Front Panel Woe

[Olen]

I'm trying to work out what to do about a particularly ugly front panel... But with limited success. Its an old server case and has a hinged door for its front panel which allowed access to a odd SCSI arangement which I have scrapped. The problem is the door is hideous. The most obvious solution would be to loose it but making a new front plate looks like it would be very difficult.

The door is also very thick and curved which would make mounting a front fan quite difficult and awkward.

Here's a couple of pictures:

Ugly isn't it. And all curves just to make things easy...

And what's underneath, notice those massive screws holding the side panel on. That makes a new front rather hard. As do the millions of holes right next to the side panels and the side panels themselves.

I think I'm stuck with that door unless anyone has any particularly marvellous ideas (do they?). Any thoughts on how to make it look nicer.

The plan I had wanted a window over the massive hole and a fan under that with the power and reset buttons whereever (under disc drives probably) and 4 leds (power, HDD, lan1 and lan2). Any thought on how to make this look nice on that front...

Cheers

[Drum Thumper]

Look here for an idea.

That's what I'd try to do anyways.

[thingswithmovingparts]

i'm a noob, so maybe i'm just talking out of my ass here, but i look at that case and see nothing but possiblities!

bondo, dremel, nibler, glue, imagination.
not necesarily in that order.

if you limit yourself to what's easy, you never find out what you are capable of.

[Cymae]

you forgot glitter...

[Zephik]

you forgot glitter...

He also forgot "scratch and sniff stickers".

lol I just thought of an idea for a case mod. "Scratch and Sniff" ...or maybe "Lick and Taste" like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

As for your issue Olen, DrumThumper is right on. Take a look through Defyants work, you'll be inspired and then some!

[xRyokenx]

...or maybe "Lick and Taste" like in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Instead of Bondo you could plaster the front of it with peanut butter! And then add some random candies and there ya go! Instant garbage...

Just had to say something sarcastic, in no way do I mean to insult anyone here, particularly SnowFire. Just me and my stupid self warping an idea, lol.

I would Bondo the crap out of that door though, make it smooth and curved so it doesn't have all sorts of those ridges and crap and maybe scratch some sort of design or something onto it... maybe have a couple grooves with cathodes in them or something...

[Visionary]

I would cover up the metal with a sheet of acrylic or something and paint it. You should be able to fit something like that between the door and the metal surface and still get the door to shut.

[MaxOC]

slice the whole door off and make a new front from bondo

[Olen]

Ok cheers *slaps self for not checking this thread for a while*. I have indeed bondoed the hell out of it and sanded and painted and decided the finish as stil to crap the sanded again.

Will write up a worklog when I both have time and can be bothered. But I have a couple of other projects first.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I think that with a new paint job it may look O.K. You could cut out the part of teh door you don't like and put mesh there with some lighting. Or cut a design into it and use some perspex. I dunno, i got lots of ideas lol.