Modding A Coolermaster Praetorian (Alternative to Anodising, Painting etc)

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Some of you might have seen my previous thread, where I said that I got a Coolermaster Praetorian for a bargain (£25). It was in quite bad condition, front grill was dented, two of the bay covers were dented, and there were a lot of scratches.

Anyway I sorted out this problem, but still had all of the scratches on the case. I decided to go down one of three paths...

1. Painting - This seemed like a great idea as all the of scratches would disappear, but seemed a lot of money for something that could easily go wrong!

2. Anodising - A great finish and would remove all the scratches but very expensive

3. Polishing - After looking through the forums, I saw a polished Lian Li case which I thought looked stunning. This seemed like a great idea but would need a lot of time and patience.

After a lot of thought, I decided to go for the polishing option!

I kitted myself out with:

Wet and Dry - Grit 180, 240, 400 and 1200
Fairy Liquid
Brasso
Kitchen Towels (Disposable as its cheaper!)

Anyways I thought I would start on a drive bay cover so if it went wrong, I could easily replace it.

Here is a picture of what I started with and a picture of what the drive bay cover looked like after I had used wet and dry (180) on it and a picture of the original. I sanded against the grain, from side to side.



I then did the same with 240 and then wet and soapy 400

Finally I used the wet and soapy 1200 to get the final scratches out:



As soon as I had done that, I washed the drive bay cover and put a bit of brasso on a kitchen towel. I then scrubbed in the direction I had sanded for 15 minutes. I then got a clean kitchen towel and cleaned again for a further 5 minutes.

Here is the result:



Let me know what you think guys or if you have any other ideas :) . I'm cutting a side panel for it so that should be up soon as well! I will give day to day updates of the different parts I do. I want to spray the inside matt black but haven't decided yet!
 
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looking good there, its a horrible job isnt it polishing!!!! came out the garage looking like the silver surfer. but if you want a real mirror finish you need some better metal polish the best you can buy is PEEK POLISH excellent stuff

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hi mate, that looks good! Thats the thing though, I don't want a proper mirror finish... just a shiny finish that gives the case a sort of a gun metal finish :D
 
Cheers mate, doing the front panel at the moment - taking absolutely ages. Should have pics of it up soon!
 
looks great!

Only problem with the front panel is that you'll loose all the writing on it
 
I'm going to be working on the front and top of it tomorrow :) . Got a long days work ahead of me lol. Will keep you updated though!
 
Thought i'd give another update :) !

Things are taking a lot longer than I thought they would! I've done all four drive bay covers now and have started the front panel.

Here is a pic of the finished drive bay covers:



These are pics of the front panel before they have been started... (done a tiny bit in the top left hand corner):





The front panel is proving to be a lot tougher than I originally thought - due to all of the recessed bits etc... and the size of it in comparison to a drive bay cover!

As you can see in the second pic, there are also scracthes that I want to remove which will add more time to the project!

Keep the comments coming! :)
 
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