Tweet
Getting down to crunch time. Only 10 days left to finish and get pics done so let's get going! With the skins done and that huge weight off my shoulders, I can focus on finishing the assembly and fabricating the grill.
To keep on with the assembly, I decided to knock out the off side, or what I'm considering the interior section of Rehab. In a hot rod you might find a relocated battery or some other hardware stashed in the trunk. But just because it's in the trunk doesn't mean it can't look cool or unfinished.
Like this.
That was the goal with the off side. I'm not sure if all the snippets of work on that side made much sense, but now it's time to tie it all together.
I've already got the SSDs mounted to my suede covered panel, so all that was left was to mount the extinguisher mounts and put it and it's edge trim in.
It does need a bit of a haircut. The backing on the suede kind of fluffed on me.
Then I mounted up the PSU and tried to wrangle the wires in. I've got an inch of room behind the panel which is great for extra wire, but with no way to really access it, I had to shove the wires blindly and hope they went where I wanted them to go. There's a bit of work left to get them exactly how I want, but this is a good start.
Bad thing about the PSU, I had it sitting on a towel after getting it all back together and it picked up the texture, so I'll be painting it again. Guess 2 days of curing wasn't enough.
With the side panel on giving a nice shot of the hardware inside.
It's gonna be really tight on airflow to the PSU after the window is in, but I think it'll be able to draw enough air. With a thin piece of acrylic, it should still have 1/4 inch of clearance. Might wind up cutting a vent in the window down the road though. Just have to see.
And now my big concern on finishing...the grill. I went back and forth trying to think of different ways of pulling it off. Do I make something? Do I adapt something to fit? Do I figure out a way to make the original front panel work? It was a tough call because I really wanted it to have the look of a billet slat grill, but I didn't want to have to drop a couple hundred dollars on a grill insert and then try to make it fit. I finally came up with an idea to make it from scratch that I think will look dead on. Or at least I hope.
First off, I cut 2 sections of 3/4" MDF for my frame, one with notches, one without.
Then a little glue and some clamps.
I sent that through the table saw to get an angle on the side. At first I was looking for a way to rout the edges since I've got a round corner, but I just couldn't come up with any way that would work that I liked. I spent way more time just trying to figure out a way to route it than it took to knock it out on the saw. I got the corner's angle with a sander, just matching it up to the saw cuts.
From the side, it looks a bit like the original Fractal front. Nice. All that's left for the frame is a bit of cleaning up and some paint.
But what about the fins? That's where the notches on the frame come in. I CNC'd two brackets out of some 1/2" acrylic with 1/8" slots about halfway deep.
They slot right into the notches of the frame.
Next up are the 27 slats that I have to finish CNCing out of 1/8" acrylic that slot right into the brackets. Then a bit of assembly and the whole thing will be ready to paint!
To keep on with the assembly, I decided to knock out the off side, or what I'm considering the interior section of Rehab. In a hot rod you might find a relocated battery or some other hardware stashed in the trunk. But just because it's in the trunk doesn't mean it can't look cool or unfinished.
Like this.
That was the goal with the off side. I'm not sure if all the snippets of work on that side made much sense, but now it's time to tie it all together.
I've already got the SSDs mounted to my suede covered panel, so all that was left was to mount the extinguisher mounts and put it and it's edge trim in.
It does need a bit of a haircut. The backing on the suede kind of fluffed on me.
Then I mounted up the PSU and tried to wrangle the wires in. I've got an inch of room behind the panel which is great for extra wire, but with no way to really access it, I had to shove the wires blindly and hope they went where I wanted them to go. There's a bit of work left to get them exactly how I want, but this is a good start.
Bad thing about the PSU, I had it sitting on a towel after getting it all back together and it picked up the texture, so I'll be painting it again. Guess 2 days of curing wasn't enough.
With the side panel on giving a nice shot of the hardware inside.
It's gonna be really tight on airflow to the PSU after the window is in, but I think it'll be able to draw enough air. With a thin piece of acrylic, it should still have 1/4 inch of clearance. Might wind up cutting a vent in the window down the road though. Just have to see.
And now my big concern on finishing...the grill. I went back and forth trying to think of different ways of pulling it off. Do I make something? Do I adapt something to fit? Do I figure out a way to make the original front panel work? It was a tough call because I really wanted it to have the look of a billet slat grill, but I didn't want to have to drop a couple hundred dollars on a grill insert and then try to make it fit. I finally came up with an idea to make it from scratch that I think will look dead on. Or at least I hope.
First off, I cut 2 sections of 3/4" MDF for my frame, one with notches, one without.
Then a little glue and some clamps.
I sent that through the table saw to get an angle on the side. At first I was looking for a way to rout the edges since I've got a round corner, but I just couldn't come up with any way that would work that I liked. I spent way more time just trying to figure out a way to route it than it took to knock it out on the saw. I got the corner's angle with a sander, just matching it up to the saw cuts.
From the side, it looks a bit like the original Fractal front. Nice. All that's left for the frame is a bit of cleaning up and some paint.
But what about the fins? That's where the notches on the frame come in. I CNC'd two brackets out of some 1/2" acrylic with 1/8" slots about halfway deep.
They slot right into the notches of the frame.
Next up are the 27 slats that I have to finish CNCing out of 1/8" acrylic that slot right into the brackets. Then a bit of assembly and the whole thing will be ready to paint!
Comment