Project: Copycat

Hey guys,

This is my first real mod of a computer. As you will see its a straight copycat mod from Defyant. So extra thanks to Defyant for doing it first, Bill Owen for recommending me the "bondo" to us and the stencil from MNPCTECH, and the rest of the guys at TBCS for showing me the way.

I'll just say it early on, Sorry for the Pics!!

Here is the first panel all stenciled out. Not as much detail as Defyant, but this is the first time I've ever used a Dremel, Jigsaw, and Mouse Sander.

Here it is all rough cut out with a good hour of Dremel work. My hand swells up from all the vibrations...really sucks.

A little more fine tuning with the Dremel snader and gets smoother. As you can see on the sides, I didn't cut it all the way through the flames, which I'm still regretting. I decided to rough cut my outlines, instead of just letting the Jigsaw fine tune them for me. Rookie Mistake!!

I made a few mistakes with the Dremel nothing major, and there is that part where the sticker is used on the upper side. So I decided I might as well work with Bondo for the first time. It's Evercoat Everglass, it has small strips of fiberglass and kevlar. Bill Owen said it was better for plastics because they sometimes bend. So thanks agian Bill.

After alot of sanding I got my Bondo down to what I call respectable. I can still feel some level variations which I can take out with some fine tuning. Now my biggest problem are the little tiny specs left in the Bondo.

I saw on Defyant's mods and others that they used "spray putty" to fill in little small pockets. Does anyone know of store like Home Depot or Auto Zone, or maybe a website that they can point me too. I don't live anywhere near a "auto body store," so that is much of an option.

As always please comment and give your recommendations and any steps you think I should take.


PS - Not sure what I'm going to do with the other side panel yet, I was thinking about maybe a small mesh work, or doing a raised blow hole like Defyant once again.

+rep for having balls to attempt this.

/subscribe

for filling the pinholes, there are a few ways you can do it

1 spot glaze/filler putty, bondo makes some, it comes in a little tube...its exactly like bondo, except thinner so it can fill those holes easily

2 regular bondo with some mineral spirits added, this will thin the bondo out to make it so it can get into those little holes, you just add a little bit to the grey part BEFORE you add the red hardener cream

3filler primer, its a thcker primer that can fill in those holes and is your primer layer as well, only problem i have with doing it this way is it can eat up a lot of primer tryin to fill those holes

these recommendations are in order of ease, you can buy some of the spot glaze for about the same price as mineral spirits, i picked some up the other day and it cost me ~$4USD and it will last you quite some time

all three ways can be purchased at an autozone

looks like this can have a lot of potential, cant wait to see whats coming!

im a huge fan of defyants work, he really inspired a prject i had going, until it hit a redesign, youll have me watching

Awesome thanks guys. I'll try autozone tonight on my way to sisters softball game.

don't know the mod you are referring to (link pls), but you get props for just taking on the task. i'm starting to brainstorm my first mod, so i know what it's like starting your first project. i look forward to seeing your progress.

+ rep

Small update - nothing really accomplished.

Rained all day, so I couldn't get anything primed, but I was able to prefab a paint booth for myself in my shed, and converted my dads bathtub area into a dry booth.

Here is the link to Defyants Flam'd mod.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ead.php?t=8117

Flame'd is one of my favoritest mods. Ever.

In fact, when I still had my project (before the side panel got stepped on and bent like hell, then I couldn't get it to fit), I had a defyant-style blowhole in the front. It's a lot of hard work but oh god it looks so good.

Best of luck.

Finally had time today to do some rough priming. My "ghetto" spray booth worked ok, but I serioiusly need to go buy a respirator. So if any could recommend one, it would be a big help.

Now I have a question about my priming. You will see it in the pictures, I think I need to resand over the darker parts (where i used bondo). Or do I just have to keep priming over it til it dissappears? I think sanding, but really wanted a professionals opinion.

Sorry for the poor pictures, its only a 3.2 MP camera and is about 6 years old.

leave the bondo on, as if you sand it down you can weaken the integrity of the plastic.

Also, primer is not meant to provide a single-color base, but a surface for the paint to stick to. Then you put on multiple paint layers, and all's well. I'd suggest looking up guides on about how many layers you should use, and how to do it.

So what your saying Omega is that primer won't cover over the bondo marks...so they will show? Because I thought it was showing a high/low area and the bondo was still to high from teh rest of the case.

Wet sand the marks out of the Bondo. If you still have marks you don't want then you can spray the area with filler in a can then wet sand again, it may help. The primer will help fill some of the slight marks but as Omega said the primer is just a base for the paint to stick on.