I will be painting my mac this weekend and would love any pointers about the take apart or painting that any other modders could give me. I figured whitlock was the man to ask but he doesn't seem to want to return the private msg I sent him here.

I just don't want to go into this totally blind and even just a couple pointers would be good.

thanks

It was a long night last night. BTW I beat Halo 2 B)

So, with painting the handles, I just laid them down and hit them from the top with the spraypaint. I did originally intend to paint the inside of the handles, though decided otherwise. Good aim is the best, because the paint will not get by at the angle you have to paint the handles. You can tape off if you want.

As for take apart, it's all pretty much there. Anything I missed is common sense, other than the handle. The handle is held in with a pin that has a C-clip on it. With a pair of pliers, you can remove the clip with ease.Don't loose the clip!

Sandpaper helps out on this project. As long as you sanded it down enough, the scratches and details won't shine through when you paint it.

With the rim paint, I'm pretty sure it was semi-gloss, because it shined through after I painted it. I added a clear coat to it for protection. After using it, I would suggest using a dry shop towel to go over the painted area. Flecks will come through and then you will not have to worry about dust.

when you mention the handle with c clip do you mean one of the 4 on the corners or the one that opens the door?

I am also not sure what you mean by wipe it down with a cloth.. do you mean before or after its painted or before or after its clear coated. sorry, my first language is not english.

thanks for the tips btw. I appreciate it.

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2004/10/22 00:16

Wipe it down after painting, and the handle is the door handle to open the case. The side ones are pretty easy with allen wrenches/hex tools.

thanks again man. I am really looking forward to this mod. I will upload pics in a week or so as I only have a normal 35mm camera and a flatbed scaner.

something I just thought to ask.. last ? I promise

please explain how you painted the i/o cover. did you just put tape over the holes? also.. the serial # sticker on the back. did you tape it off or take it off and then glue it back on?

I have everything else pre-planed in my head already. my father is an amazing painter so I know it will look good. I am doing all the take apart, reassembly and sanding.

gonna change mine up a bit as I will go black and white I think. gloss white on sides and semi-gloss black on the blue areas. thinking of painting either the whole door handle black or just the rubber ring. thought about painting all 4 handles black also but after a mock up in photoshop I decided the handles will look best if they match the sides.

may the mod gods shine on me

I know that you probably have your mind made up, but I would love to see an all white mod done to resemble the look of the apple systems. I really think that would look cool. But then again, black and white would look nice as well. Good luck with the mod, and yes, be sure and post plenty of pics for us to see.

zenstate wrote:


That's for me to know and you to find out...gonna leave that part to you.

fair enough. wish me luck!

oojacoboo wrote:


thanks for the idea but I am not really a fan of the all white that apple seems to love now. I think white is great as part of the style but not all. the dark colors say "pro machine" to me. at least the G5 towers are not white. my next goal for this mac is to upgrade from the G4/500 to a G3 1.1 GHz simply because even without altivec this chip totally screams. the main thing I find a tad too slow on the 500 is the UI. the G3 1.1 will up my UI speed by about 130% based on all the benchmarks I have seen. I have read a few reviews by B&W and Yikes G4 owners and they all say it screams. altivec is in maybe 10% of sw on osx. this chip also leaves the system bus at 100mhz unlike the sonnet G4 1GHz for the B&W/Yikes.

the G3 is a tad faster than the 500 G4 at altivec tasks and a huge amount faster at everything else. one guy said it runs neck and nack in most tasks with his 1GHz emac.

sorry about going off topic. I am just really looking forward to that upgrade as it will save me about 1500 over a new power mac.

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2004/10/22 18:16

Don't forget the blue tape to tape things off. It IS the best thing for painting... Tho as you said your dad is a painter so maybe you knew... anyway good luck sounds great... cant wait to see the mod!

-Knife