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HAF 932 modlog! Paint/Side Panel

chouchou

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
449
Location
Vancouver
Sup :thumb:
Since the beginning, I've come to HWC for help in all areas of comps, and have learned countless lessons in the world of CPU building from you fellas! I think the only thing left for me to grasp a huge knowledge of is a better base in the OCing field as well as water cooling.

When I built my first CPU, i bought most of the parts from peers at HWC and had a blast, and built that rig in a stunning Silverstone TJ-07.
However, I'm not one to make use of the TJ-07's max capacities, so I sold that case and decided on the HAF 932 from Mush. Bought it for a great price at $130, and the case was in immaculate condition.

So here we go, a new case at my disposal I had to figure out what i wanted to do with it, as well as whether my parts would be the same. I figured since prices are rapidly dropping in the GPU game i might as well SLI my gtx 260 216's later on, and I happily ordered one the other day! But that's beside the point.

Here was my plan for the rebuild into the HAF 932:
1. After looking at most HAF paint jobs, i saw a consistency of pure black. I figured, well, i wanted to make it a 'little' special, so i decided on a black majority blended with a dark red consistency. So off to the store i went, and picked up 2 cans of Matte Black, 2 cans of 'Wild Raspberry', a can of satin clearcoat, and 2 cans of Self Etch.
2. Side panel. I hate the look of the stock side panel, though it provides great cooling. I had to figure out a way to make it look good + not lose it's air cooling capabilities.
3. Cable management was a big deal for me on this one. Seeing as the HAF is a case built for neatfreaks, I spent extra time making the cables look extra clean.
4. Any extra holes needed for cable management?
5. Fans: i wanted to change from the huge 230mm's to 4 120's on the side panel, as well as 2x120mm's on the top. Havn't gotten to this stage yet but will do as soon as Monday rolls around and a trip to NCIX is in order.
6. Sleeving of any cables..
7. Having a blast while doing it all!

I finished with the whole planning phase, and decided I'll do all of the painting steps one day, and the rest of the build the next (including sleeving and putting it all together)
So off we go, time to pop some rivets!

Part one: Paint job.

I guess i'll make a pretty detailed list of what to do, and wish that viewers hoping getting into the whole painting game can get some experience and knowledge from this. There are definitely a couple steps that are vital pre-paint as well as during the painting phase, though i did not wetsand in between coats which is a good idea for that 'perfect' finish.
Before the paint job, it's usually advised for you to derivet your case - the simple way (grab a 1/8th inch drill bit, throw it on the drill, and pop those rivets out!)


I derivited, and continued on to sand with 220 grit sandpaper.
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It was a nice day out, so i decided to paint the same day.
The paint i used was: SEM brand self etching primer, 2 cans of Flat black tremclad paint, 2 cans of Wild Raspberry tremclad, as well as a can of satin clearcoat.

i drew a line inside my garage (less windy). make sure you're in a well ventilated area and are using a filtration mask prior to spraypainting.
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and began priming!
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the paint job before was rather rough, so i made sure to take extra care in the pre-priming steps. it is important to get a good surface to apply primer on, as well as making sure that it is clean.
a good idea is to wipe down with a non-lint cloth after sanding

after 3 coats of self-etch, (a can and a little bit) i let it cure for 2 hours.. off to the kitchen :punk:

back to the garage, and onto the base coat of paint!
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a few more coats later...

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more to come! :thumb:
 

chouchou

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
449
Location
Vancouver
Putting it back together!


after the last coat of paint, i waited until it was dry to the touch. brought it inside the house to let it cure and to vent out the garage.

here are some results! :clap: i'm happy.
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aaand time to rivet it all back together with my handy tool:
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case feet!
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time to put back the tool-less apparatuses, as well as the pci slots and etc.
this took awhile, because they sure are frustrating. in the end though, i think it paid off quite nicely.

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cut a hole in the dvd slots to draw lines to the drives as well as from the fan controller
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time to put some things back in! i ordered a pci-e y splitter from corsair, (and they sent it happily free of charge). also had to get some things in order for the side panel, that will come ltaer. but for the big job: putting the components back in as well as cable management.

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<-- geez.. what a mess.
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After about 30 mins of throwing cables around.. iw asn't too happy. was messy, and wires could be seen all over the place. The pre-cut holes for cable ties in the case just weren't cutting it for me, so off to home depot i go where i picked up some UV-resistant black cable tie mounts:
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NOW: cable management. Serious mode.
i learned a lot of tricks and tips from TjHarlow on youtube... he's pretty sick at the whole cable management scene, and has a lot of rep on [h] and ocn.
And after an hour of careful management:
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chouchou

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
449
Location
Vancouver
Side Panel Mod

So here we go. Another part to make the HAF truly mine. There havn't been many haf-932 side panel mods; just the plain paint job etc. I decided that it was time for me to do it!

Here were some basic ideas i could run with:
1) Window cutout <-- this was for sure. The only thing i didn't know what how big.
I decided to cut out the entire half of the side panel with the slots for four 120mm fans or 1 240mm.
2) I wanted to have the ability to use fans, so i searched around for some side panel mods. i decided on one that involves mounting a ACRyan radgrill on the side of the clear acrylic window. Went with a 3x120mm ac ryan radgrill that i purchased off Patriot here!
3) mounting BLUE led fans on it.

And here we go:
So i took my stock, ugly side panel:
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to my laser cutter, and he had it for me within the hour. Turned out like this:
(great cut. smooth and very very precise.)
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Painted it black in the process.
From there, i went to my local plastics shop and picked up an 18 by 14 piece of clear 1/8th inch acrylic.
I printed out an A.C. Ryan radgrill template and cut my acrylic with my jigsaw:
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A huge kudos goes out to Patriote who sent me his A.C. Ryan grill. Arrived in a day with xpresspost! :clap:
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Went to crappy tire, picked up some nuts and bolts and off i went: time to put it together.
My end results: :clap::thumb:
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I realize that the BLUE led's dont really go with the red scheme of the paint job.. but i couldn't find affordable and performing red LED fans to go with the case anywhere around here, and ordering the moff performance-pcs would be above my budget :(


Acrylic onto the actual side panel: :whistle:

Time to mount it in. I picked up some 4010 tape (amazing..) from home depot and began the mounting.
Also got my corsair pci-e splitters, made my management a little neater.
my apologies for these photos, as they were taken with my phone... my sis took the cam :angry2:

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:clap::bananafunky:
 
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Chilly

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
2,625
Location
Ontario
REDA plus labcbncckks is preeeeeettyyy


this prohject will be lots of sffun to loooookk after because red aznwsd black is ver prtretttyy!
 

chouchou

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
449
Location
Vancouver
Painting Noctuas + Lapping Q6700

Since it was getting pretty hot in my room, i figured some things i could do to lower the temps (idle & load) since i planned on folding for the team.
Decided on taking two of my NF-P12's and painting them black, as well as lapping my CPU.

I lapped with grits ranging from 400-1500, and it turned out pretty well:
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Not that polished of a finish, but good enough for my likings.

Painting the noctuas: this was a pretty difficult task, but it was worth it in the end (i think..) :rofl:

Grabbed some painters tape, and off i went.
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And here it is, being mounted onto my Xigmatek HDT-S1283
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That last pic is a pic of where i put my inverter box and switch for my cold cathodes. The line wasn't long enough to mount the bracket in a slot so i decided to hide it back there!


Here it is! Done and DONE!
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PLg

Well-known member
Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
179
Location
Laval, Qc
Painting the noctuas: this was a pretty difficult task, but it was worth it in the end (i think..)

It really looks nice. This two tone is great.
Did you try to paint the blades? Do you think it would affect the air flow?
 
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