The Other Black Pearl [Project]

[Hkxyz]

Hi all

First Worklog here, I picked up a black pearl to switch over my components from my Antec 1200 that was not working out for me.

Here are some pics from the past week of what i have been working on, mostly paint and tear down.

Components
UD3P
E8500 previously at 3.8
Gskill 4gb
9800GTX
Couple WD 640 in Raid
EK Res
Swiftech Pump
Swiftech 3x120 Rad
BP Compression
Some Yate loons and White Tubing


I'm hoping to get a 5850 with a EK Nickel top,( Im also building a i7 860 on a p55 FTW with a 5850 so its making me a little jealous)






I cut a couple more holes in the middle tray to hopefully accommodate the way i want to run my tubing and wires.. well see how that goes
And that one in the top middle of the pics got redone cause it looked like crap and was not big enough









After these pics i Wet sanded the Mobo tray and the middle tray again and painted them in the garage to get a better finish since it was not turning out too well

I just got done sleeving the power supply White/black so ill throw some pics on here later.

Enjoy!

[shazza]

Awesome! And welcome to XS.

(I think I need to send my mid-plate to you for some cutouts - you do nice work )

[Welshman666]

very nice man! cool truck also:P

[punkrockpolak]

Cool! I like how you snuck the truck in there, heh.

[WinstonSthlm]

Nice to see another pearl.
The paint job looks good, looking forward to more updates and pictures

[Hkxyz]

Thanks for the welcome
I have been Watching your BP Build as well Shaz, its coming along great. Black and Red are my favorite colors so im excited to see it done.

Small Update here

Took some pics this morning of the trays to try to show the finish on them. They came out pretty decent for a Satin Paint





Here is an overview of most of the parts that I am going to start putting together today. Mostly Everything is going to be black with some white tubing thrown in. I also picked up some Lime Green gloss that i randomly saw to paint the fans and the power supply with to add some color to the build




I also edited my first post a little and fixed some of the pictures i messed up on

Enjoy ( More pics to come as the day goes on )

[anubis_is_evil]

wow, nice paint job...

i'm really curious, always turn out messing up all the paint for my case which is easily to scratch, care to share tips and tricks for painting there Hkxyz..

thx..

[ridney]

great paint job! i've been seeing a lot of black pearls lately.. i'm kinda thinking of migrating to this case in the future, really nice case.

[millertime359]

Looking good, that Ford in the background a diesel?

[shazza]

Looks like the paint job came out really nice - I think you might have done this before . Did you use Rustoleum for the paint? If so, which one.

Now I wish I would have stuck with black - your green accents are going to look great.

[Armitage]

Looks great so far, I wish I could paint like that.

[Caoder]

what kinda paint didja use and did you clear coat it?.. i'm having trouble finding a good looking paint job.. i've so far tried a flat black with a clear coat that looks kinda ok..but that paint job looks real nice

[Hkxyz]

Yes the truck in the background is a 2000 7.3 diesel

Now for the paint i sanded the parts first with some 400 then put 2 coats of self etching primer on them.

After that i sanded with some more 400 then did some 1200 wet sanding.

I then put on 2 lights coats of the semi-gloss black, i did not like how it came out so i dry sanded with some more 400 then wet sanded it again with some 1200 ( got rid of all the orange peel) and put on 2 more coats with the second one being very heavy compared to the first coat.

Putting the second coat on heavy and leaving it to dry inside seemed to leave a nice finish on there. It still scratches really easily since it is a semi gloss but it's pretty decent for the inside of the computer

It's still super touchy though it seems to get scratched with a micro fiber rag

Here's a picture of the paint i used. I went through 3 cans of black and 2 cans of primer



Random parts pic


I used some 1 inch Aluminium Angle piece here to mount the radiator to the bottom of the case


I ended up coating the piece in a rubber spray i picked up originally to put on the bottom of my shaving cream so it does not rust my counter top but it seemed to work well for this.



More updates later when its not 95 degrees in the garage

[AzN_plyR]

Nice paint job, I am actually working on my own black pearl that I just purchased, I love how your semi-gloss came out. I went for flat black though since I don't trust my painting skills to have it look good in gloss haha.

Keep up the good work!

[Anemic]

Just like everyone says, awsome paint job! And welcome to XS!

[Hkxyz]

Some more Updates

Put the case back together





I did not choose to use rivets, i went with some bolts and nylon nuts instead


I decided to not put the front usb connections back in cause they were too bulky, happen to have the right nut for the original bolts so i was stoked


Couple pics of where the rad is going to be placed.



Ugly Wires


Ahhh Much better


PSU before


PSU After



Psu will not receive as much painting love as the case. Simple 2 coats primer and 1 coat Key Lime, well see how it turns out in the morning.

Thanks for looking

[shazza]

I'm loving the key lime green! And, nice sleeving.

Thanks for posting pics of putting it back together. I've been struggling a bit with how it's all going to go, but it looks like there aren't that many pieces to worry about.

[Pellepel]

Looking awesome

[Hkxyz]

Update

I was trying to get my hands on a 5850 to watercool but have had no luck so i started to put the comp back together to hold me off for a month and then do some final touches.

Heres todays progress so far

Fans



Sleeved a couple as well


Some driveway shots



Fans on the rad


I ran the sleeving all the way into the power supply which made it HUGE but with some cuts it turned out nice


Hard drive setup


6-pin under the mobo


Some Final shots as of right now



Will have more pics later i hope well see how things go

[ShArKo]

Hkxyz welcome to XS.....

I like the worklog......It looks great.

[CodeNinja]

Paint job looks good! Really digging the green fans on the black.

Glad to hear it scratches easy. Well, no, not really glad to hear it... just glad to hear I didn't screw mine up as badly as I'd thought. It's painful how easily it scratches

Next case is going to get powdered.

[Jamesrt2004]

what psu is that does it just have an 80mm at front??

[illidan]

pcp&c silencer

[Liderc]

A lot of work done here, great job.

[millertime359]

That build is coming along nicely. I like the paint jobs on the PSU and fans.

OOO, 7.3 liter Diesel, jealous. Those were nice engines.