Not bought. MADE!

Introduction:

Are you tired of the beige looking drive in your brushed aluminum silver case? Well, you and alot of other people. I've been playing with my Lian Li PC-60 for alittle while now trying to experiment with different ways to match the drives to the case without just painting them silver. Most people now I'm guessing , just paint their drives a metallic silver. If done right, that can be a very good solution and look very nice. However, if you use the wrong shade of silver ( yes, there is different kinds of silver paint), then it may not look quite so nice. Or, maybe you wanne take it that extra step and really make it look like a chiseled piece of machinery... =) Well, today I'll be doing it the hard way and modding the stock brushed aluminum drive bay cover for the Lian Li case. Maybe you've seen it before. I know I have. I had to try it myself. Couple quick things I wanna say first though......Once you start this mod, there's no turning back. And finally, If you're new to metal working.....pack a lunch cuz it's gonna take you awhile....lol.

Aluminum Faceplate Mod

Here the 6x Creative drive starts to get the treatment. Good or bad treatment...you decide. (btw: the faceplate was painted silver along time ago and I sanded it off. In case your wondering what that is in the cracks ;p ) Had I know that a year later I might want it silver, I might've left it......well, maybe not.

The Victim. In this particular, case in order to get the faceplate off, I needed to remove the cd tray cover. A precision screwdriver works wonders. Remove the tray cover, faceplate,etc....then also remove any looses objects that may be attached to the inside the faceplate itself like little fiber optic led squares,etc. Get it all outta there, cuz you're about to make a mess. Also make sure you store that stuff in a safe place......lose them and you're bummin` :o)

Now I've done the trial and error for you already in this mod, so please disregard some of the pictures where it may seem confusing to you. What I put in this article is the way I happened to do it. I'll try to relay how you can do it better and save yourself some steps and time along the way. For instance, I broke out the RTX for this mod. Looking back I really didn't need to. If I would've had the nibbler when I started this mod I wouldn't have. (nibbler = ownage) You'll see what I mean :o) The only true match to the finish of the case is the aluminum drive covers that come with it. A very select few have done the aluminum drive covers mod, one such person being my buddy RIKK.

This is one of them mods, that when you start, you better take it all the way. What I mean by that is, once you start this mod, you're gonna be modding (ruining) the drives original plastic faceplate, and also the sleek aluminum faceplate from the Lian Li. Toast! Caput! ...UNTIL... you finish this mod. It will also look like complete and utter crap until your 100% done so keep at it. :o) Well, with that outta the way... and you're still here, and didn't run off and paint your drives.... pull up a chair :o)

The first thing to do is to grab your aluminum lian li faceplate of choice and BREAK IT!.....lol......ok, well, not quite. You do however want to remove the "fins" down to an acceptable length. It's best to cut them somewhere between 1/2" - 3/4" from the front of it, but before the "bend".

There's numerous ways to do this part, but I just grabbed my leatherman and used the crimper/cutter and put a cut on each side of the aluminum and then just bent it over and back to snap it off. Then I used the needle nose pliers to crimp the rough metal and It was done enough for me. No one's going to see that and as long as you don't have any protruding "sharpies" sticking outward.....it'll be fine. Best of all......took me about 20 seconds :o) Now on the drives faceplate.... The goal of this first step is to get to the point of being able to fit the drives faceplate "inside" the lian li's drive cover plate. Sounds simple, but it's not. They are, dimensionally, the exact same size. So what you need to do is make the drives faceplate a little smaller to fit in there......how?......

By sanding it of course! :o) A belt sander would be ideal if you have one?.....heh.....I don't. My trusty Firestorm 12v Multi-tool (sanding attachment on) made very quick work of getting rid of the 2-3mm's of extra plastic we don't need. If you're using a sander that is not as long as the faceplate, use a constant back and forth motion ( sawing motion) to try to keep the sanding even and therefore not taking too much off one side and not enough off the other. You get the idea . There's two important steps in this part:

• Shave faceplate at a slight angle towards it's front (exactly like the pic above)

• Constantly stop and test fit! You do not want to shave off too much.

Now shave (sand) the faceplate at a slight angle towards the face of it. You'll ensure a more secure fit inside the aluminum plate that way and if you do it just right, you'll just be able to "push fit" the aluminum over the plastic and not have to use an epoxy to secure it. That's my preferred way for the fact you'll be able to remove it without the "Jaws of Life"....LOL!

A few items I picked up to help this mod along. A needle file set ($16) (here a Diamond Coated Set), a Scribe ($6), and a paint marker and a small can of model paint. You can purchase these items at a local hobby shop. The paint is optional, but the files, and some type of scribe (etching device) are absolutely essential.

I applied some masking tape on the front of the faceplate to protect the finish. With your plastic faceplate securely inside the aluminum one, use the scribe to trace out the areas you wanna cut. It should look something similar to what you see above. Anything with a sharp, and very hard, tip would also serve this purpose here. A scribe has a carbon tip that's all. You purpose is to "etch" the faceplate so you can remove the plastic one before cutting. The hardest part of scribing an accurate pattern here is the fact that the dvd faceplate has that bevel in it to allow the cd-tray cover to fit flush to the front. So your scribed pattern for the tray here is going to be noticeably small. That's ok, I got a tool for that :o)

Here is where I broke out the RTX and flex shaft and "got dusty"..LOL! I cut out the pattern the best I could, by removing as much of the aluminum as I could, knowing that I had days of filing ahead....lol.

*Days of Filing*

After the cutting and another test fit, I realized I had ALOT of filing to do. So much in fact I debated breaking out the RTX again to remove some more. But one thing you don't wanna do is to cut too much....once you do that....game over! So, the filing went on......and on......and on......Until, I ran across a nifty little tool at Directron called .............

.......The Nibbler!

It know It sounds like a bad guy from the Batman movies, but it's really a neat little tool for cutting small, precise, and very controllable "squares" outta thin metal. Here's a quick description of what it's meant for as taken from Directrons site.

"The Nibbler is great for cutting out shapes in your computer case. Just squeeze the handle and it cuts up to 18 gauge (.046") steel, 1.5 mm ( 1/16" ) copper, aluminum, plastic and other unhardened metals. Use the Nibbling tool can eliminate the need for expensive power tools."