Thermaltake V71 Fire Honeycomb mod

[Renegade]

I've re-modified this post to be more official. We are away! 

 

I've kept this under wraps for a little while, but now is a better time as any to get this going. It'll help me kick myself into gear to get it across the finish. 

 

 

 

 

Meet my mascot - Tina the stuffed Alpaca. Tina approves of the V71.

 

 

Worklog

 

First off - I stripped the case. Top panel. Front Panel. Side panels. I stripped it down 'till it was #### naked. This is an easy process with the V71.

 

And now, the hard work begins. 

 

I grabbed the case front panel and very patiently (which may or may not have had excessive amounts of cursing) began prying the front mesh away from the front plastic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am by no means a handyman. But I love to learn, and I love to do things as best as I can. 

 

I reached a point where I had no choice but to dremel two of the centre mesh metal clips. Several thousand more curse-words later - I did succeed in separating the two.

 

 

If you're wanting to do this at home, I recommend a pair of long nosed pliers, a thin towel/fabric and patience. Don't resort to the dremel like I did. I felt like Jeremy Clarkson after with a chainsaw. 

 

 

I decided that because the colour of choice was necessary to be bright as possible, I had this notion in my head that a white primer was best. 

 

After a lot of cleaning, de-dusting, de-oiling with some light metho - the primer was applied. 

 

I've been told there are grey primers that may have been better than what I had chosen - nonetheless I went ahead and primed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I note that the above images is over two days. We had some nice hot days in Sydney, Australia during this process which really helped. 

 

I also had some modder's mesh lying around for a different case mod and I decided to test the bonding between the paint and the primer. 

 

 

This turned out to me mostly good, however I noticed that the paint did take a lot longer to dry. 

I've been told that primers and paints can have different chemical mixtures and can sometimes have issues sticking to each other. Anyone else have this experience?

 

Unfortunately, Sydney Australia was hit with a huge number of storms and this delayed more painting greatly. There were a couple of great sunny weekends to do more painting, but we were either reluctant for fear of more whacky weather, but also the fear that the paint wouldn't correctly stick and we monitored the modder's mesh test closely. 

 

I've managed to get the first coat of red onto the front. It will DEFINITELY need some sanding to get the coats right, but it's a labour of love as I'm sure many of you know. 

 

But the red was a good choice.

 

 

 

The reason for such a bright red is because I want the end result to have two very different looks. 

By day - it will have layers of red and black all compiled together. The mesh will be staying unpainted and as-is. The red honeycomb will peek through the mesh exactly like this:

 

 

And by night? -Well - that's something I'll have to show when I have the parts. (Still on the hunt for CPU cooling, GPU, SSD, Fans, 3mm LED's and many other little items to add - Saving in November with Xmas around the corner is just - INSANE!)

 

Just in case I drop the ball on the painting, I'm ordering a second front and top panel (with thanks to this forum for directing me there. Thank you guys).

 

I'm also calling up some friends who are handy with a soldering iron to help me out further. As soon as my funds come through, I'll be investing in some more paint and some tools to commence dismantling my PSU. 

 

[CyberDustin777]

Hi Renegade, I plan on doing a similar mod in the future and would like to know how difficult it was to remove the mesh.  I am working on a Thermaltake / AMD build and would like to paint that same piece red.  Also, try contacting customer support for a replacement panel. I had to get a top panel replaced and it was fairly easy to do.

[Renegade]

Hi Renegade, I plan on doing a similar mod in the future and would like to know how difficult it was to remove the mesh. I am working on a Thermaltake / AMD build and would like to paint that same piece red. Also, try contacting customer support for a replacement panel. I had to get a top panel replaced and it was fairly easy to do.

Patience is absolutely key. Thermaltake have really done well to attach the mesh section with several metal "tabs".

You definitely need a pair of long nose pliers and to take your time. Bend gently on the metal "tabs" firmly but as close as you can to the plastic. When you're separating the two, I used a big flathead screwdriver with a cloth covering the end.

Bend too far and you'll bend the mesh. Not enough and the metal tab slots back into place.

I didn't succeed with some of the tabs and I had to dremel two of the centre tabs. They're a bit shorter as a result, but it's still recoverable. I hope this helps and I'd love to see how you approach it!

 

I'll drop a line to customer support and hopefully they'll be open to sending me a replacement.

[CyberDustin777]

Sweet, thanks for the tips. I will keep this thread posted.

[Tt Andy]

Hello Renegade and Welcome to the forums!

Looks like your off to a good start on your mod, will you be going for the full white look?

Regards to some of the questions on Core V71, we actually have an owners club you might want to check out.

Also, for spare parts i think you can contact our Australia & NZ team. if they have any spares they should be able to help you out!

[Renegade]

Hello Renegade and Welcome to the forums!

Looks like your off to a good start on your mod, will you be going for the full white look?

Regards to some of the questions on Core V71, we actually have an owners club you might want to check out.

Also, for spare parts i think you can contact our Australia & NZ team. if they have any spares they should be able to help you out!

 

Greetings Klaus Andy!

The white is actually a primer. The intended colour I'm using needed a primer coat to get the coat of paint to properly stick. 

I did checkout some of the awesome builds from the V71 Owner's Club, but I felt that the thread was dedicated to finished rigs, as opposed to a commenced case mod. 

 

I've already dropped an email to the Thermaltake Team who have very quickly responded today!

[Tt Andy]

Ah my mistake, yeh it makes sense to put primer on first to get the color you want... now you got me curious on what color your indenting to paint

anyway looking forward to seeing your build progress! will put this thread on follow

[Renegade]

Updated original posting! Thank you for your help so far everyone. 

[ThermalMike]

Looking great so far and cant wait to see the end result!

 

I did not use primer on mine because I did not want everything to be too "thick", just painting over the plastic after wet sanding it with 1500 grit.

[Renegade]

Looking great so far and cant wait to see the end result!

 

I did not use primer on mine because I did not want everything to be too "thick", just painting over the plastic after wet sanding it with 1500 grit.

 

Me too Mike! I'm equally as eager to see yours completed too and I'm honoured that I caught your attention. 

 

I haven't had a huge amount of experience with spraying with this type of plastic and I did suspect I wouldn't need to prime - it's such a decent surface to work with already. Worst case scenario (no pun intended), I am in the process of obtaining a replacement front panel on the chance that the paint makes the front too thick. 

 

Hopefully I can muster up the cojones and tear down my PSU this weekend as well! 

Is there any advice you might have for tearing apart a PSU?

[ThermalMike]

I have an extra front panel that I used to remove the front badge and grill.

 

If you want the frame just PM me and we will figure something out.

 

Tearing down the PSU is not really all that bad:

 

 - You ok with voiding your warranty...

 - Check it out first, take the top section off or check out a review on it where the reviewer took it apart already.

 - See what it will take to get the PCB removed from the case to paint it.

 - the DPS was failry easy, 4 screws on the connection panel and about 6 on the main PCB.

 - The connections just unplugged and made it very easy to remove. (Take pictures of it before you disconnect everything)

 - Big concern for me was the plug/switch, I did not remove it completely, but you can push it through the case just enough to get tape around the connections on both sides to paint it and avoid removing solder connections.

[Renegade]

I have an extra front panel that I used to remove the front badge and grill.

 

If you want the frame just PM me and we will figure something out.

 

Tearing down the PSU is not really all that bad:

 

 - You ok with voiding your warranty...

 - Check it out first, take the top section off or check out a review on it where the reviewer took it apart already.

 - See what it will take to get the PCB removed from the case to paint it.

 - the DPS was failry easy, 4 screws on the connection panel and about 6 on the main PCB.

 - The connections just unplugged and made it very easy to remove. (Take pictures of it before you disconnect everything)

 - Big concern for me was the plug/switch, I did not remove it completely, but you can push it through the case just enough to get tape around the connections on both sides to paint it and avoid removing solder connections.

 

Thanks a lot Mike, I'll get to the disassembly soon. 

 

Just a quick update - to create this build I'm using a garage that's being very kindly loaned by my in-laws. Since I also work full time, my only opportunities to paint or mod are the weekends. Sydney's whacky weather is continuing to make panting a bit tough and on top of that, the garage is currently being fully occupied by an Alfa Romeo that needs fixing and it can't currently move until January.   If anyone is in or around the Sydney Australia area and would like to volunteer a space where I can keep painting, please drop me a PM. I can offer high-fives and hugs in return - plus a lot of re-tweeting. 

[dO_ob]

nice paintjob! any updates?