Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...ACCELERATED FEAR - JOHNY FIVE - UPDATE 7.5
johnyfive
Hey Guys, a small update here to share some good news!
The new PSU from Alex Watson of Custom PC Magazine turned up today in….
A HUGE BOX! hahah
Remember i said it was going to be OCZ but wasnt quite sure what model? Well, i nearly shot through the roof when i opened up the box because…
Man i wasnt expecting that one, what an awesome power supply! I dont care if i have to tear the old one apart now (although i think it might just fit )
A big thankyou to Alex Watson of Custom PC Magazine, very generous of you and its very much appreciated…get custom pc subscriptions people!!!
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...ACCELERATED FEAR - JOHNY FIVE - UPDATE 7
johnyfive
Update 7
Hi Guys, time for an update! My little girl is due in 4 days, so i wanted to get this done now as i dont know when i will have time as ill soon be super busy. On with the update.
You guys pwnd Photobucket last time! Totally blew 25gb of bandwidth away so iv had to make a secondary account for hosting otherwise it would be a load of bandwidth exceeded pics.
Anyway, after i had fitted the psu into the case i needed to make a junction box to power the hard drive and the optical drive, it will also act as a junction box for the fans and water pump. I got this project box from maplins.
Cut out a rough piece of 5mm plex, screwed it to the top and began matching the shape of the box.
Getting there, still a bit of sanding to to to get rid of those deep nicks.
I needed to add 5 input/output ports for the box, i planed to have the two cable groups from the PSU going in the top, and 3 groups going in/out of the front. One each for the drives, and the other will probably take the SATA cables and the on/off switches, reset switches wires from the motherboard. So i marked up 3 holes for the front of the box.
Then i realized i wanted to light the box from the inside, so i just ended up cutting the whole lot out!
I added some more of the cable glands from before to match the PSU. Here is a test fit.
Nice and smooth now, needs a polish but ill do that later.
But that’s only 3 ports i hear you yell!
Here is the other 2, i drilled them at work during a quiet period, also added rivnuts to the holes to hold the new plate on.
Heres the panel i made to go onto the top of the junction box, i did a little experiment etch in the middle, it wont be seen but i wanted to try my hand at it for a future part of the case - more on that later.
Here is a snap of the blocks being used in the box, 3.3v, 5v, 12v and Ground.
Im going to be painting the box part the same color as the PSU (Vauxhal Platinum) but im going to make something else out of black plex right now that will also need painting so ill do it all at once. The next thing to make is the frame for the lovely HDD Cooler QuietPc sent. I knocked up there two little brackets during the quiet period at work, unfortunatly i couldnt take photo’s of the process as we arnt allowed cameras inside the facility.
Basically i bent a long piece of black plex, chopped it in half so i had two bits, the bolted them together and shaped them as one piece. Then used a dremel to cut out the grooves and a needle file to smooth them down. I used the cooler as a template to line up the holes, here is a test fit.
And a snap of the proposed position.
I decided to hold the drive at an angle like this so that the top half of the air from the intake fan is angled upwards towards the big copper heatsinks cooling the northbridge and ram, and the bottom half is compressed under the drive and pushed towards the silentpipe II on the 8600GT.
Now iv got a few bits and pieces to paint i had to take another trip to halfords to get some more paint, using 3 coats on everything really uses it up!
Here is everything primed with the filler primer i mentioned earlier.
After that, a coat or 3 of platinum, and hung up to dry (looks like a demented wind chime!)
All dry and after 3 coats of lacquer
I added some frosted blue LED’s to the inside of the junction box to add some interior lighting, not sure how it will look, but lighting is something i will sort out after i have everything in place.
Here is the cooler with the painted brackets.
Kinda reminds me of a futuristic dragster! haha
I made some little brackets that will hold the junction box onto the fron of the case, same as before, made them at work but no process shots.
1 hour to make, 5 hours to get them back to being shiney, but worth it.
Here’s the junction box reassembly after painting and being held onto the front of the case with the new brackets.
I decided to change the choice of screws to button heads (above) as i think they add contour to the otherwise flat panels, what do you guys think? Im going to keep the same screw theme throughout so ill be changing the ones on the PSU too.
I wired the LEDs to the blocks and gave it a little test light.
Not sure about it, im thinking white LED’s might give a better effect.
Had a slight problem..
ARRRGGHHH not long enough! That’s a **** load of work there to extend those 
My fault though.
Here’s a shot of the hoses connected to the box.
As you can see i extended all the PSU wires which took the best part of the evening but now there super long. I had to use blue wire instead of orange as maplins “the electronics experts” (PAH! trained chimps more like) dont keep it in stock, the guy there didn’t even know about wire gauge for christs sake. Anyway i terminated all the wires to the blocks.
Now for some work on the rear I/O panel, i still needed to add a fan hole, and the graphics card slot.
Gouged a nice big chunk out, what a mess!
But it gave me a reference point.
Cut out the shape, sanded it, polished it and re-masked it, also added the hole for the fan and the screw holes.
Now remember that test etch? mmm, you guessed it!
Started with a simple pattern, using a scalpel and a steel rule, also added holes for the hose.
The as i went on i decided to add more and more to the design.
STOOOOP!!! if i do anymore i know im going to ruin it, virtually had to price the scalpel out of my king fu grip!
Cat time! Ahhhh look at him, he’s so cute!
ARGHHH NOOOOOOOOOO!
Bad cat! hahaha he’s mental, look at the size of those claws. He took a proper swipe at my face there. >.<
Back to the etch! I took it to my mate, he’s got a really cool machine called a shot blaster, its basically a sand blaster except it uses really fine Iron Silicate shot and fires it through a gun at a million MPH! Its insane, here is the panel after blasting.
VERY dusty! I took it to the sink and washed it all off, also removed the tape.
A test fit for the mobo and graphics car slot.
Thank god that fits.
The radiator i bought is either a load of ****, or every radiator has this problem, basically the paint chips really easy! i barely looked at it and its chipped to buggery. So i decided to paint it. Masked it up..
look at those chips goddammit, gonna sand them out.
Painted it but forgot to take pics, you will see it later when its on anyways, it basically a radiator…that’s platinum colored.
Good News!
After my persistent badgering of Dennis List at A.C.Ryan they finally gave in!
Big thanks to Dennis and A.C.Ryan for the support. 
Logo added to banner.
I mentioned before that i wasnt happy with the rating of the power supply, it will limit me greatly if i decide to upgrade any of the hardware being 480w,
Alex Watson, the editor of custom PC magazine has shown interest in the project and is going to be sending a new PSU, an 800w OCZ model, hopefully i can keep the modded chassis and swap the insides. A very big thankyou to Alex Watson! Another logo for the banner, shots of the PSU when it arrives on Monday.
So, i ordered some Fesar 1 UV Coolant and some UV CCFL’s and decided to fill the loop and leak test it, as the I/O panel was finished i can permanently secure the rad and run the hoses through. Heres a few shots.
Ignore the slight untidiness, the case is far from finished, i just really wanted to get loop in and leak tested.
That’s it for this update guys, hope you enjoyed reading!
Comments always appreciated!
j5
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...ACCELERATED FEAR - JOHNY FIVE - UPDATE 6
johnyfive
Hey Guys, time for an update! Its been ages, and i have a lot to tell you about so sit back and relax coz this update is gonna be pretty BIG 
After a lot of attempts to talk to the right department at AMD i finally managed to speak to a lady called Julia, she said she couldn’t help 
BUT 
she would put me in touch with her Tech Specialist Ron who might be able to sort something out for the project. Anyway i spoke with Ron for a while beating around the bush about what i actually wanted (i didn’t want to take the piss and start demanding stuff you know?). Eventually i told him if he could send the the best he could spare id be very grateful. He took my address and telephone number for the courier and said he would have a look around to see what he could find for me but he couldn’t promise anything…two days later…
BOOOOM!!! an ASUS M32-MVP Deluxe!! I nearly wet myself when i opened the box and saw all that copper!! Totally wasnt expecting it!
Ohhh.. wait a tick.. whats that little silver thing laying on top there?
BOOOOOOM!!!! An AMD 9950 QUAD CORE!!! 2.6Ghz!!!
After i had changed my underwear and recovered from the shock that the project just went up about 15 levels i sent Ron a very big thank you email, he just shrugged it off saying it would just go out of date if he kept it! But man, it means a lot. Thanks Ron you made my year.
Now with a spring in my step and renewed enthusiasm i got to work, for some reason i was really paranoid about the Power Supply, iv had mother boards go bang before because of improper wiring, ATX Connectors populated backwards ect, i wasnt go to be taking any risks with all this lovely new stuff.
I looked on quite a few websites to get the pinouts of an ATX connector, once i had four seperate sources i compared them to check they were all the same, they were! (joy) so i wrote them all down in a rough chart and wrote down what voltages i should get from each pin.
Then set about about testing it with a multimeter.
Some of the voltages seemed quite low, 3.3v was sitting at 2.8v, 5v was sitting at around 4.5v and 12v was 11.7v, i looked up the tolerances on the web for ATX power supplies, hmmm +/-5% on the above so it shouldnt be that low, then i read a little thing saying NEVER TEST A PSU WITHOUT A LOAD.
I added 3 fans to the loop and all the voltages pulled up to pretty much dead on! According to a mate the PSU was switching into “Soft On” (eww) mode as it didnt detect a load, i dont know how accurate this is as he often talks rubbish but having a load on it seemed to sort things out.
Im now fairly happy with the PSU, im not sure if it will be able to handle everything, but it has overload protection so if it dosnt work ill just have to mod another one, a lot of work but if needs be ill do it.
Onto the frame, i bought some more angle ally from B&Q, this time 15mm x 10mm for the top and bottom of the rear of the case, drilled 9 holes, tapped them and added some m4 countersunk socket head screws to secure the back panel.
I really wasn’t happy about having screws tapped into ally, its too soft and prone to getting stripped if the screws over tighten, i took it to work and used a Riv nut tool to put m4 riv nuts in the frame.
There really clever, there just like a rivet, except they have a thread inside them, trouble is you need a special tool to insert them that costs quite a bit of cash.
Ignore the dirty looking tape, its very very shiny and clean underneath The back panel is now very secure and solid, the whole case strengh was exponentially improved just by adding the back panel. Time to add the PSU mounting holes and the PSU exhaust hole to the back panel.
I offered it up to the frame, the case is a LOT smaller than i thought before. im used to working on a TT Shark which is a full tower but we should have just enough room.
Had a hard time marking the holes as the darkness of the plex didnt really let me see them. Anyway i marked them, drilled them, then remasked around them and drilled 4 corner holes of the exhaust hole
Then dremeled it out up to the holes
Some Filing (yes those are my legs covered in swarf, there was a lot)
More filing and a quick tidy up, need to polish the whole panel still.
Next was the I/O panel. Didnt know which to do first, the motherboard standoffs or the I/O panel, decided to go with the I/O panel and then use adjustable mobo standoffs to take up the slack.
Marked it up.
Cut a hole.
Made it bigger.
Used an old I/O panel to check the fit.
Fits good!
Fitted the ASUS one, its niiiice
Polished it up.
I managed to get a really nice finish on the edges, thats the dimples on the edges of the I/O frame you can see through the edge of the plex.
Next i fitted the standoffs for the motherboard, getting all the holes lined up perfectly was a lot harder than it sounds, i used some 8mm standoffs and adjusted there height with washers so it lined up nicely with the I/O frame.
See what i mean about the size of this case? Its tiny, there was literally 2mm between the bottom of the board and the bottom of the case.
Still, at least it all fits. Phew.
I added the same to the front, blue plex, rivnuts ect, same as the back except less holes (will be soon though 
) so i wont bore you with that, just a few snaps.
Iv been talking to a guy called John Hung after emailing Giga-Byte asking for some hardware sponsorship a few weeks ago, its typical, the day Ron sends me the Asus board John mails me to say i can have a sample of a GA-MA78GPM-DS2H Crossfire Hybrid board, i didnt know what to do, if i accepted the board from John and Ron saw the log he would think im a lying little ****, if i took the Giga-byte board but used the ASUS, Giga-Byte would be pissed. Man i had to email John and explain the situation, i knew Giga-byte do versions of graphics cards with there branding which got good reviews so i dropped a small hint to John about the possibility of getting one instead of the motherboard. I thought id blew it but he replied a few hours later that day saying i could have a NX86T256D!
Couldn’t believe my luck, whats more is that the main office for Giga-byte where John works was 10 minutes from my house in MK! So i drove of to meet John at his office, he was a really nice guy, he was asking all sorts of questions about the project, was great to meet him.
Got home with this baby.
Ok so my ATi blocks wont fit, but its a silent pipe! Just need to make sure my Airflow is up to scratch then in a few months when i upgrade ill add the blocks to my new card.
The card looks really nice, the heatsink is kickass!
I put in an order with a UK based water cooling company, im not going to Hotlink them because they totally screwed up the order, it took over a week to arrive first class and it was damaged when it got here due to just being slung in a jiffy bag. After another week and a half my new cooling gear turned up. I used XSPC gear because my budget is low and they got good reviews, if it turns out to be crap ill get better stuff later on, i got a 120mm rad and some 3/8 ID - 1/2OD tubing.
And this nice little compact pump/res.
Hmm the pump has no feasible way of being secured into place, have to mod something
I got the lovely blocks from QuietPC.com, i was a bit worried about the Barbs fitting the tubing but they fit perfectly. I got some distilled water from work and decided to do a little test run, ill add dye later, this is my first ever water cooling setup!
hahaah i got water EVERYWHERE! But that little pump is really good, its so quiet i had to put my ear up to it to check it was on! But it didnt leak after about 5 minutes i ran my finger across the CPU block, it was ICE cold! Id definatly recommend those Zalman blocks from Quietpc, there made for a reserator but work perfectly with 3/8 tubing. I left it overnight, still no leaks so all good.
Now i can test my hardware!
The Zalman block mmm
Hahah look at that setup, it looks like a mad scientists lab! I fired it up and got POST
Still cant believe im rolling a 4×2.6Ghz Phenom cpu
Got BIOS!
AHHH BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH FLASHED UP!!!
Then it rebooted 
Checked on the net, hmm maybe flash the BIOS, nope still BSOD, changed the RAM, still BSOD, i was convinced the PSU wasnt generating enough juice until i realized…windows 
Had to go buy a crappy old drive and load on XP to check and it worked perfectly! YAY!
Thats it for update 6 guys, hope you enjoyed reading, comments appreciated.
j5
Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...Gaining Sponsorship (A quick guide) - Johny Five
johnyfive
Iv had this question a few times on my blog and on some of the forums so i thought id write a quick post to link to if people want to know what i did to get official companys to give you sponsorship, below is the response, hope this helps people.
——————————————————————————–
Basically what i did was go to the potential sponsors website, search for the “contact us” bit, look for public relations or press, if all else fails just send it to customer services, email the company and explain who you are, what you are doing, and where your doing it. Make sure you tell the people how many views your thread has, and how many views the site gets overall (sitemeter at the bottom usually). Make sure you tell them you will feature there hardware and advertise there gear in your work log in the form of banners and logo’s.
To get more chance of further sponsorship deals iv copied my work log to a few different forums. (5 so far)
The idea is to email as many different company’s as you can, the way i see it is like this, if 99 of them say no, then 1 off them will say yes. My sent box says iv sent over 200 hundred emails to different companys. Perserverance is the key, email them over and over until you get a response, if the response is no, email them again in a month when you have more views/other sponsors, sponsors are a lot more likely to want to sponsor you if they see other companys on board.
Dont ever think that your project is not good enough to receive sponsorship, your showing initiative and creativity by even attempting it, besides, companys spend millions on advertising, sending out the odd ex-sample motherboard in exchange for free advertisment is a smart PR move,especially as the advertising is directly targeted at the right audience.
Good luck.
j5
Not yet rated
Loading ...ACCELERATED FEAR - JOHNY FIVE - UPDATE 6
johnyfive
Hey guys, got another small update for you. Really good news for the project! After a few emails back and forth QuietPC.com have decided to sponsor the project and have sent me some really nice Zalman water cooling gear! This will help immensely with the project so i want to say a really big thank you to Glenn over at QPC for all his help and efforts over the past couple of weeks.
Here is the gear they have sent:
A very sexy 8800GTS Water Block
One Heatpipe HDD Cooler/Silencer, i cant wait to have this next to the trans blue plex, its gonna look so nice!
All the barbs on the block are 3/8 (10mm)
Kinda puts pressure on me to get the case ready for all this new gear iv been sent but i cant wait to get it all up and running!
back to the case, iv been working on the back panel where the I/O plate will be fitted, i went to B&Q today and got some 10mmx15mm angle aluminium and some more 10mmx10mm (below)
I also bought some M3 nylon standoffs from maplins.
I could of used the 3/32’s threaded brass standoff’s but they were 10x’s the price and totally unnecessary as the board is being mounted on plex anyway.
Someone said to me earlier that they thought my little black cat was lucky, iv had quite a shi*y past few years and things are finally going really well, so although im one of the most un-superstitious people i know id say he might have a point!
Update soon, gonna get working on the I/O panel and fit the mobo standoffs. Cheers for reading, comments/questions always appreciated
j5
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...ACCELERATED FEAR - JOHNY FIVE - UPDATE 5
johnyfive
Update 5.
Hey guys, been a while since i updated. Iv been really busy at home, the missis decided we needed to buy new furnature for the whole of upstairs so iv been putting up flat pack in my spare time
But anyway, i managed to squeeze in some modding time last night so i thought id give you guys a small update.
Going back to working on the chassis for this update, with all but the minimum amount steel frame left on the old Dell it has left it very weak, anyone who has taken apart a Dell before will know how everything inside one either; interlocks / hinges / slides in some way so to make other things fit you have to cut a lot of the sh*te out of it.
Here is a shot of the top of the frame, as you can see there is a big gap there where the old PSU holder thing used to be, unfortunatly if left alone it will be a weak point.
Of course, this will also be where the new PSU will be held, if i was to screw the new PSU to that it would probably buckle in half!
I went to B&Q and bought some ridiculously over priced 10mm x 10mm angle ally.
How they get away with charging nearly 3 pounds for 1M long is totally insane, the money grabbing ba$*ards!
Anyway, i cut it to a rough size with a hacksaw and taped it to the frame.
I went to the hardware shop and got some new mini HSS drill bits, there good for steel and go through it like a hot knife through butter!
Then spotted through 1.5mm, then opened up the holes to 4mm to accomidate some M4 screws.
I then did the same with the other side.
Checked it was square, then added the last piece from the bottom to the top.
(the lovely Helen Flanagan in the background )
I had to make a little bracket at the bottom to hold the last piece of angle ally on. (sorry about the flash)
So now the frame is pretty dam strong! I put the cat on it and it held his weight, i then put him on the scales next to the new PSU!
Cat Weight > PSU Weight = Good!
The new frame should hold that PSU pretty well!
So now i need to line the rest of the case with plex, i started with the roof.
Im going to add 6 screws to hold the plex to the roof, its going to be supporting some weight so i dont want it caving in on me!
I measured and cut a piece of black 3mm plex, piloted through using my new drills then opened them up to 3.5mm, removed the plex and opened up the holes to 4mm, then tapped the holes in the frame to M4.
Then added 6 M4 hex head countsunk screws.
Flakey swarf means no melting!
Now for the back plate, the PSU will screw onto this, also the Motherboard I/O panel will need to be fitted, oh and the exhaust fan too!
This piece is going to be made from the 5mm thick blue plex, im going with 5mm so it dosnt bow under the PSU weight.
I cut out a rough shape, i knew the frame and back panel were not going to be 100% square so cutting out a square piece of plex would of been stupid, i then trimmed it down until it fit the frame.
Fits like a glove! Anyways, i know it looks crap as its covered in masking tape, not much i can do about it as it needs to be kept clean. I did have a sneaky peak at the panels without the tape though and they look awsome!!
All thats left to do to the lining panels is the one at the front (i ran out of plex) And then tidy up at the places i have filed that im not happy with.
As a side note… CRUCIAL CAME THROUGH!! yeah man, they didnt let me down at all! Has a nice little package arrive the other day.
oooo i love it, recieving packages is like christmas!! even if i know its nothing interesting i still love it!! haha what a geek i am 
Yeah man! Thats going in the cupboard to keep safe for when i get my Mobo!
Thats it for today, sorry it was a short one but iv been so busy! Hopefully my Mobo will materialise and ill be able to update you guys with the next week (or two) with the sexy trans blue back panel.
Til then, cheers for reading, comments always very much appreciated.
j5
Rated: 100% (3 votes)
Loading ...ACCELERATED FEAR - JOHNY FIVE - UPDATE’S 1 - 4
johnyfive
This mod has been hardware sponsored by…
Crucial - The Memory Experts (RAM)
QuietPC - Make your PC Whisper Quiet and Hear Yourself Think!(Water Blocks)
AMD - The Smarter Choice (Processor and Motherboard)
Giga-Byte - Upgrade Your Life (Graphics Card)
A.C.Ryan - Pro Modding (Fans)
Custom PC Magazine - The essential read for Performance Hardware and Customisation (Power Supply)
Thankyou to all the sponsors for generous donations to the project.
Hi Guys, welcome to my Plog, iv been into modding for a little over 2 years or so, this will be my first major project. Firstly im working on resizing the pictures, it will take a while so if your monitor is below 22″ you may see them cut in half, if so just click on them for full screen. This wont be forever, just until i get time to go through each one and resize it.
The idea is to get hold of and old rust bucket PC case and completly strip it back and make it into something a little bit special. I suppose my main inspiration for this comes from the man himself, Defyant. I was totally blown away by his HP mods, so dont be supprised if you see a little bit of “defyantism” in my work, although i will perservere to be original as possible.
A little about me before i begin, im 25 years old and work for in a Military production facility near Milton Keynes, i live in a nice little house with my better half here in the UK, we have a little lad together who is 3 years old and a little girl on the way, i dont really have a workshop (i wish) so most of my fabrication is done by hand, usually on the living room table or outside if its nice weather. Anyway, enough of my mindless ranbling as this is quickly turning into a wall of text!
On with the show.
Here are a few rough concept sketches, i used a new fangled gizmo, a pencil and paper :O
I wanted a nice clean mod, straight lines and precise angles with intricate cut acrylic details, after i had an initial idea i downloaded sketchup for the first time and knocked up a rough model. (Big thanks to the google 3d workshop for the use of there mobo, dvd drive 120mm fan and hdd premade models)
The panels will be transparent blue plex backed onto black plex, the panels will be illuminated, i want them to glow on the edges to show up the detail of the intricate cuts, im not sure of the method yet, maybe you guys can help me with the lighting.
I kept my eyes open for a few days once i decided to go ahead with the project, noticed this little baby poking out the top of the skip at work!
The Victim:
An old Dell Optiplex, look how innocent and unsuspecting it looks! Whats best is the panels are plastic, i should be able to cut these quite easily, hopefully they dont become to fragile when cut.
Wow, that was difficult! I had to look up on the net just to get this thing open! Theres a little button on the front (bottom left corner) and a catch on the back that allows the side panel to open up, good for security i suppose. Man this thing is HEAVY, all the panels are steel lined!
EWWW! SHOULD OF LEFT THE SIDE PANEL ON! Seriously, there was a whole family of spiders living in there along with a few of there dead relatives! They seemed to think if was some sort of exteme makeover, i gave them there eviction notice and they left peacefully out the window.
One of the many pieces of steel framwork to be cut from this old girl.
The previous tentants were not very houseproud.
Pretty filthy, nothing a good hose down wont fix though.
Havnt got a tap outside so i slung it in the bath! A good scrub with some bubbles and the shower hose got most of the grime and crap out of it, ill be working on it a lot so it didnt have to be spotless, just free of cobwebs, the bath looked a complete mess afterwards! My girl was going a bit mad! WTF ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR PC IN THE BATH!!!? HAHAHAHA
I cut away the rear I/O panel and the drive bays as these are all going to be remade out of plex and other materials.
I liked the way the front panel was fixed on, if you look at the top you can see a green thing, thats the latching mechanism that holds the front in place and at the bottom…
are two hooks that fix onto the frame. I will keep these in place.
I had a slight problem, as i had removed most of the steel inside, including the locking mechanism for the side panels, the side panels had nothing to hold onto. I fabricated two small brackets to temporarily hold them on.
(Sorry for the Blurry shots, my cam phone has a rubbish macro mode on it)
Front bracket, drilled and tapped to M4, i added a locking nut to the backets, i dont want the brackets coming loose as id have to rip the case apart to get into it if they did.
Rear bracket, these are just temps, there way to big and will be visable through the window if i leave them. The plan is to countersink the screw heads and trim the brackets down so the bare minimum amount of metal is present.
Looking closly at the side panels you can see a kind of indented design on it, this had to go, the grooves would be visible and look totally crap the way im planning on cutting these panels.
Time to break out the bondo, well we dont have it in the UK, so i drove to Halfords and picked up some Davids P38 from what i could see it was the same stuff.
I sanded down the panels to give a really nice key, i really needed this stuff to adhere to those grooves otherwise it would all chip out when i cut the panels.
Gave it the first fill… MAN THIS STUFF STINKS! i mean REALLY stinks, i felt high after about 5 minutes of working with it, had to open the sliding doors for my health!
I gave it a thin coat at first and left it 24 hours the sanded and refilled. Another 24 hours later i sanded again, then wet sanded from 240 grit up to 1000 grit, man this stuff is silky smooth! I closed my eyes and ran my finger over the panel and couldnt feel any bumps at all.
I needed to get those dam labels off, took me ages at first using a sponge and some warm soapy water, then my friend came over and suggested i use someWD40, MAN this stuff kicks ass! Not only does it eat rust, it also eats sticky goop left behind by security labels too! Within a few seconds it was mush and i just wiped it away!
Whilst i was at halfords i also picked up some Filler Primer. This will help me get a really smooth undercoat.
After 1 test coat, i left it dry for 24 hours then ran my hand over it, totally flawless! Once im finished cutting the panels and im near completion i will give it 3 nice smooth coats of this before the real paint goes on.
Colour is nasty eh? Kinda like mustard!