Pink Laptop

[brightshininglights]

I like to share with people that I modify and build computers as it often opens doors for me. A door was recently opened to a girl with a laptop that wanted said laptop pink. I figured that it would be good experience and a good thing to have in my portfolio to show sponsors or employers or whoever was interested. I probably should have told her that any and all warranties would be voided by my doing this, but I didn't, so there it is. On to the worklog!

PHASE 1: DISASSEMBLAGE

The tools and the paint.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1459.jpg

The laptop. It's a pentium 3 with a 5 gig drive and ??? ram (didn't check), so while I'm being careful, 50 bucks can replace it. I'm debating whether to do the top and bottom sections two different colors.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1455.jpg

The battery and floppy come out.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1453.jpg
I can take the floppy out of that plastic, so that's what I'm doing.

The bottom:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1457.jpg

When I first accepted the job I wasn't planning on taking the thing apart. Instead I would just mask off. Then I saw this:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1456.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1458.jpg
I was like, holy crap that's impossible! Especially since I didn't currently have any blue tape, just some 5-year-old tan stuff that had lost its adhesiveness. Yes, I could have gone to the store or taken some from my dad, but that didn't happen.

I especially didn't want to have to mask this off, so I removed it.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1454.jpg
Removed:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1463.jpg

Naturally I didn't want to spray the keyboard, so I figured that it would be easier to remove that than to mask it. You can also see that I removed the trim on the monitor for easier painting, as well as the wrist pads.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1464.jpg

Here is the monitor, inside top, and bottom portion in separate pieces.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1467.jpg

I continued to see things that would be easier to paint if they were not attached to the computer until I was left with a pile of parts. Let's skip the disassemblage and go straight to the pile-o-parts stage.

The motherboard:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1473.jpg

More piles:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1476.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1478.jpg

After I had it mostly disassembled I took the monitor out of its casing:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1479.jpg

Interestingly enough, behind the monitor there is what appears to be tinfoil.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1480.jpg

The bracket further removed
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1485.jpg

The latch coming out
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1488.jpg

I took out the touch-screen after I tried to mask it. I nicked it a little in the corner, I hope that it's okay. :x

And thus the laptop is in a pile of parts and I barely have to mask off anything.

PHASE 2: PAINTING PREP

This isn't a very long phase, and it mostly consists of getting rid of stickers. Here's the back panel before solvent:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1489.jpg
After:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1490.jpg


Originally I was going to paint the wrist pads, but my father pointed out the tremendous amount of wear that they sustain could lead to chipping, which equals death in the eyes of its future user.I'm not sanding this as I'm using a satin-finish paint and I figured that it would be pointless and difficult. After removing blemishes and stickers I washed everything to get rid of fingerprints/oils. Tomorrow I tack and paint!

PHASE 3: PAINTING

I painted today. Not too much explanation to do.

Masked off and tacked.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1494.jpg

I forgot to take a shot of it primed, but it happened (3 coats and sanded with 600 grit)

Here's after 2 coats of pink:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1495.jpg

I put on clear tomorrow. Darkness and youth group closed in on me so I didn't have time to test out the clears that I have. Tomorrow I'll paint with clear, and then the day after that I'll polish it and reassemble, and by Wednesday the lucky lady will have it in hand!

Today was clear-coat day.
Everything again. Looks about the same.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1507.jpg

BUT, I knew that this project would not be without mishap. While I was doing the clear-coat on the top, an idiot moth flew onto it and got embedded! 0-0 In removing it I accidentally scraped down to the original plastic :evil:. I sprayed more pink onto the hole to fix it, and I got a run :x.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1508.jpg

I waited until the clear had dried, then I took another go at the whole panel with pink. Tomorrow I'll sand down the lump and reapply clear. The rest of the parts are done being painted; I can start waxing them.

Yesterday I put the final clear on the top panel. I made the mistake of reading the bottle after I sprayed, and to my horror I saw that I needed to spray in 70 degrees farenheight! At 7 at night in Seattle in October, that never happens. I ran to the basement, grabbed a space heater, and rigged it up above the panel.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1525.jpg
After the second coat I realized that I have a large chamber that is perpetually heated to 70 degrees - my house.

While that was drying, I applied wax to the other finished pieces. Not much to see, it didn't even glaze too noticeably when I was done.

PHASE 4: ASSEMBLY

I got it all together without too much trouble. I had to backtrack twice, once because I didn't have enough of the right screws, and the second time because I didn't get the mouse buttons on right and it wouldn't click. Always check your work before giving it to the customer!
Pics!
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1534.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb221/Brightshininglights/DSCF1533.jpg

When I first saw this, even without the screen, I was like DAMN!!! That is HOTT!!!! I mean seriously! I might actually date this computer. Wow. This is why I do this. It's all about the rush of seeing something beautiful and, more importantly, knowing that I made it. I can't wait to give this computer to her tomorrow. I don't care that I'm only getting $25 for this job, I just want to see the look on her face. She's also one of the most popular girls on campus, So I know that I'm going to see business because of this, even if it is pro-bono.

[D1337]

so did you check her computer to see what was on it *whistle*

(btw it looks sweet, but it may just be the picture, but it looks like the pink area near the touchpad is discolored?)

[Luke122]

Looks good man! You have inspired me to mod my Toughbook. :D

[chaksq]

Damn that is nice! I want to paint something now. Let us know what the girl you did this for says. I like how you made a 2 tone, had you painted the armrests and stuff it would be too much of one color.

[p0Pe]

haha n1!... especially like the coulor:D first... i thought it was gonna be to pink but then i saw the finished result:D..

nice job

[jdith135]

My girlfriend would love this thing, it's pretty nice looking good job dude. :D

[brightshininglights]

Thanks guys. There's no discoloration by the touchpad, must be the photo :think:. About the touchpad, I forgot to plug it in when I gave it to her! :( I remembered how it happened and everything and I was pissed. I brought my screwdriver and she brought her laptop and it was fixed in like five minutes, but still. The reason that I missed it was because her battery died and I couldn't get it into windows to test.

Also, she has a password so I wasn't able to get in, not that I would anyways (other than to check specs. Laptop bios's can be sketchy/non-accessible).

I too like the two tone, I almost wish that I had left more black (like maybe the component covers).

She actually wasn't as happy as I thought she would be. It wasn't because she didn't like it, she was just more happy to have her computer back :neutral:. She also treated what I had done as an expected thing, like I was just doing my job or something. Grrrrr....

Overall I'm happy with my work, it turned out great. A lot of the time non-modders can be poor judges of work, as they really don't know what goes into doing something. She was going to paint it herself (with no experience or materials), and I don't even want to THINK about what that would have looked like. The other day I spent 6-8 hours creating a cell out of aluminum for a biology project, and the teacher wasn't too impressed. She was more interested in the girl who spent 20 minutes making an iron-on for a t-shirt. I don't really care, because I know that what I did was great.

[chaksq]

Thats too bad. It is annoying how people who don't know don't care but you impressed your fellow modders and that is what counts!

[shooter05]

That looks great! I hope my daughter doesn't see this. I did the lid on my Dell C600 in Buckeye helmet. Fun project!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z198/shooterpics/laptop.jpg

[brightshininglights]

Cool! I have a toshiba that I'll be putting flames on soon. I also have a p3 ibm that is utterly unmoddable because of the finish they put on it. It's this wierd soft rubber/vinyl stuff that nothing sticks to (or at least I'd rather not find out if it does or not).

[XcOM]

this has inspired me to paint my laptop, which i have been thretaning to do so.

I've got it in bits already tonight, just got one screw that has had the head stripped, so i might try drilling it out tomorrow morning, im not looking forward to that, as it is the screw night next to the power and vga input, and my screen is touch screen! so one wrong move, and SPLAT, there goes my screen.

[mikesmodshop]

I've got it in bits already tonight, just got one screw that has had the head stripped, so i might try drilling it out tomorrow morning, im not looking forward to that, as it is the screw night next to the power and vga input, and my screen is touch screen! so one wrong move, and SPLAT, there goes my screen.


Thats got to suck horribly.

[moon111]

I'm impressed. I've been thinking about getting my wife a notebook just so she can check email and do a bit of websurfing. Think I'll look around for something used and cheap and give it the same treatment. Looks fantastic.

Question, since it was painted pink, what purpose did the blackberry satin serve?

[brightshininglights]

Thank you. About the other paint, I was planning on using both the blackberry and the purple metalcast, but I decided that they did not go and that it would look better without them. If you're going to paint a laptop, avoid ibm. The vinyl coating that they put on their cases is unpaintable. Not sure if it's all of their cases, but I would ask first.

And dude that sucks about stripping the screw, good luck. :x

[NightrainSrt4]

Hmmmm...about the IBM notebook thing...

Could you just sand down through it? Might be more trouble than its worth, not sure.

[brightshininglights]

Yeah, I don't know.... It seems pretty thick, and if you got it half sanded off but got tired or bored it would look like crap. Plus you would have a MESS ;). I looked at their newer laptops and they have the same rubbery coating. Isn't IBM's laptop devision being bought by / becoming Lenovo? I know that they share a website, I just wasn't sure why. Anyway, if Lenovo is indeed in some way eating IBM, that nasty finish will die with them.