Modding my Mac - From Dark Apple to Poison Apple
Lot's o' photos, wait time may be long. you have been warned! click photos for larger versions.
Whlle I liked the case that I had previously created, It was still after all, a PC case with a G4 inside, not much style too it. So when I got my hands on a G3 b/w case, I decided it was time for a change.
For those just starting up, here is the old case:
old pc case with blue lights, Apple cut with a dremel, blue power light visable
I started with a non-functioning G3 blue and white, tho' I did get it working before tearing it apart, I might end up putting it into the old pc case and fire up dark apple again. While a G4 case would have worked better in some ways, I'm glad I had the G3 case instead, I'll explain why later. The take apart is fairly easy and obvious, just look for which screws are holding things down and take them out. I flathead screw driver works good to release the clips that hold the front and back panels. I took everything out of the case and then removed the plastic panels on the outside. There is a clip in the center of the side panels you have to release. The power supply was also removed.
The G3 bare metal case
the blue G3 parts during painting
I used GooGone to remove the tape holding the IDE cable and other sticky residue left on the case, I removed the G3 stickers by hand as to not damage them, I used a razer blade to get the corners started then pulled them by hand. They pulled off fairly easily and were perfect and reuseable... tho' I decided against reusing them. The side panel apples were a little tricky to get off. I tried a Manual CD Extration Device (AKA paperclip) but the one I had wasn't thick enough so I ended up using a nail that fit. I hammered it a couple of times to loosen the glue until it popped off. I used a finishing nail and used the flat (head) end towards the apple so that it wouldn't poke through. That done I painted all the blue pieces black.
The side panels with the painted apple in a test look, The metal case painted Red, and the hole dremeled into the side panels for lights.
Case painted red with hole drilled in front to light the front apple
The reason that I'm glad I got the G3 blue/white case is that the panels are clear frosted while the G4 cases are painted and would have had to be stripped to paint them a different color, I thought of painting the back of the panels red, but then if/when I decided I wanted to paint it again it would be easier if the metal was painted. After I painted the blue plastic tho, I wish I had painted them on the backside, it looked much better that way, maybe next time. I first primered the bare metal before painting it red. I wanted the apples to be backlit so I cut the hole in the side of the metal case, there are two holes there already where the side panels clip so I just joined them, taking care not to damage where the clips snap in.
Back of case with blue modified back panel. the front switch was not built yet so I rigged up a switch for power.
blue back panel, modified for the firewire ports to fit and drilled hole for speaker plug
After painting, the case being put back together, the apples were not attached yet, just fitted on.
I put the apple back together several times, mostly to see what worked best, and where to run the wires, I also had to modify the back panel to fit the motherboard as the firewire and speaker positions were different. the only blue parts not painted were the back panel and the blue rubber ring on the opening side panel, but I got my hands on a G4 claer ring and put it in it's stead.
The EL wire for the backlighting
A test of the backlit apples
I used EL wire to backlight the apples, I coiled it around in a spiral and used zipties and a little glue to hold it in place, I had to drill holds for the zipties. One thing about this method was that the 'bite' in the logo looks brighter, but it was easier then forming an apple with the EL wire.
Blacklight LED used for front apple, side panels and front apple working, the G3 came with a zip drive, so I got a G4 cover to replace hole, it wasn't painted yet.
I used a blacklight LED to light the front apple, I couldn't find a red one, might change it when I do, I used tape to fix it to the top of the case over the DVD Burner, it came with a swivel mount so I aimed it where it needed to go.
A close up of the back panel, the firewire ports were moved and the G3 had a hole for ADB, the speaker plug was also relocated. I used rubber cement to glue the apple back on.
More photos of the finished product.
Well that's the mod, I do still need to create a cable to connect the front control panel to the motherboard, the G3 and G4 have different cables, I have the diagrams for both connectors and will probably just cut the cables and splice them so they work, for now, I just used the switch from the pc case and attached it in back.
Specs:
G4 Gigabit MB
800mhz processor upgrade
1.25g memory
2 x 80 gig HDs
Pioneer DVD Burner