Project: Frankenstripe

[Drum Thumper]

Having decided that I only need one optical drive, along with the fan controller, I got a bit crazy with the bondo.

I'll commence sanding tonight when I get home from work.

And as you can see, I'll be doing a little bit of touchup on the other areas.

Next up, the bottom of the front panel!

[Omega]

Do a mesh-hole. It looks good (pictures forthcoming).

EDIT:

Mesh-hole, taken from my worklog:

warning, huge picture

[Drum Thumper]

Best of Both Worlds (shameless Van Hagar plug lol). I like it.

But, I think I might have found something definitely different, and it might work.

A Styrofoam outdoor faucet cover. Dirt cheap (less than 5 bucks) at Home Depot.

Sadly, I didn't get a chance to get some dimensions off of it. But from looking at it the other day, I'm pretty sure the larger end will fit flush in the gaping hole that I made.

Cut it down a bit, either bondo or fiberglass it, and move on.

I'm gonna go pick one up tomorrow and see if it looks as good in real life as it does in my head.

[Drum Thumper]

Sanded and what was originally supposed to be just a dusting of paint to see what the hell is going on. As you can see, it didn't turn out quite that way.

Oh well, this is actually much better. gives me some ideas as to where I still need to work.

More coming tomorrow!

[Drum Thumper]

So, I snagged one of these for $3.49:

I chopped the top off and mocked it up sitting on the front panel. Looks like I'm gonna be removing some bondo tomorrow.

I definitely like how it looks--almost like a porthole on a speaker.

BUT--here is the dilemma--from what little research I've done, it sounds like this is gonna be a bitch to get to cooperate. Fiberglass resin eats through this stuff faster than a bulimic at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I haven't tried bondo yet (I still have the top section I cut out for trial and error), but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

[alphastryk]

looks great man...keep it up!

[Drum Thumper]

Great news to start with: Bondo will adhere to sytrofoam:

So, having solved that dilemma, I went ahead and did some more chopping on the front panel and got the soon to be blowhole flush with the chasis:

So now I am going to chop up another cheap plastic cd case that I got from work and begin filling in the four holes. Tomorrow I do believe I will be bondoing.

[Drum Thumper]

Well, back to the drawing board. I just attempted to bondo the styrofoam. Wouldn't take. Also, the bondo itself was getting warm--most likely a chemical reaction between the 'foam and the hardener (or possibly the putty for that matter).

I'd show some pics, but the camera is dead at the moment.

[Bucko]

Bondo is meant to get hot. It does that as it hardens. It's quite normal.

[Jim Beam]

you can spray the foam with primer then use the bondo