Couldn’t wait any longer for the Coolermaster Cosmos to turn up so decided to at least make a small start on the SLR badge which will end up being a feature on the front of the case so don’t expect anything major at this stage but more will follow as soon as
Started off printing the letters onto a sheet of white paper using the Reservoir Grunge font and stuck them onto a 3mm sheet of aluminium then using my trusty Fret Saw carefully cut each letter out one by one.
I cut pretty close to the line so there wasn’t a lot of work to do with various jewellers files to straighten up the edges followed by various grit wet and dry paper so they were almost perfect.
Then onto the buffing wheel for a final polish and that’s one job complete.
Well just to show i'm not sitting twiddling my thumbs waiting for the case to turn up which incidentally will be here tomorrow, i've been fabricating the front.
Using MDF this time which is a first for me to give it some kind of depth so the Merc badge ends up sunk in like the real thing.
Basically just cut the rough shape out then using a 120mm hole saw, cut out the hole that will eventually have the badge mounted then using a little mouse sander (seen Bill at Mnpctech using one and just had to get my hands on one) to round the edges off and give the whole thing a more rounded look - still loads to do on that but as i don't know exactly where the 120mm hole will line up until the case arrives i thought better of sanding to much.
Once the MDF is fully sanded down it will be mounted to 3mm aluminium like in the picture below but with a 120mm hole in the alu also and some kind of grill cut out below like real car then filled, primed and the whole lot painted but that's as far as i dare go until the case turns up.
Give you a bit of an idea of how its taking shape......
Still not sanded the any more of the MDF but decided to strip the Cosmos naked and de-riveted and took out the hard drive caddy so I can mount the 140mm Aerocool chrome fan but did realise I should be able to fabricate a simple bracket to refit it.
Also before sending the chassis away for powder coat thought I’d get all the 120mm holes lined up in the door, the front bezel and the chassis which leaves Saturday for sanding the MDF down providing the weather stays fine as its not a job to be done in doors.
Actually the bezel and chassis were cut using a 120mm hole saw but the door was cut with a jig-saw as it needs to be only 118mm which will give the badge something to sit on so the wonky edge won’t be seen
What a long day this has been without there being much to show..................guess i under estimated how long it would take to get the MDF looking good.
Anyway managed to get it all sanded down and finished off with 1500 grit as well as the outside aluminium bits then stuck the MDF to the door with two part Araldite so there is just a tiny bit of filler work before it gets a good few coats of filler primer and see how it looks from there.
Also used the original black 2mm plexi and cut out a piece that will end up being stuck the door after everything is primed and painted but just did a quick mock up with fine aluminium mesh behind the badge just to see how things were looking.
My apologies for keep on harping on about the front panel and boring everyone to tears but it has taken a long time and it does look pretty cool even though i say so myself but i promise to move onto something else next update.
Anyway, i used filler primer hence the yellow colour but even after that the MDF was still showing some problem areas so resorted to using Isopon body filler and gave it a really thin layer of the stuff followed by more dry sanding upto 2000 grit which proved to work a treat as it started looking really smooth.
This morning i got my hands on a couple of rattle cans of Mercedes silver and gave it four coats with 15 minute intervals which went on without any problems at all.
It still needs clear coat then machine polished once its completely dry but i just had to mount the aluminium mesh which was previously painted black to the Merc badge and try another retro fit with the black plexi and SLR badge in place.
See what you think..........i took a few pictures on the bonnet of an SLK which isn't by any means an SLR but gives an over all idea!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by bluep3ace
Bookmarks