Link: http://www.mister4x4.net/PCTweak/buildinghellfire.htm

This project came about as a potential birthday present for my nephew. His mom sent me some money back in December 2006 and asked me to build a custom computer with the understanding that it would be his birthday present in June. She also sent me a video card they'd purchased (a nice nVidia 7600 PCI-E card) which didn't fit the machine they already had. So I spec'd out the machine and ordered parts.

Knowing her son as we did, a cool paint-job and other stuff was in order, so I also ordered a PowerUp! TC3J-4044 mid-tower case (see below) because of it's coolness factor. I wish they would've had a black one available, but it was going to get painted anyway.

The system specs:

Athlon 64 3500+
1GB DDR 400 RAM
ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe mobo
Maxtor 250GB SATA-II HDD
nVidia 7600 PCI-E video card
Lite-On DVD-RW+/- w/Lite Scribe
Lite-On DVD-ROM
NetGear Wireless PCI NIC
52-in-1 multi-media card reader
1.44 3.5" FDD
Antec Basiq 500 watt PS
Clear chassis fans w/Red LEDs (2)
Red Cold Cathode Tube light
Custom Window
Custom Paint w/graphics
Skull thumb screws for side panels
PowerUp! TC3J-4044 Mid Tower

I had the parts sitting around for almost 5 months before I had a chance to do anything with them. So I kinda had to scramble a little to get it done in time for his birthday. I know I keep saying I'll do better about getting these things done sooner, but I never seem to make it work. Oh well.

I kicked off the build effort Saturday morning by making a run to Lowe's to score some still-needed materials: Lexan panel (for the window), some Allen-head screws and Nylock nuts (to hold the Lexan in place), paint, and some metal-cutting jigsaw blades. Once I had all the gear at home, I set-up my makeshift workbench in the garage once again. Like a dumb-ass, I hadn't opened the case box and inspected the case before Saturday, and there was a nice dent on the edge of the top panel... right by the front - chipped and missing paint as well. Wonderful. Oh well, press on.

After totally dismantling all of the components in the case, I discovered that the top was actually pop-riveted to the chassis. Bummer. Oh well, time to drill out the pop-rivets, because there was no way I could paint the chassis and the outer skins the way I wanted with everything all attached like that. And there was also no way to repair the dent with the whole thing assembled as well. Cheap-Ass sheet metal tip number 1: Sometimes computer cases can get a little mangled when the UPS dudes get bored and decide to play football with your package on the loading dock.

After I repaired the dent (pounded it out and re-shaped the edge (turned out OK - a guy named Bart that does body-work in Wichita, Kansas would've been proud). I drew the skull outline on the left-side panel. Cutting out the skull was going to be a snap, after all, with the jigsaw I borrowed from my pal Jim. Yeah... right. Cheap-Ass sheet metal tip number 2: A jigsaw will mangle the crap out of cheap sheet metal if given the opportunity... and it had plenty of opportunity. I made it through 3 good cuts before the jigsaw threatened to completely mangle everything in sight - including me if I wasn't careful. I know what you're thinking - and yes, I can use a jigsaw, quite well, actually. But I've never really used one on this kind of cheap sheet metal before. So this was a learning experience... I learned that next time I'll call my pal Bud Sizemore and have him cut something like this out on his precision laser/plasma cutting rig.

So - time to bust out the trusty ol' Dremel.

Fortunately, I had a handful of the fiberglass reinforced cut-off wheels and a full 30-pack of those cheapo "heavy duty" cut-off wheels. You know, the ones that disintegrate within 45 seconds of cutting, or snap altogether if you look at them funny while cutting. It's a good thing too, because I used all but 2 of them to cut the shape you'll see below.

Here we go again: Cheap-Ass sheet metal tip number 3: Never try to pick the little straggler scrap off using your index finger after you've just finished cutting it with the Dremel. The resulting blister from the burn makes it hard to push the nozzle on the spray can when painting later. (I know this is probably more of a Common Sense rule than a sheet metal tip - but they're related... trust me)

Once I had the had the window cut, I drilled some holes for mounting the Lexan panel to the back once this all comes together. I also lined up and drilled the corresponding holes in the Lexan panel. OK - now that all of the cutting and drilling is done, time to lay down some base coat. I shot some Rustoleum Cherry Red on the chassis and backsides of the outer skins, and let that dry for a couple hours. Once that was all done, I flipped everything back over and fogged on some Rustoleum Black Hammered-Finish paint. So far, so good.

Sunday had me setting up my spiffy new expandable step-ladder as a painting easel so I could have a decent way to paint everything. I hadn't painted anything since Dave's truck back in November, so I had to get friendly with the airbrush again. I was hoping to use my new Iwata HP-CS that I scored on eBay, but the fitting for the air-hose was too big. I guess I need a new air hose for it now. Bummer. Oh well, the Paasche VL does a nice job, so no biggee. Once I started laying down some orange flames, I was getting back into it and was pretty happy with how the left panel (with the window) was going. So I grabbed the other side panel and decided to free-hand a flaming skull onto it. I chickened out and drew some quick guidelines with my trusty ol' Sharpie first though - they were going to be hidden with the paint, after all. It was turning out great... until I decided to pile on some more colors and ruined the effect I was going for. Dammit. I've never been good at 'minimizing' anything. Oh well - it turned out OK - just not exactly how I wanted it. And with both side panels done, I decided to try again with the top panel... except this time, this guy was going to look a little meaner. Same deal - Sharpie then paint. Although, I'm much happier about how he turned out (technique-wise, that is). Looks meaner too. ;-)

OK - so now all the graphics are done, so it's time to clear coat everything. Since I hadn't planned on clearing the chassis, I flipped everything black-side up and started shooting (Rustoleum Clear) and pretty much finished up the front bezel and door, when I noticed this bizarre crinkling effect going on. Oh. My. God. I had just ruined everything. The black Hammered-Finish said something about waiting 48 hours to cure (but I didn't have that kind of time) and I hit it with the clear at 24 hours. Well, the chemical reaction wasn't quite through, so it wrinkled like a big dawg.

CRAP!!

Then my wife saw it and said it looked cool. So, worried about what it was going to do to the graphics, I shot the rest of the pieces and the same thing happened pretty much everywhere - I would up with pretty much the equivalent of Harley Wrinkle-Black all over the whole thing. It didn't mess up the graphics in the least... I got lucky there.

I let it dry overnight and took Monday off so I could finish assembling the whole thing. Once I got the top pop-riveted back on, it was all downhill from there. Everything went in like it was supposed to, except that I didn't have a power supply anywhere. Dammit! So, I took a break from the heat and ran to Circuit City for an Antec Basiq 500 PS. Of course, it was twice as expensive as ordering online, but oh well - again, I didn't have any more time for small stuff like this. Once I got the power supply installed and zip-tied all the wires in-place I took it inside and began loading Windows. Normally, zip-tying everything means that I'll have some issue crop up that I'll have to take everything all apart to fix, but it all went well this time. It's like the machine knew it needed to be done and out the door today... and it behaved. After I finished everything up, I took a couple of quick pictures, packed it all up, and ran it to Office Depot for UPS pick-up. Hopefully, it'll get there in time, and more importantly - intact.

Lessons learned: Bug some friends that have cooler tools for the hard stuff, make sure you have everything before you begin, check ALL of the parts when they show up, and don't wait until the last damn minute to do this kind of stuff anymore.

Well, that's pretty much it. Nothing major, nothing spectacular beyond the window and paint. Hopefully, my nephew will be happy with it and maybe even get me some more pictures.

Link: http://www.mister4x4.net/PCTweak/buildingjemezman.htm

This project came about as a Christmas present to my friend... which kinda took 3 Christmas's to get done. My friend Jim is originally from Los Alamos, New Mexico and really digs the southwestern style. So immediately, I had plans about how a New Mexico themed case would look, and it's pretty much what you'll see below. Lots of things affected the timeline of building the case... but the biggest thing was Jim's patience - which it seems like he has more than I'll ever be able to muster up, as he never complained about not having received this 'present' back when it was promised... but also as the next 2 Christmas holidays came and went. I was even a couple days late getting it to him this year as well. Don't get me wrong - he gave me plenty of ribbing about it over the time... which was well deserved and I would expect nothing less from him as well.

I'm actually pretty embarrassed that it took so long to execute. Not so much time really went into it - just gettin' off me arse and actually working on it was the tough part - because something else always comes up. It's pretty much just a couple of LED fans, a window, and a paintjob - nothing really spectacular.

Back in 2002, I picked up a nice full-tower kit from mwave.com with the intention of modding it to what you see below. Unfortunately, the idea of cutting the window and how I was going to make the dreamcatcher work was the first major hurdle. After a long time of planning, I realized that it was too close to the holiday to complete the case, so I got him something else and promised I'd finish it soon. The bad thing is that I do most of my work at the Auto Hobby Shop (where he actually works), so trying to get it done there seemed like it would be tough... but he already knew about it and it kind of became a joke after awhile.

Once I got the window cut - it sat for another few months while I tried to figure out how to work the window's glass and still incorporate the dream catcher.

Then about 3 months ago (September 2005), I got some inspiration (and motivation) when another friend asked me to paint the tank and fenders for his motorcycle. After I found out what he wanted, I figured I'd mod a case for him with the same theme as a practice effort. BUT - I still had to finish this case for Jim. It would be just wrong to start another project without finishing this up, after all.

So I brought the front panel in and cut out Kokopelli with my Dremel, and also cut out the chassis fan guards to fit the LED fans it so they wouldn't be obstructed. Then - I got tagged with a bunch of TDY's to various places... each for a week at a time. Somewhere in there was a car show that I entered the Jeep in, Thanksgiving, and my time spent with the Community Band. Like I say - something else always comes up.

So with about a month to go before Christmas 2005, I finally drilled the holes to thread the dream catcher and painted the Fleckstone paint. The following week I had to go to Boston for a maintenance training course, and when I got back, I had two weeks to go. I checked all of my reference drawings and even surfed out for some more. But blew off actually laying down the murals until the Friday before Christmas Day.

That night, I got the Eagle Kachina on the left panel done. Saturday (Christmas Eve) I worked on the dream catcher and showed Jim the actual progress when he came by to drop off my Christmas presents (see how cool he is?). Then I kinda finished the rest of it on Christmas Day and clear-coated the murals on the day after Christmas, I also mounted up the glass that day - which I'm still not too keen on how it worked out. As I finished it up, I called Jim to arrange delivery - and he was sick in bed with some kind of stomach bug. Whoa! Hey - it wasn't my fault this time! For once...

So, after work 2 days after Christmas, I had him over while I put the chassis altogether and took the pictures. He got it home and transferred his computer into the new case and apparently thinks it was worth the wait. I'm glad he's happy with it - but I'm still embarrassed it took me so long to get the man his Christmas present from 2002.

Link: http://www.wcc.net/~mr4x4/buildingkevin.htm

I was on a forum site that I visit all the time and read the story of Kevin Suberg's battle with Medulloblastoma - brain cancer (Kevin's website). Kevin is the nephew of my friend and co-worker Ron, and is one of the neatest kids I've ever met. When Ron mentioned that Kevin wasn't doing well on the website forums (4peeps.com), the members decided they wanted to do something special for Kevin.

I had built Rusty (my NASCAR machine) because I wanted to have something unique and fitting to have in my room with all my NASCAR collectibles. When Kevin saw a picture of it, all he could say was "COOL!" After hearing that he was not doing well again, I made up my mind that building a machine for him was what I wanted to do.

I had talked it over with Ron via MSN Messenger and we had decided that we were going to build the machine and split the cost. At some point, he had brought it up to his friends at 4peeps.com and they decided that's what they wanted to do with the money they were collecting for Kevin. So I put together a parts list for everything needed build the machine with a cost estimate, and the money started rolling in.

I had the honor of meeting Kevin and his parents around the end of January after completing a class I attended in San Antonio, Texas. I was sitting in my hotel room yakking on MSN one night, and his Mom jumped on. We talked a bit and then I found out they were in San Antonio too. The light went on for me, as I'm sure I'd heard that somewhere before. I asked if I could meet with them and they agreed. The Saturday morning after my class, I went over to their place and we had a ball - he showed me his room with all his NASCAR stuff (which makes me look like I'm just getting started), played some games, and went to lunch. We had lots of fun and I talked with his parents about building the computer for Kevin while he raided the 'claw' machine and won more toys. His Mom mentioned that the local racetrack was going to sponsor a Daytona 500 Race Watch party at one of the local pubs, and I figured that would be the perfect time to present the machine to Kevin. Having seen Rusty, she asked me how long it would take to build the machine, and I told her I would have it ready in time for the Daytona party. She was a little unsure of my claim and kept asking me if I was sure - that it seemed awfully short notice to build something like that... with only 3 weeks lead time. I told her no problem... I'd have it ready.

When I returned from San Antonio, I ordered all the parts and had them shipped 2nd Day Air so I could get working on it as quickly as possible. The stuff from Tower Hobbies showed up first, so I was able to start putting the chassis and body together. I still had the other half of the sheet of aluminum I made Rusty out of, so I began with that.

After cutting down the body to the right shape I was looking for, I marked and cut the chassis out of the aluminum sheet with a pnuematic jigsaw. After cleaning up the edges with a file and Dremel, I decided to polish the chassis before I did anything else, to save my knuckles from getting hacked up on the rough edges. This time, I decided to paint the underside with the same colors as the body, so I sand-blasted the bottom side for better paint adhesion. I used the same 1�x1� aluminum L-channel stock and made the wheel mounts, which I pop-riveted to the chassis. I also had to cut a round hole in the back for the power supply fan for ventilation. I also found the need to bend the chassis upwards of 15 degrees in the back to stay tucked under the body. The power supply barely fits under the �trunk� now.

I had to custom-fab a bulkhead for the power switch & LED and the reset switch and hard drive light, and one for the second USB connector as well. For that, I used the same 1�x1� aluminum L-channel I used to mount the wheels to the chassis with. After that, I located everything and drilled the necessary holes to mount everything. I found a new power cord with a 90-degree bend so I wouldn't have to cut another hole in the body for it to exit.

Now it was time to put everything on the chassis. I mounted the hard drive up front this time, and put the CD-ROM under the mobo with its facing the left side of the car, so Kevin could eject the CD-ROM without having to lift the body or make room in front of the car like I did with Rusty. The laptop CD-ROM was mounted using Velcro this time � to allow putting a new one in in case it goes bad over time. These modifications are going to find their way into Rusty eventually, since they make a lot more sense than what I've got now.

I painted the wheels and put the 'Goodyear' stickers on, along with some strips of yellow electric tape (which is how the pit crews align their tires when they put them on). I found some #24 decals and the body came with some of the Monte Carlo body decals, so all I had to come up with were the sponsor decals. So once again, I used PaintShop Pro 6 and PhotoShop 6 to make the decals and print them out on adhesive-back photo paper � a few were scanned from actual pictures of the real car, but the rest were drawn by me. Getting the decals to fit was easier this time since I already had a pretty good idea how big they were supposed to be, so it worked out fairly well.

Some of the people weren't aware and couldn't believe that it was a computer. The Emcee for the party thought it was a Remote Controlled car, until I corrected him - then he was kinda surprised afterwards.

Link: http://www.mister4x4.net/PCTweak/buildingrusty.htm

I sat at my computer desk one day and listened to the BIOS alarm on my main machine going off. I realized that the new machine I had just built to run my website, FTP site, and act as software router that I had placed under the desk right next to it was causing cooling issues with Big Dawg. So, looking around, I tried to figure out where I could put the new box to keep Big Dawg happy, and still be able to use my KVM switch between the two. Nothing looked good, and then it hit me – build a machine that looks like a NASCAR race car and put it on a shelf above my desk so it looks like it’s part of my Rusty Wallace collection of die-cast race cars.

I was a big fan of the GTR-PC I saw on the internet a few years back (I’m still apalled that someone actually stole that machine), and that served as a huge part of my inspiration to create the machine you see now. Except that he had used a 1/8th scale remote control car body for his machine, and there were no NASCAR bodies in that scale – I’m also into R/C cars as a hobby. So I realized I had to go smaller scale in the 1/10th range, which would give me quite a selection of bodies, wheels, tires, etc, to choose from.

I scored a sheet of 4mm aluminum, the Parma 2001 Taurus Super Speedway body, some Pro-Line Green pre-mounted foam tires, and a couple of NASCAR Taurus decal kits. I cut a test chassis out of cardboard to fit to the body, then began my measurements. Not just any motherboard would fit into the chassis and tuck under the body, so I went with a Gigabyte K7 Triton Micro ATX mobo, since it was only 190mm X 243mm – which would fit in there nicely. I also decided to go with a laptop CD-ROM, Micro ATX power supply, and elevate the mobo on some extra brass stand-offs so I could stuff the hard drive under there. There wasn’t much room to put stuff on top of the mobo and have it all still fit under the body. I also decided to exclude a floppy drive, since there wasn’t much room for it, and who uses floppies anymore anyway, right? My other big problem was how to get two NICs necessary to run as a software router. One was already on-board the mobo, so I snagged a 90 degree port-adapter card and laid the NIC down across the board. And it just barely clears the hood.

After several test-fittings, I cut the chassis out of the aluminum sheet with a jigsaw (after I saw what a plasma-cutter did to the sheet aluminum, I figured I’d get a cleaner edge doing it the old way. After several hours of cleaning up the edges with a file and Dremel, I found some 1”x1” aluminum L-channel stock and made the wheel mounts, which I pop-riveted to the chassis. I also had to cut a square hole in the back for the power supply fan to hang out of (literally) for ventilation. I also found the need to bend the chassis upwards of 15 degrees in the back to stay tucked under the body. The power supply barely fits under the ‘trunk’ now.

I had to custom-fab a bulkhead for the power switch & LED and the reset switch and hard drive light. For that, I used the same 1”x1” aluminum L-channel I used to mount the wheels to the chassis with. After that, I located everything and drilled the necessary holes to mount everything. I hand-polished the chassis, since I wasn’t smart enough to polish it before I pop-riveted the wheel mounts on. I also discovered that the power supply’s power cord would’ve come out of the body in a bad place, so I took it apart and hard-wired the power supply cord to the power supply.

Now it was time to put everything on the chassis. Surprise! Everything fit. I mounted the hard drive under the mobo with its interface towards the driver’s side so I could fold the cables under for a cleaner look. The laptop CD-ROM was mounted using double-stick ‘servo tape’ – which I thought was fitting since so much other R/C car tech was used on this project so far.

I painted the wheels and body and realized that the NASCAR Taurus decals were not the ones I needed to use. Plus, nobody made a decal set for Rusty Wallace’s #2 Miller Lite Special. Imagine that – I’ve had a hard time finding any good collectible stuff for him, so why should this be any different? So, between MS Paint, PaintShop Pro 6, and PhotoShop 6, I was able to make the decals and print them out on adhesive-back photo paper – a few were scanned or ripped from actual pictures of the real car, but the rest were drawn by me. Getting the decals to fit was tough and took many attempts, but I think I got it worked out fairly well. Plus, it looks like it’s part of my Rusty Wallace collectibles and most people that see it can’t believe that it’s a computer.

Link: http://www.mister4x4.net/PCTweak/buildinganubis.htm

This project came about as a result of building too big of a computer for my wife's desk. When we upgraded her machine from an AMD K6-2/500 to an Athlon machine, we switched from a Baby AT case to an ATX mid-tower, that was too tall to fit under the shelf of her desk. And needing as much storage space in her computer desk as she can get, I decided to get a new case and transfer the system into it.

Her old machine started out inside a CodeGen mid-tower w/4 5.25 bays, which was about 5" too tall to fit the desk without major modification... screw that.

The case I chose is an In-Win A500 from MWave.com. It has a 300 watt power supply, 3 5.25" bays, and 3 3.5" bays. They call it a 'Super Mini-Tower,' which is perfect to fit under the shelf I can now reinstall on her desk.

Over the past year, my wife's been collecting all sorts of Egyptian Mythological artwork and figurines, and has even gotten into quilt-work and ceramics as result. So, I figured I had a direction to go with this. I spent a lot of time at Virtual-Hideout and Blue-Smoke on the galleries checking out the modded cases, and came up with a simple idea for my first 'real' effort. Painting Guard Dawg black wasn't really anything to speak of, I wanted something a little more exotic. So I decided on a sandstone case with hieroglyphics and crypt murals with a cartouche on the top.

I also decided I wanted a lit case, but didn't want to go with a window. I noticed someone had lit a cutout of a crow on the front panel of their case, so I decided to go that route, and envisioned the cover of the Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky album. Then I drew out the 'Eye of Ra' on the backside of the front panel and took the Dremel to it. Had it cut out in no time and took the hot glue gun to the green LED 3-pack. No problem.

Then I pulled the main cover and front panel for the Sandstone paint. After a couple coats of Fleckstone, it was ready for the artwork. The left panel is a rip-off of a clock that she found on e-Bay with Isis, Osirus, & a Pharoah during Judgement Day. I'm a big Stargate SG-1 fan, and the theme of the show ties in with the Egyptian Mythology, so I tossed some of the Stargate 'Chevrons' on the mural as well as one of the 'Stargate addresses,' which I totally made up.

The top panel is a cartouche of her name - which wound up way too big, now that I look at it. Plus, I would've preferred to paint it Metallic Gold, as most of the cartouches I've seen in real life were made of Gold. Oh well.

The right panel is a figure drawing of Horus (left) and Anubis (right) with the Scarab from the Journey - Greatest Hits CD cover (she loves Journey) as well as the Unreal Tournament shield - again, she plays UT and UT2003 like crazy. Maybe this would inspire her. The hieroglyphics are from the phonetic alphabet and actually spell out a message, but I'll probably get my ass kicked if she ever figures it out.

Just a little FYI - the artwork was hand-drawn by me with my trusty Sharpie magic marker, and a set of Pentel color sticks from a local arts & crafts store to fill in the colors. The White areas on the murals were done using a white China Pencil. Nothing fancy about the techniques used here or anything. So, no - it's not a sticker... LOL!

Once the artwork was done, the case sat for a few weeks while I figure out what else to do with it. Meanwhile, I ordered some round cables, for airflow more than anything since I don't plan on cutting a window in the side or anything. Then I got the idea to paint the chassis Metallic Gold. Having done that, the rest of the chassis components (except the power supply - didn't feel like taking it apart) were painted Metallic Gold as well. Then I decided on painting the faceplates of the CD-ROM, Floppy, & Breakout Panel along with all of the bulkhead panels the same Metallic Gold as well. Hindsight would have me paint the bay covers during the process instead of the Fleckstone, but oh well.