XcaliburFX

HAWG WILD U.S.A.

Category

Case Mods

Status

Ready for Battle

Deets

HAWG WILD U.S.A. by: http://www.forgedfx.com/
 
A New Worklog can be found here with more pictures and better resolutions. http://www.modders-inc.com/modules.php?name=NDWorklogs&op=Story&ndwl_id=...
 
After doing a few modified and special paint/themed cases someone asked if I could do a Harley Davidson themed case. So, I told them to let me think it over and I would see what I could come up with.
 
About a week later I stopped at a cpu store in another town, I was actually looking for a case with a some chrome embellishments. In their junk pile they had this custom white case with two chrome plated front air grills. I have no idea of who manufactured the case, but the design looked ok and I could see a spark of an idea began.
 
Well, it turned out the grills were rusting too bad to clean up for the job so, I sanded them down to the copper and sprayed them gloss black. I then took the center piece of the front bezel, as well as the front bezel itself, and sanded out the imperfections and sprayed them with Krylon Fusion Hammered Metal Silver. This gives the pieces a nice textured finish that also hides any imperfections. Also, I sprayed the little embellishments, a nice contrasting Pumpkin Orange.
 
With all the plastics painted, I turned my attention to the case. First, I completely disassembled the steel frame of the case, sandblasted, sanded and primed it. Then I took the side panel which originally housed an 80mm fan and marked out the lines to cut a window. I used a scroll saw with a metal cutting blade to make this cut and finished it out with my dremel. Next, I sandblasted the side panels and primed them as well.
 
Next, I had an idea to add some flame behind the grills. So, I decided to cut a fan hole in the front panel of the frame, so I could put a bright red fan there to backlight the flames I would make. A 2 ½“ hole saw did the trick quite well. After doing this I took the front bezel and cut out where the grills covered. I then took a nice thick piece of poster board and drew out my flames. After doing this I glued a heavy felt like paper to it and then cut them out. Next I completely covered the flame sheet with Plasti Dip to give it strength. Then I sprayed them silver to help with light reflection, and attached them to the front bezel.
 
After this I installed the 3 Red 80mm LED ThermalTake ThunderBlade fans, one behind the front flames and two in the rear of the case. This should give the case a nice “Hot Glow” to it and provide sufficient cooling for a minor build.
 
At this point I once again turned my attention to the frame. Early on I decided to use the Orange and Black Harley colors, or at least as close to them as I could get. With that in mind, I decided to paint the frame primarily Orange and the drive cages and expansion bay frame gloss Black. I then reassembled the frame with aluminum rivets. Not looking too bad at this point, I decided to proceed.
 
It was now time to lay out a paint scheme. I used photoshop to simulate several paint designs and finally decided to use black over orange scheme with silver racing stripes and pin striping. I then decided to use the hammered metal finish as a base coat/texture coat. I thought this would tie in with the textured front bezel nicely. I then proceeded with the Orange and Black paint. After painting the side panels and the top, I laid out the racing stripes on the top and painted them. After all paint had cured appropriately, I applied about 5 coats of crystal clear acrylic enamel. Now it was time to dry a bit.
 
So, at this point I headed to my local auto parts store to find some cheap pinstripes to match the silver, and I did. However, as I was walking out I happened upon the clearance items and found a nice roll of Harley Davidson emblem pin striping for .99 cents. It was a no brainer, lol.
 
Back to the side panels, I lay two silver pin stripes one on each side of the HD emblem stripes to separate the orange and black paint. Then I took some nice Harley Davidson metal emblems and did a small amount of embellishing. I also added some small Harley Davidson vinyl decals to the bezel and in various spots on and in the case to dress it up. I contacted my local Harley Davidson dealer and they gave me a few Dip Dots, little brass round emblems that you mount to the Harleys Dip stick as an advertisement. One became the front power switch, one the speaker magnet cover and two the fan centers on the rear of the case.
 
With al the embellishing done I installed the window, with a nice Harley Screaming Eagle on the plexi-glass. I was almost through when, I decided to add something that would bring a neat wow affect to the case. So, I bought a small “Hawg” in a display case. Took it out and disassembled it, then I proceeded to paint it to match the case, right down to the dual silver racing stripes on top of the gas tank. After it was reassembled and back in the display case, I attached the display case to the inside of the window, making sure that it would not interfere with any case internals that might be added later.
 
I must say I was quite pleased with the results. :)

Went up on 4/15/08 and installed a monster system in the Hawg.

Yep, it’s a Hawg!! lol

• Intel Quad 6600


• ASUS P5N32-E 680i SLI


• 4gb Crucial Ballistix


• 2 x EVGA 9800 GTX’s


• 2 x Seagate Barrcuda 500gb SATA hdds


• 2 x DVD RW


• Windows XP Professional


• TV Tuner/Video Capture


• 3 Red 80mm LED ThermalTake ThunderBlade fans


• Antec 850 True Power Quatro

 
That case is slap full of goodies!! lol