Superman case mod

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Superman case mod
10/22/2001 
It's more of a paint job than a case mod, but I finished a case with a Superman theme for my three-
year-old son's machine. 
This box started life as a generic, beige, AT mini-tower. I won't bother you with pictures of that, 
you pretty well know what I'm talking about. Inside the box is a Pentium 200 (with MMX!), so 
cooling really is not an issue. Since the box is set up on the floor, dust is a big issue, so there are no 
fans in this mod. Since the box sits under the table, I decided to skip cutting a window as well. This 
is one of those cases with the one-piece metal housing, so cutting would be a challenge anyway.
Well then, let's get started. The bezel came off by removing four screws (that gets an award from 
me--I hate clip-on bezels). Here you see the parts I wanted to dye red, then the product I used to dye 
them, then the pieces ater the first coat of dye.
When dying plastic, you want to use several thin coats to get a smooth, even coverage. I've talked to 
some modders who have had problems with dye running or crackling on their pieces. Just go slow, 
and do several thin coats. It dries very quickly and you can recoat within a few minutes. Here's my 
red pieces after about three or four coats. The detail shot shows how nicely the dye treats raised 
lettering (in contrast to paint, which can bunch up around it).
Let's look at the blue pieces now. A helpful technique is to use toothpicks to stand your pieces up 
from the cardboard if you need good coverage on all sides of a piece that won't sit flat. The pictures 
don't depict this especially well, but the buttons had a gloss finish, and after dying they maintained 
somewhat of a gloss (although not as much as before). The other pieces were the matte finish you're 
familiar with.
Here's my red and blue pieces together. You can see I always use this product outdoors. The fumes 
are overpowering. One problem with working outdoors (there are many problems, but this is one) is 
getting bugs in your paintjob. Luckily, dye isn't too tacky, and dries really quickly (especially with 
thin coats!), so kamikaze bugs are lees of a problem than with paint. Check out what was going on 
in my yard when I did these.
Yes, I got bugs all over my pieces. No, it wasn't a problem (nuisance, maybe). Everything turned 
out fine. However, I knew painting outside would not be an option. I left my pieces in the sun to 
cure and proceeded in to the garage for my paint work. Now even with my respirator, I can't work 
in a confined space with paint fumes, so I had to open my garage door. I tried to stay as far back 
from the opening as I could to make it harder for the bugs to find me, but that was only partially 
successful.
For the metal, I used Rustoleum Painter's Choice, deep blue. It's available at Home Depot, unlike 
the dye which comes from auto parts store. I liked the color, which is why I got it, but the Painter's 
choice paint is a line from Rustoleum without the rust preventative properties of regular Rustoleum. 
I have always gotten good results with Rustoleum, so I thought I'd try this paint. I was quite 
pleased.
Here's my metal housing after a single coat. The best thing I did here was to use thin coats, because 
the little bugs were seemingly attracted by the fumes. I don't know why, maybe their lives are so 
pathetic that suicide seemed appealing.
So, maybe six thin coats later, applied about twenty minutes apart, I had even coverage with no 
obvious thin spots. At that point, I put a heavier coat on (not very heavy, but enought to look "wet") 
to even out the texture. I knew that I could pick off any kamikaze bugs and what was under them 
would at least be blue.
There were about a dozen bugs or so, which I picked off with my pocketknife blade once the paint 
had dried to the touch. They came off very nicely. I had given up on taking pictures of my progress 
with the blue paint, because the bugs were occupying my attention pretty well. I'd get them cleared 
off, and start spraying one side, only to see more on the other side. It was frustrating. I intended to 
wet sand them off if it became a problem, but luckily that wasn't necessary.
Everything dried quite nicely, with a rich, deep color. Here's some pictures of the finished box. The 
graphics are from a decal sheet I bought at the auto parts store. I used an exacto knife to cut out 
some parts from the sheet that weren't pre-cut decals, like the Superman image, and the logo. The 
emblems were pre-cut. Power and HDD LEDs were replaced with blue, and I left the turbo LED 
red, but when I hooked it up, I accidentally miswired it so it's always on. I liked it, so I left it that 
way. So it's a nice companion to the blue LEDs. The strange shaped blue piece on the front used to 
have a beige and green energy star logo screenprinted on the back of a transparent glossy insert. The 
insert was used to cover what appeared to be holes for a speed readout and a keylock (remember, 
this is an AT case). So I sanded off the printing and painted the back blue, masking off the bit for 
the LED to shine through.
The first and last pics show the matching mouse. I actually did the mouse a while ago, as a test 
piece for the red and blue dye.
The final result: my son greatly approved. He's especially enthusiastic about Superman right now. 
We tweaked his desktop wallpaper and startup sounds to go with the theme as well.
	Superman case mod
	10/22/2001