my mod is done and I have moved. I wanted to do this mod for a long time and figured a new apt. is a good excuse for a new look to my fav. computer.

now all done and moved I finally got internet installed today. did this mod at my dads in the bsmt. I have learned much from doing this. main thing is that macs are engineered amazingly. as I took everything apart and put it back together I could see all the imagination that went into this one model down to even the most meaningless things.

used a can of semi-flat black and gloss white, both from krylon. tried a clear coat on one of the handles and it looked very bad and unclear. used 3 coats of paint all round to make up for no clear coat. in the end it was one can of black and 1 and a half of white. total cost is under 20$.

I ran into a few problems here and there but all in all it was well worth it.

more pics and comments to come. just wanted to get these pics up.

[img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/48/150042906_98b7e22699.jpg?v=0[/img]
[img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/57/201497790_08eb9e31bb.jpg?v=0[/img]

Woah, I just had a flashback! That looks great! Good job! It looks like everything came out very well, but I'd suggest a clear coat anyways for protection. Keeps the pretty paint from feeling some minor scratches, plus on the white gives it a whole new sheen. I'm seriously glad everything worked out, and BTW did the mod guide I put together work OK for you?

And it seems like you have a way better camera than I do (waves fist in anger)

I had read your mod guide 3-4 times before going into this and many of your tips helped a great deal. the one place we really had problems was the 2 front panels (one is the CD drive cover and one is just a cover, no zip) when the black paint went on those it ate away at the plastic a bit. what I ended up doing was getting some quality packing tape and putting it over the front. I then just cut off all the rough endges with a box cutter. put paint on again and all was well..

I got the idea to paint the inside of the handles black before painting the outside white. looks good.

about the camera. my dad got a nice 3.1 mp digi so we used that.

you can't really tell in these pics as they have been rendered and shrunk down but the white is very glossy.

some more pics:

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2004/11/06 15:04

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2004/11/06 15:19

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2005/01/28 12:08

wow, that looks very nice zenstate. I am sure you are glad to have it looks so nice yourself. Great job. I too though would recommend a clear coat regardless. But, its your computer.

<[censored]

2. I have done all I am going to do to this system looks wise. no more taking apart for it.

I keep a couple of clean and soft shop cloths close by and plan on giving it a gentle rub each day to keep dust and crap off it. with upgrades this system has given me 5 years service since I bought it new and I plan on getting at least a couple more years out of it. it runs panther quite well with the 1GB ram.

I plan on getting another b&w soon as I could use another system to take some load off this one. think I will mod that one dark grey and black.

any other ideas?

Hey zen, what's this you're talking about? Whoops, never mind. Took me awhile to figure out that there was more to this page. The computer looks nice.


macLover1986

props man, that mod looks awesome.....and special thanks to whitlock for blazing the trail

B)

krusher117 wrote:


exactly. he was the man with the vision and I took that vision and made it a bit darker.

one more thing.. I just want to say that I think whitlocks mod looks better. there is just something about it that is a lot cooler than mine. I still love mine a lot more now than I did when it was stock.

you have any higher res pics whitlock? if you do I would love to see them. I have some high res originals. they are 2048x1536.

I don't have any high-res pic's of the modding process, though I could get some 6 megapixel shots up if you are interested. I can arrange for that to happen.

My computer is at work right now, because the work one died and I got sick of people asking me how to check TCP/IP in OS 9. Sad, but true. My machine now has a lot of battle damage due to that. Well, tried and true, the Mac case is great!

whitlock wrote:


that would be great if its not too much trouble.

thanks in advance

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2004/11/23 22:19

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2004/11/23 22:30

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2005/01/17 22:36

Hi,
I have been reading over Mac Mod over the past few days and stumbled across the mod guide for the case and after seeing your (zenstate's) 'darker' version I actually ordered a G3 Tower off ebay to do the same with.

So... I ordered a G3 PowerMac, 450mhz, 448mb ram, 19gb hard disk space, etc. (w/ s&h = $140 USD) and am about to partake in my first mod mac or pc that doesnt have to do anything with dinky LCD's from Radioshack.

Thanks zenstate for the motivation to actually get such a classic mac and 'pimp' it out. It should be here the week after thanksgiving. Once this mac is done, I have a G4 Tower, eMac I am thinking about painting, and another G3 tower who is up for some design projects as well.

Thanks!
-Andrew

Hi,

This is cool! Is there any way of removing the plastic panels especially side panels from a B&W G3 without taking the insides out?

Post edited by: macmad, at: 2004/11/26 23:49

the side panels have little clips on the inside in the middle that help hold them on and the insides have to be out to get at them. trust me, if there was an easier way I would have done it. you need the service manual for when you get a bit stumped. I have it in .pdf format if you need.

andrew, thanks for the compliments. enjoy your new mac and the mod.

one more thing.. it would be best not the even touch the plasitics till everything but the powersupply and cables are out. whitlock took out his power supply and most cables but I really didn't see a need to.

be gentle!

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2004/11/27 10:16

With the handles, you painted all of the inside correct? I see one of the pictures where there is some white still left (where you were painting) and I was just wondering.

My G3 project is shipped out Monday, and the eMac will be coming in about Monday or Tuesday from Apple direct. Hopefully when I conquer the G3 and maybe another project I will paint the eMac black. Got to make a Recording studio look pimp you know. What ever I do I'll make sure to share the love and post pictures!

Thanks once again!

only the part that will show on the inside should be painted. painting where it gets pushed up against and screwed on would be a waste of paint as you couldn't see it anyway when all is back together.

zenstate, got an email, icq, aim, etc you mind to share with me?
I could use some input; email me

btw... the private messaging systems isn't working for me.

sent you an email..

My G3 B&W just got in the door...

awesome man. hows it run? what os?

My first mac was a iMac 600mhz... This is a 450mhz, 1MB Cache, 448Meg Ram, everything else pretty much stock except a scsi card... Dunno why that is there. Another surprise was the add-on for the Rage 128 - I believe it is a hardware DVD decoder.

The University I purchased it from whiped the main 12gb hard drive and put OS 9.2.2 on (which I have never used) so after checking the firmware, everything was good. I quickly put OS X on, and saved room by NOT installing printer drivers for brands I never use... I stick with HP. It saved about 500meg.

It was rather slow at first but once all the updates came in and it was 10.3.3 it was running in my opinion better than my old iMac DV. I can only imagine what happens when I put some ram in and other upgrades.

Right now it is lying taken apart in my floor... Painting will start tomorrow and by the night I should be online looking for some upgrades, CD-Rom, Ram, Hard drive, etc.

BTW: A hint for taking the apple logo/decal on the sides and serial number off... Use a hair drier on high... it will heat up the glue and then you may peel the original serial sticker off or make the job of getting the apple decal off SOOO much easier.Just use a paperclip to lift after its warm through, and a screwdriver to ply.

Also, the total cost is as follows:
PowerMac G3 Ebay: $140
Black, White, Clear Gloss Spray paint; Sand paper; Masking tape : $14.39

Okay, everything is near completion and I am doing second and third coats to make it look good. There is only one problem...

The little ring that goes on the case opener isn't retaining with the black spray paint; what did you use to paint this ring? Brand? Sharpee? etc.

I simply left it on and painted it. either that or leave it off like whitlock did. it doesn't really do anything but give you a slightly better grip when opening the side.

if you paint it off and bend it back on i'm sure it wouldn't matter how good the paint was, it would crack or even chip.

your call. markers don't work well on plastic and rubber.

btw, how was the take apart for you? any snags along the way?

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2004/12/04 12:25

Done. 3:58am.
Everything is assembled and I am waiting for the arms and legs to dry before I put them on.

Anyone know where to get replacement screws for the arms and legs, I have two which are rather dead.

take one with you to a hardware store and see what they got. apple would not have allen screws made just for them as its much cheaper to buy ones that are already out there. i'm sure you can find them.

the bottom front foot on mine has one of the screws stripped but very carefully and slowly I got it back on tight enough.

Nice.

Now it's on to hardware... I'll try to post pics after I find a replacement screw.

This seems familiar

still loving this mod a lot.

I love that paint job man. Reminds me of a storm trooper lol. Funny thing is that is the same color sheme I used on my iBook.

I'm not often overly fond of paint mods, but this one really does look good. It could have come from the factory looking like that.....

Beautiful! Makes me want to strip my B&W down and paint it...hummm how about a candy-apple red and black?

post removed as original photos are now on the first page...

I miss this mac 

Not too sure from the picture but this mac uses non glossy white paint ? will be trying for a glossy look. hope it will be nice.

the paints used are krylon gloss white and krylon semi-flat black.

Hmm. I don't see any of those images.

Since this is basically another version of this same type mod I won't bother to make a new thread.. this time its car paint and dark brown rather than black. Will post more pics when the plastics are sent back to me and I have them back one the tower. The system is also pimpin' a G4 600 I got from Whitlock. This is not the same system of the original mod in this thread. My aunt has the original system.

I will post pics when I have all the parts back and on the tower. It was painted white and very dark brown. Photo by my father and taken right in the paint booth.


[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2268/2789911964_ec518786a9.jpg?v=0[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3189/2809405163_d78e0aa758.jpg?v=0[/img]

This new B&W will be joined with my appleTV on my 32" LCDTV so that I can do web and mail from my sofa.

Very Nice! I like the glossy paint.

I definitely dig the whole high-gloss look. If my old B&W was still with me I might go high-gloss now as well.

Freaking classy.

Here are a couple pics of the painted plastics on my sawtooth. These are Blue&White G3 plastics but I wanted them on my fastest PowerPC system so I put them on my 1GHz G4 Sawtooth and put the Sawtooth plastics on the B&W.

Anyway... here are the pics:
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3179/2871063703_fe97ff11af.jpg?v=0[/img]