congratulations on a job well done (almost, if not for the Emergency Operation )

Thanks!

Here's a list of future things I want to do to this case:

Clean up the blue paint specs;
Replace the LEDs by a blue one and a white one. The LEDs are now red and orange, not very Archy colors;
Figure out how to build a DIY-lcd display (probably going to bit**** it through the unused serial port connector on the motherboard) and put that inside the 5-1/2 inch drive placeholder.

But before embarking on the above adventures I'll post some pictures here when I get the base system built into the case (I'm in desperate need of a pci-riser card for my SATA-controller card, any Dutchies here willing to donate/sell?).

Here's a list of things I've learnt so far during this project:

Spray-painting logos is not efficient and puts you at risk of messing up the paintjob. Use sticker paper!;
Low-profile hardware is still hard to find, especially at a reasonable price;
A small can of spray-paint is more than enough to paint an ATX case. Do not listen to salespersons in hobby-shops.

Last edited by welpert (2011-02-25 19:59:40)

zenlord · 2011-03-25 08:59:51

Very nicely done!

[Dutch]Ik heb in mijn studentenjaren ook wel eens zo'n paintjob gedaan, maar had niet het geduld om het *echt* goed te doen. Het resultaat was niet slecht, maar dit is duidelijk veel beter - ik weet trouwens ook dat kleine 'artefactjes' veel beter zichtbaar zijn op de foto dan IRL)[/Dutch]

Go tweaker!

ksira · 2011-04-08 14:01:48

Awesome work!

kdar · 2011-04-09 01:24:15

Amazing! I got to do something like this to my boring black computer case.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-02-01 17:52:08

Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#2 2011-02-03 04:24:55

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#3 2011-02-06 03:38:39

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#4 2011-02-06 21:56:24

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#5 2011-02-07 16:32:38

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#6 2011-02-07 17:11:04

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#7 2011-02-07 17:27:12

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#8 2011-02-07 18:16:19

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#9 2011-02-07 18:40:32

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#10 2011-02-07 19:33:32

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#11 2011-02-07 22:01:11

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#12 2011-02-08 00:07:45

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#13 2011-02-08 21:22:49

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#14 2011-02-14 22:22:24

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#15 2011-02-25 08:27:10

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#16 2011-02-25 17:25:46

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#17 2011-02-25 18:56:08

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#18 2011-02-25 18:59:24

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#19 2011-02-25 19:58:26

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#20 2011-03-25 08:59:51

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#21 2011-04-08 14:01:48

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

#22 2011-04-09 01:24:15

Re: Arch MicroATX Case Paintjob

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