PROJECT: Girlfriend Zen.

stopstartstall · 20 Jan 2008 at 00:17

This is going to be my first major mod. In a nutshell, I’m modding an akasa zen for my girlfriend because she’s always lamenting the lack of “nice, girly” cases available. I’m going to post all my efforts in here, and I’ll be aided and abetted by my girlfriend along the way.

The themes are really simplicity, funky/bold and girly.

PLANNING.
At the moment, she has a white Zen but she’s moved house and her new house has had a lot of building work done on it, so it’s been bashed about a bit. Originally she wanted to mod her case, but I bought a new one so we could start fresh.

The plans are quite simple:
- A custom window.
- Internal and external paint job.
- A custom front panel.

SIDE PANEL

I’ve never cut out a side panel before, but I know the principle so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I don’t think we’re going to use window trim so sanding and neatness is priority here. Circles might be harder to cut out but we thought it would be quite unique and it fits in with the cartoony/girly theme quite well.

FRONT PANEL

The custom front panel is going to be the biggest challenge I think. Simplicity is the key here, because both of us really dislike the Zen front panel as its plastic rather than metal. We’re thinking brushed aluminium with a hole for the CD drive and usb i/o at the front. At the moment the plan is to put the power button on top of the case because the case lives on the floor under the desk and it’s easier to hit there (and it stops her dog hitting it accidentally which it does at the moment). The front panel is most open to change and all suggestions are welcome!

PAINT

I’ve painted the insides of cases before so I’m not too worried about that, but the outside might be harder. Again, it’s something that I know the principles of but I’ve never done so it shouldn’t too much of a problem. I think we’re going to have black internals and possibly a purple/pinky colour on the outside. She’s quite keen to have a pinky/purple colour. I’ve seen a nice pale bluey/purple colour but she was having none of it

____________

We started work on cutting the windows today and after a few kinks (more detail in the next update) we finished cutting/grinding/sanding the first circle. We only have a couple of days a week to work on it (I’m at uni and she’s at college but I'm only allowed to work on it when she's there to see what I'm doing so we have to factor in time for school work) so I think I should be able to do update at least once a week if not twice a week.

All constructive criticism is very welcome!

Monkeynut · 20 Jan 2008 at 00:32

Give it some flowers on the side, and Barbie is a MUST!

Maybe some glowing UV tubes on the insides to give it a nice multicolour look?

stopstartstall · 20 Jan 2008 at 00:39

If I even suggested that I think I'd be in big trouble

UV tubes are a possible though, didn't even think about lighting actually, now that you mention it!

collisster · 20 Jan 2008 at 01:38

pictures

R B Customs · 20 Jan 2008 at 12:52

sounds great.

trust me... you will be in her good books for a while

if you're painting pinks purples or reds, always prime as near to white as you can, failing that prime grey, base coat white hten add the colour.

painting red or pink over anythign but white is a recipe for disaster

good luck,

ttiuwmp btw

Rb

Jonny L · 20 Jan 2008 at 13:26

If your going for circles cut out on the side panel, it may be an idea to invest in some hole saws, they will do a good clean job in a matter of seconds.

stopstartstall · 20 Jan 2008 at 15:09

Hadn't thought of hole saws actually. As we're both poor students we'd been planning on doing as much as possible on the cheap, so not sure how feasible that would be. I do have access to all my dad's tools, and all her dad's tools as well though so I might be able to find something suitable in there.

I'd already thought of priming white for the outsides. So that's not a problem but thanks for mentioning it.

I have some photos from yesterday, but no action shots so they might come later.

First of all, the case pre-modding just to get an idea of what we're working with.

Neither of us particularly like the front panel, as I mentioned. The rest of the case is your bog standard atx jobby.

This is a collection of the things I'd gathered together for the job. The thing in the black case is a dremel-a-like and massive collection of extensions for it. As we didn't have anything better to hand we used this to cut out and grind down the first circle. I'm going to have a look round to see if I can beg/borrow a hole saw from somewhere for the next cuts.

We drew round a cup, mug and saucer to get the right sizes

It was slow going but we managed to cut the first hole out with the dremel. The cutting discs supplied with the dremel wore down after about 2 inches of cutting so we went up to b&q to get some more (there's a massive one about five minutes drive from where I live). After a lot of umming and arring we bought the bog standard dremel branded discs and cut out the rest of the circle using only one disc, so I guess in this case you definitely do pay for quality!

It's not perfectly neat but after a bit of sanding/grinding using the dremel there's a definite improvement. It still needs some work, but I'm fairly sure that if I can't get my hands on a hole saw, we can get decent results with what we have. The scratches around the hole don't matter as I'll be painting the side panel when the windows are done.

I've never cut windows before so it was a bit of a "see how it goes" process really. There's maybe one or two bumps that still need grinding out and neatening up (as you can see from the closeup lol), but now that we know what we're doing it should go a lot quicker.

Should be working on the mod all day on Tuesday, and maybe a little tomorrow so expect some more updates then!

Raikiri · 20 Jan 2008 at 20:39

It is a lot of work to get nice clean cuts with a dremel, hole saws would make it a lot easier for you.

As long as you can get it smoothed out properly though that looks good so far.

When it comes to painting remember - thin layers and wet sand between each one for a good finish

stopstartstall · 22 Jan 2008 at 22:58

Worked on this some more today so have a few more photos.

First of all we tried to neaten up the circle that was already cut out. I think we made it look better than it was. I decided to press on with cutting rather than file and sand down inbetween and we managed to cut out all but one circle for the side panel today.

Got quite a lot of sparks while we were cutting but I think it was just the disc losing its edge cuz by this point it had worn down quite a lot (we were still using the first of the official dremel discs we bought from b&q).

Next hole done. Had to stop after this to change the dremel disc cuz it had worn down to this lol:

Pressed on until we had this:

Just need to cut out one more smaller circle at the bottom in the corner and the cutting is done. Still need to sand/grind/file these down though obviously. I'm fairly pleased with how it's turning out though. Despite the use of the dremel I don't think it looks too bad!

I've got the hang of using the dremel now though. I can keep the cuts fairly neat to start out with which is good. The plastic I ordered for the window turned up today as well, although I think I'm going to paint before I put the plastic on because I want the inside of the side panel to be painted as well and I don't want there to be black patches where the plastic overhangs the panel, if you see what I mean. I know what I mean, I think I'm just explaining it wrong.

Anyway, don't think there'll be any updates till the weekend so that's all for now!