V8 CM 09 Mod Contest Worklog

[yAu]

Welcome to my first mod
I have built half a dozen pcs prior to this but this is my first attempt at modding and watercooling and it has quickly grown on me.
The theme for my mod is a V8 engine. I started work on it a couple of months ago and came across this contest whilst browsing the site and I thought I'd share my worklog It is a little scattered and all over the but Ill try and catagorise each major part.

Hardware
Case - CoolerMaster CM 690
CPU - Intel Core i7 920
Mainboard - Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME
Memory - OCZ 3x2gb 1600mhz
GPU - Gigabyte NVidia 260GTX 216
Power - Corsair HX-1000

Apologies for some of the poor image qualities



Alright ill start with one of the smaller mods.

My friend mr OCZ met with flat head screwdriver

And got a facelift


And the remains of the old heatspeader

Modding my graphics card was a little more challenging
I had an idea that graphics cards should have a window and a little more bling lighting

The Patient



And now my first major problem arose...
Unfortunately the heatsink I had purchased suited the old 260GTX and not the new one and due to the board design change a row of capacitors prevented the heatsink making contact so heatsink met with my friend mr dremel.

Voila we have a perfect fit now


I then cut out a spot for the window and for the tubing

A part off the old heatsink was cut so that I could reattach the orignal cover to the board

The underside of the completed cover. The left side has a new 70mm fan and the chunk of heatsink. The right has another couple of bits of the heatsink as well as a couple of LEDs

The final card all tubed up ready to go

Card with bling turned on

And close up

Case Dismantling
Unfortunately for some weird reason I didnt take any photos of the case before I dismantled it. I took alot of photos of how smaller sections were riveted together.



The hard drive cage and 5.25" cage sprayed with chrome paint

The full case

Case additions

PVC fittings to make the exhaust

and a coat of paint

new and old


various bits of mdf for making valve boxes




building up the valve boxes


homemade rad grill



And a lick of paint

and a couple of coolermaster 120s

The hole in the top is to fit the power switch. I decided pretty early on that I was going to have an ignition switch so I procured a quad bike ignition barrel off ebay.


The barrel did not have any momentary stage so after adding a spring to it we had a momentary ignition

I then fitted a barrel to protect the spring and mounted a couple of LEDs

Well thats covered most of the stuff that I have uploaded from my camera. Will post more later on

[Icejon]

This is pretty neat especially for a first time mod. I gather your theme is automotive like an engine on a car? Could you share some of your plans regarding this?

[bigbazz]

This is pretty neat especially for a first time mod. I gather your theme is automotive like an engine on a car? Could you share some of your plans regarding this?

Thanks Yeah the theme is based on a V8 engine. Whilst planning I had found another mod that looked like a V8 that was done using 2 of the same cases on a slight angle and while it looked great I thought certain elements were missing from it.
http://www.trendpimp.com/article/181/V8_Case_Mod.html

My plan was to make it look like a V8 and have the power of a V8. I also wanted to show off some internal workings but also have some of the insides lookinglike parts of an engine. My original plan was to build some pistons and possibly have them move. I started to work on this idea I have some pics which I will upload a bit later. I aborted it because it was going to be too difficult to execute. I was going to just have the pistons static but then I had a better idea. I tried to build an acrylic reservoir with little success. I found some bitspower cylindrical reservoirs which I am using for the pistons. I am also making a oil top up (fill port) which taps straight into the reserviors.

[PaPang]

Looks like a good starting point for you own version of a V8 mod! If you try to show some kind of engine internals-Great, too! I will wait to see what you come up with as your project progresses. Funny, another ingenious use of wood for a mod like slipperskip...I must be missing out on its use

Kudos for being your first.

Cheers/Saludos

[bigbazz]

Looks like a good starting point for you own version of a V8 mod! If you try to show some kind of engine internals-Great, too! I will wait to see what you come up with as your project progresses. Funny, another ingenious use of wood for a mod like slipperskip...I must be missing out on its use

Kudos for being your first.

Cheers/Saludos

Thanks for your support, I've enjoyed watching your UFO come together Though I think slipperskips wood work is in a completely different league to mine

Well I think im due for another update, I had done a whole heap of work but it bit here and there a few bits are starting to come together. I did have an issue with a dremel dying on me but thank goodness for warranty

I decided upon making a memory cooler Its still a work in progress

And heres a shot of a semi complete outside made up of perspex and a bit of mesh I salvaged from the front facia

Dismantled a couple of 60mm fans for painting

And that was one version of the base plate for the fans to sit on I took about 4 shots before I got it how I liked I had problems with it cracking and holes were misaligned

Attached the fans but they sat a little skew if so I remade the base plate

Finally got it right and hooked up some leds and rejigged the fan wiring to run off one 3 pin header


I got my reservoirs and fan controller and few other bits earlier on
The 4 reservoirs are going to sit on one side of the case to represent the pistons


I got a bunch of brass fittings to hook up the reservoirs gave them all a shot of flat black to blend in with the base of the reservoirs.

Holes were cut into the top of the valve box for the tops of the reservoirs to sit in

Cut out some pvc pipe which needs to be given a sand prime paint and then add a window behind so you can see into the reservoirs


I did some work on the front facia
I took the front facia removed the mesh from the top and the 2 silver strips that ran down both sides as well as cut out the plastic mesh from behind the bottom section.

I bogged up both the sides from where the silver strips were and sanded it straight still needs the once over with a bit of wet and dry


Cut out a section of aluminium sheeting to place onto the bottom section to highlight the fan.

And there we are and so this concludes the next update on the V8 build more to come...

[PaPang]

Very tasty up to now, keep the hot rolls coming and we'll see what you butter 'em with. Probably pretty neat.

[Maxession]

Come on, where's the update? I wanna see this thing getting assembled!

[PaPang]

Yeah mate, you are making several of us nervous--no updates on a pretty cool mod, unless you are modding "stealth". Hope you don't drop the whole tamale on us at once down the road, most of us like to see the projects develop and I assure you, yours is a keeper!

Cheers/Saludos and don't make yourself scarce!

[bigbazz]

I've still been working on it I've had a few hiccups and study commitments which have slowed me down lately. I made a balls up with one part of my reservior piston which will require one section to be redone. I also sent off the lid for one of the reservoirs to my mates work to get it tapped to put in the fill port and unfortunately the lid cracked so hes got to make another one. I've also had my dremel die on me but has since been replaced so that should make life easier from here on in. I'm nearly at the stage where I can attach the piston cases to the sides of the case I'll upload some more pics in the next day or two to wet your appetites

[bigbazz]

Time for some updates
The front panel has been painted and pretty close to completed

before

inbetween

complete

Ive done some more work on the side

this is kind of how it will be laid out on each side

template for the fillet pieces to go between the box and the side panel

Cut out the clear panels for the window side

Cut some aluminium angle fix each panel to the side

Fixed a couple of strips to panel


Added some more detail to the piston housing

Well thats about it for the moment more updates to come

[PaPang]

The cut tubes, would they be the pistons? Good so see you back in action, mate.Will be waiting to see the outcome of your ideas, promise?


Cheers/Saludos

[bigbazz]

The cut tubes, would they be the pistons? Good so see you back in action, mate.Will be waiting to see the outcome of your ideas, promise?


Cheers/Saludos

Promise
The cut tubes arent the pistons but the next few images should give you an idea of where they will be going. The reservoirs are going to be the pistons. Anyways time for an update the piston housing for the non windowed side is nearly complete just waiting on the glue for the exhaust part to go off and then ill upload some more pictuers



After being primed and Chromed up

Added the top part



Thats all for the moment

[Maxession]

Lol, I still don't have a clue of what the end result will be.

[PaPang]

Hey, hey.. a 4 in-line! Like I mentioned, car themes are really popular this year (no just here) and besides kidding about a car-theme run-off (well, there are certainly enough), I have seen some very daring and ingenious mods here.

Must be that we luv our rides! I just hope that the auto industry doesn't consolidate any more and we loose more brands, IMO.

Question Big, any brand in particular for your theme? Daring and ingenious indeed, is your mod! (I'm talking like Yoda and T'ealc!)


Cheers/Saludos

[bigbazz]

Hey, hey.. a 4 in-line! Like I mentioned, car themes are really popular this year (no just here) and besides kidding about a car-theme run-off (well, there are certainly enough), I have seen some very daring and ingenious mods here.

Not quite an inline 4 just one side remember its gonna be a V8

Question Big, any brand in particular for your theme? Daring and ingenious indeed, is your mod! (I'm talking like Yoda and T'ealc!)

Cheers/Saludos

I didnt have a particular brand in mind when I started I figured Blue Black and SIlver looks good together and running with gigabyte and intel gear the theme is somewhat carried on inside the case. However a friend of mine did point our that those colours were the same as ford performance vehicles (something I had not realised and probably wouldve gone with something different as I'm more of a holden person)

Anyhow the Inline 4 has had some more work done to it


Attached the exhaust piping


Finished attaching the angle to the fillet pieces

Attached the brackets


This pic sort of shows how the box will sit on the side panel just rotate it 90 degrees in your mind

Bad news however the piping attached to the box didnt hold as well as hoped so im probably going to have to come up with a new way to secure it to the sides so back to the drawing board

Thanks for the support and stopping by