Powdercoating my Cosmos?

Okay well i have my CM Cosmos stripped down to the frame itself. I'm thinking about getting it shipped out to get it powdercoated since that seems like the easiest, and reassuring way knowing it's going to get painted right. Now my dad on the other hand says we should paint it ourselves but i feel as if its going to come out sub-par and im not going to be happy with it.

My question is, is it worth getting it powder coated rather and spray painting it myself? I would like to get it done in like a flat black on the inside, while keeping the outside panels silver so its almost like everything between the silver side panels is black (if you've seen a cosmos before).

Powder-coating is a great way to paint a case. Very durable finish. I highly recommend shipping it out to get it professionally done if you're nervous about doing it yourself. Getting one or two things professionally done won't kill the mod project, don't worry :up:

yea i read the tutorial on how to paint it yourself but it seems like a lot of work, and i know i'll screw something up.


Before i get my case shipped out, do i need to worry about covering any holes for screws? (motherboard holes etc)

hey i plan on doing the same thing you did, can you explain or have pictures of how you took apart the cosmos case? was it hard?

Powdercoating is the the way to do. Paint just doesn't have the durability. It is pricey, but if you plan on using the case for a while i believe it is worth it.

no it was pretty easy. i gutted the inside first, then took off the tops bars then tried to take off the side panels but they didnt budge, so you have to flip the case over, take off the bottom black piece, unscrew the front panel and then it pretty much pops everything off.

note- dont confused the top and bottom bars. bottom are flat, top are curved

also for the cd bay clips, if i remember correctly they push towards the front of the case to pop off and the bottom one for the floppy is screwed in.

i also just got off the phone with the place and they said 75-100$ and could be done by the end of the week :0

its actually not pricey at all. In my area, the local coaters will do a full tower lian li for about $80 bucks..

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Originally Posted by absoluteczech

hey i plan on doing the same thing you did, can you explain or have pictures of how you took apart the cosmos case? was it hard?

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Just take everything off till your left with the frame, then Anodize it and it will last forever.

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Originally Posted by absoluteczech

hey i plan on doing the same thing you did, can you explain or have pictures of how you took apart the cosmos case? was it hard?

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As a meganoob, I always anticipate things with PC's being tough. And unfortunately I'm usually right (thank goodness for this place!), except for when I decided to strip my Cosmos. Just start unscrewin' screws and you'll be done before you know it. Be a bit careful prying off the plastic side frames... I broke off a couple little tabs (no huge deal tho) 'cuz I was tryin' to watch a hockey game at the same time.

One thing about powdercoating a cosmos though. Aside from the debate as to whether or not one should remove all the rivets to get the case down to its smallest parts (you can do it without going that far if you want), I wonder if it isn't at least necessary to remove the spring-loaded sidepanel mounting bars. One shop I went to for a quote said there'd be no problem and that the powdercoating will just "work itself out" once you move the things back and forth a few times. But every other shop said they'd have to come off (which means rivet removal, albeit only a handful).

Edit: to be honest, to me one of major appeals of powdercoating is that it saves you the PITA of a lot of the prep that goes with painting.... says the guy who's developed a total hatred of sanding since finally admitting to himself very recently that he didn't sand enough at the low-grit stage of his current alu polishing job (Cosmos front door) and has to go back and..... etc etc etc etc aaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh (sorry, that just came out:D) Often, when Coolermeister paints the side panels on one of his crazy-ass Cosmos builds, he gets the panels powder-coated which apparently makes for a nice& easy base coat for the eventual crazy-ass paint, without all the aggro of prepping brushed alu.

3 layer paint for other various designs ...
power coating is very limited to single colors (so i heard)

3 layer paint is those primer, color, clear coat paints ..... you could place some color designs ... or just wrap them up with clear coat glossy finish

TedShred, you didnt have a problem with the spring loaded door parts then? i was kind of worried it would bind but if it did i wouldnt whine. Just curious

I haven't actually sent the chassis in for powdercoating yet, it's still sittin' in a corner. It would be interesting to know if anyone's left those sidebars on for powdercoating and how it worked out.

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Originally Posted by TedShred

I haven't actually sent the chassis in for powdercoating yet, it's still sittin' in a corner. It would be interesting to know if anyone's left those sidebars on for powdercoating and how it worked out.

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id like to know too, however im just gonna use painters tape and cover it and have them skip that and remove the tape before putting it in the oven ;) ghetto, maybe but better safe then sorry i dont have another 250 bucks for a cosmos s

marcus at overclock.net powder coated several cosmos cases.

he removed the rivets as he was quite certain that they would be affected by the powdercoating

how do u add the rivets back once you drill them out?

Here's a couple (re)riveting vids I lifted from the earlier stages of Cyber Druid's recent triple-loop Cosmos build.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l92o5JEDCqU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIyOCXzIj8

here's the whole thread

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=180663

$80 for powerder coating! Wow wish I could find deals like that.

Would love to see some pics of the case when you get around to it TedShred. Also some gutted pics if you have the time.

JM

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Originally Posted by Jim Morbid

... Would love to see some pics of the case when you get around to it TedShred. Also some gutted pics if you have the time.

JM

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Sure thing, here's some pics of my slooooo-movin' build:

The total guts. edit: forgot the drive bay clip/button things. (Wish I would have known about them pushing toward the front for removal. I just kinda squeezed the sides and pulled. It worked, but I think I might have got lucky not to break one):
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...ztotalguts.jpg

Heat gun (ok, hair dryer:p:) to remove panel foam. SOS pads (steel wool/ soap) takes off the tape residue pretty easily.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...panelfoam1.jpg
same heat gun to separate door (since cut) and acrylic from same 2x tape as on the panels. The little separate CM logo comes off the same way. Darnit, mine's hiding somewhere - I've been looking for it for over a week
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...ats/zzdoor.jpg

This rivet looks tricky, but there's a good thread somewhere here where I got some great suggestions on removal technique
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...osmosrivet.jpg

Notice the clear plastic strips (in front of the bag of handles & stuff) - they're from the top & bottom of the HDD caddy (hair... er, heat gun, again) I think that's gotta come off if the caddies are being P-coated. For taking off those little blue handle rests, I found they twist off nicely with needlenose pliers
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...zzcloseup1.jpg

Each of the top/bottom rails are marked with their intended place, R-B, L-B, R-T, L-T (mine are chromed. well, 3 for now - #4 isn't done yet)
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...mats/zzR-B.jpg

Edit: sorry for goin' OT, but I can't help it:p: Was always planning black/chrome exterior, but I've changed things up as I'm now gettin' totally inspired by this cool mint hotrod pic:
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...eencustom1.jpg

i'm not sure how powder coat works, so is there any way i can do it myself or it can only be professionally done since i dont have the equipments?

They have some basic DIY equipment here:

http://www.caswellplating.com/powder/index.html

:shocked: oooooo that green looks awesome!

Although that green looks very glossy... dont know if you'll be able to achieve that with a powerder coat?

JM

PS, thanks for the pics

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Originally Posted by Jim Morbid

:shocked: oooooo that green looks awesome!

Although that green looks very glossy... dont know if you'll be able to achieve that with a powerder coat?

JM

PS, thanks for the pics

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You bet. Yeah, I'm thinkin' of using powdercoat just for a base, then finish off with paint.

As an aside, one powdercoat shop told me the other day that they can mix up some paint to match the powdercoat, so afterwards you can match-up the plastic parts with a rattle can.

Hey, i finally got it painted!

I forgot about this thread till a few minutes ago so i snapped some pics for you guys..

When i actually got the case i just went and reassembled it. forgot about everything else (i didnt even eat dinner!)
i spent from 5:30 to about 11:00 getting everything back together..

now the sad news is...a few days before i got my case back, we had a t-storm and my yard got hit with lightning..it traveled to the box otu front of our house which hit our cable/phone which surged through the ethernet line and took out my board! THE SECOND ONE!
so im once again on a search for a DFI 680i...if anyone has one and is willing to sell it i would be interested.

now for the pictures =)

oh one more thing, i didnt get it completely taken apart so i wasnt able to assemble the doors due to the mechanism being stuck. my powder coater said to take a soft mallet or piece of wood and hit them loose and they should be okay. i'll try that later.
one LAST thing, my theme for the outside was to be silver on the outside, and a black strip down the middle. i think it came out good.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...IMG_0004-1.jpg

oh yea, i think the silver HD bay bars set it off nicely, no?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...IMG_0005-1.jpg

the only reason the loop isnt filled is because i took it apart to get ready to test my components, but then i had to put it back together to get it signed off as unrepairable at a shop, so thats why my loop isnt filled. it rusn off the motherboard, and the motherboard doesnt even power on.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...IMG_0008-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...IMG_0007-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...IMG_0013-1.jpg

and here is the PC im on now since that one is dead...

reluctantly i ordered this 2 days prior to the strike as something to toy around with..and now its my main system. kinda sucks but its not bad.

e7200 @ 3.9ghz
DFI P35
4gb of mushkin ddr2 1000 (taken from my better PC for the time being)
7900GS

my video card block i had was leaking in my test before i put it in so i only had a cpu block...it still keeps it nice at sub-40c temps.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...IMG_0011-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...IMG_0012-1.jpg

:)

Oh, man... that sucks about the lightning:(

But, yeah, it turned out really nice! The silver HDD handles look great against the black caddies.

I'm curious about a couple things:

- how did p-coating the hdd caddies go? I'm wondering particularly about those little clear plastic shims on the top/bottom of 'em. And, since powdercoating would add a bit of thickness to the caddy and the hdd cage itself, maybe you don't need to (maybe can't?) put them back on for the nice tight fit? (I got a real heat gun and ended up melting a couple of the shims in the removal process.)

- do you have an intake fan? (Looks like you took out the stock one to mount the D5)

And also about how the mallet thing works out for loosening up the panel attachment thingies.

Nice job!:up: (stupid lightning!:mad:)

edit: fwiw, and maybe you considered this already, but this is a pic, stolen from Performance PC's, of a D5 in a Cosmos 1000 mounted against the hdd cage with one of the (older model) un-design brackets. Gets a nice breeze from the stock intake.

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h.../D5bracket.jpg

That white coolant looks pretty rad actually. Can you take those blue things off the side of the cosmos, IMO they ruin the sleek black look of a good powdercoat.

geez, yeah, I never really noticed the nice visuals of the white before.

Those blue side devices hold in the various baydrives, so you can take off the ones you don't need. Not sure if there's an alternative way to mount the drives so that you could take 'em all off. I've been thinkin' that, especially where there's a window, it would look pretty cool to jazz that area up a bit. Maybe an acrylic faceplate or something like that? (Or maybe something metal that could be p-coated too.)

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Originally Posted by TedShred

Oh, man... that sucks about the lightning:(

But, yeah, it turned out really nice! The silver HDD handles look great against the black caddies.

I'm curious about a couple things:

- how did p-coating the hdd caddies go? I'm wondering particularly about those little clear plastic shims on the top/bottom of 'em. And, since powdercoating would add a bit of thickness to the caddy and the hdd cage itself, maybe you don't need to (maybe can't?) put them back on for the nice tight fit? (I got a real heat gun and ended up melting a couple of the shims in the removal process.)

- do you have an intake fan? (Looks like you took out the stock one to mount the D5)

And also about how the mallet thing works out for loosening up the panel attachment thingies.

Nice job!:up: (stupid lightning!:mad:)

edit: fwiw, and maybe you considered this already, but this is a pic, stolen from Performance PC's, of a D5 in a Cosmos 1000 mounted against the hdd cage with one of the (older model) un-design brackets. Gets a nice breeze from the stock intake.

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h.../D5bracket.jpg

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with the hard drive cases i took off the plastic things because i would have had to of anyway, but now they fit snug and i ODNT really plan on taking them in and out often so that isnt a problem.

right now there isnt, but before all this, if you look at the postion of my CD drive, i had enough space to fit a 120mm fan on top that moved air across for my ram nicely.

i took a soft plastic mallet to the hinges and they finally loosened up, they'll need more work but they hold the sides on now at least.

oh and i think i've seen that and i thought about it, but i was actually considering in teh future putting the pump inside the lower 3 hard drive bay slots, and cutting a hole in the front for the 2 hoses, i thought that would be awsome..



i could probably take apart those blue things and paint them myself...i will look into it.

Excellent info, xdrift0rx, thanks. That's too funny about your idea for stealthing the pump in the hdd cage. I'm planning the same thing, except I may opt for the upper hdd tray. I think there's an XS build log somewhere that had the pump (pumps maybe?) stealthed into the lower hdd - it was very awesome!

if you look and find it could you let me know? i know how to get one tube in, but the others going to be a pain since its a 90 degree angle in another direction...

Found it! The very cool "Liquid Mango"

I got mixed up, he used the upper hdd tray:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=187590&page=2

sweet, saved for now...:) gotta find a way to hide it. i guess i could cut the backs of the plates off..