Project Bordeaux

[Scurra]

Hey guys,

I thought I'd share with you my plans to slightly mod my coolermaster CM690. When I first built this machine I ordered the windowed side panel to go with it because I wanted to eventually try my hand at a little bit of case bling.

Well now I've finally got round to it. First let me introduce you to what I'm working with:

Just a bog standard CM690 courtesy of OcUK with an Asus Crosshair III mobo and XFX HD4890 (both of which handily have black circuit boards and red accents).

The plan is to have a two tone paint job, black on the outside, deep red in the middle.

To that end I managed to get hold of several of these:

To replace the stock CM fans and the extra 120mm fans I've added that are noisy spares from my cupboard.

I couldn't resist and fitted one to see what it would look like:

Pretty sweet!

 

[gary996]

I do like the Apollish and the specs are quite nice too

 

[Scurra]

Earlier tonight I went to get some paint for the case, a red primer and some Volkswagen Canyon Red. I decided that a colour test would probably be in order, so I opted to spray the side panel. 2 coats of primer later:

And the final paint I hope to apply tomorrow:

Having applied the two coats of primer I had a bit of a cat attack. My friendly feline managed to take a flying leap onto the touch dry side panel and scratch off the primer.

This leads me to a question for the more experienced spray painters out there... Should I lacquer the top coat of red to give it a more long lasting finish or will the final layer of top coat be sufficient?

Oh yes and I took a moment to tweak my amBx and CM Storm mouse to suit my new theme:

 

[Scurra]

I do like the Apollish and the specs are quite nice too

Me too, although I did happen across them by pure fluke, people don't seem to be very aware of them despite their ability to move quite a bit of air quietly whilst looking like the mutts proverbials.

The pop-out blades are a godsend as well. As you can probably see in some of the pictures my case tends to attract the dust and cat hair

 

[shadowscotland]

I'd say yes to lacquer if you frequently open up your case.
and you want an good pearlescant finish (remember to use 1200 grit wet and dry)
BUT after you applied the two light coats (at 10-15 intervals)
do not let anything heavier that an ant touch it for at least 24 hours. (and it stinks for 48h if not a week)

have two lacquered pearlescant panels hardening in my shed as I speak
both are hanging from an rivet hole (as are painted on both sides

 

[Scurra]

Thanks for the info shadowscotland I feel another trip to the paint shop coming on.

On a side note what do you find to be the easiest method of removing rivets? Providing the colour comes out OK on the side panel I was anticipating having to remove the drive enclosures and top and bottom panels to get a nice finish on them.

But obviously I want to do this without damaging the case or the exterior black paintwork (in the case of top and bottom panels).

 

[Tiamat21]

SWEET!
I love those lights next to your monitor!
Should get a Saitek vs2 keyboard and switch it to the red lighting to suit that aswell!
x

 

[Scurra]

SWEET!
I love those lights next to your monitor!
Should get a Saitek vs2 keyboard and switch it to the red lighting to suit that aswell!
x

Funny you should mention that, I spent the best part of my lunchbreak today at work looking at backlit keyboards in red. I see thermaltake have something in the works in that department at the moment.

 

[Akempster]

Thanks for the info shadowscotland I feel another trip to the paint shop coming on.

On a side note what do you find to be the easiest method of removing rivets? Providing the colour comes out OK on the side panel I was anticipating having to remove the drive enclosures and top and bottom panels to get a nice finish on them.

But obviously I want to do this without damaging the case or the exterior black paintwork (in the case of top and bottom panels).

all computer case manufacturer use pop rivets, best way to get em out is a drill.

 

[zophiel]

Funny you should mention that, I spent the best part of my lunchbreak today at work looking at backlit keyboards in red. I see thermaltake have something in the works in that department at the moment.

or the cyborg v5

 

[shadowscotland]

as Akempster said a dril.
I used a 13mm hhs bit - but that was only because my smaller ones were all blunt
Used a full sized power drill set to large screw (about 400rmp at a guess)
a few needed me to hold the internal part of the rivet with pliers but most didn't.

Just take it slow and don't press to hard - when you have a little ring of metal on the end of you drill bit,
just pull the rivet out from the inside.
Any slight over drill is masked by the new rivet/machine screw head anyway.

Putting mine back together with M3 X 6mm Allen button dome socket head screw bolts and Nyloc nuts.
works out at 6p a set when you buy 100.
Some cases (like my LL S80B) also need countersunk rivets/machine screws.
But I don't think you'll need any with your coolermaster

 

[Scurra]

Breaking news:

My LED Sunlight sticks arrived from the US today, I'll post pics when I get home.

 

[Scurra]

OK First things first, as I said earlier my sunlight sticks arrived in the mail today:

I did plug them in to see what they'd look like. They're exceptionally bright and very red. Everything I was hoping for really.

I also managed to get 2 layers of the final colour onto my side panel:

The flash has made it look a little patchy, I'll give it a very fine grit wet and dry and a final topcoat before lacquering so it should look shiny when I'm finished.

As I'm happy with the colour I'm setting a goal of having the case dismantled, sanded, primed and at least 2 layers of top coat by the end of the weekend. Maybe more.

 

[ch3333z]

This is exactly what I was thinking of doing to my CM690!! Although I am thinking of going for a deeper, darker red. I look forward to seeing how this turns out cos then I can see whether I should go ahead with it too!

 

[Scurra]

Well I took the final step and gutted my case, I'll have to post pics when it's all back together, I've removed everything that can be taken off with a screwdriver and plan on drilling some rivets this evening to get the drive bays out.

I've also managed to get a primer coat on my windowed side door and a coat of lacquer on the panel above.

I also swapped out the front fan for one of the enermax ones, and found that I can fit it with the rubber grommets even with the space restrictions.

Oh and ch3333z I'm not sure if darker would be the way to go. The red i'm using looks quite bright when lit by my kitchen spots but when the case is re-assembled it's going to look pretty dark I think.

 

[ch3333z]

yeh i can see what you mean by that. i was thinking of using a metallic red, so it would look dark - almost black. But with some internal lights, the red would become accented. I dunno its still just ideas for the time being, but thanks for the tip!

 

[Scurra]

I've been busy over the weekend.

I sanded the other door:

and lacquered the previous one:

Started stripping the rest of the case down:

Primed the door for painting:

Dismantled primed and topcoated the rest of it:

Re-assembled the windowed side door after bagging all of the screws, plastic rivets etc. that came off of it:

 

[Scurra]

Then I re-assembled the chassis, I decided to re-revit rather than use nuts and bolts, it went quite smoothly, although getting the top of the case back on and aligned was a bit of a struggle.

I've got some overspray at the top there, i'm going to remove it crarefully once fully assembled.

Fitting the rest of the fans:

Re-seat the trusty PSU:

And lastly get the rest of the guts back in. I did take a moment to remove the V8 cooler and re-apply the thermal paste in a x rather than my previous spread approach.

 

[gary996]

Looks very nice well done

 

[Scurra]

Ta,

I'm pretty pleased with it for a first attempt. I'll post some pictures of it all powered up and glowing later tonight when it gets dark