Got some work done again tonight, not to much, but still important stuff. What I am busy with is fitting the sheet panels to the inside of the case, and securing them to each other, with countersunk allencap screws.

Going to look very neat, I must add

First I have to figure out a way how to secure motherboard tray to bottom tray, on the top of the case it will be secure like this, to original G5 threaded inserts....in total there are 5 screws on tiop securing motherboard tray to side of G5 panel....



and these two here, in the middle......to the right there's another 2....but you get the idea....



Well, at the bottom it's a different story, as there are no threaded inserts I wanted to use, they were staggered, and not what I had in mind anyway....

So, I came up with this idea....angle iron would do a good job of at least bolting bottom- and motherboard trays together.....

Mark and drill angle iron, and then mark, drill and countersunk holes in mobo tray.....like so....



And do the same for the bottom tray, take note the holes in that tray are not countersunk yet, will do that the weekend....

and then they fit together like this.....



and over here.....



and here......

and another one from this angle.....



and here, to give you a good idea.....



To get it inside the case, undo the 2 panels from each other, and 1st install the motherboard tray......



and then bolt the bottom tray down.....



for a very decent, and modular effect - no pop-rivets in this one.....

This is testfit only, the other side of the bottom tray needs to be secured as well, but I have a plan for that too. Remember the harddrives will go under there too.....

Finally, a photo of the ready-to-go backplate, all cleaned up, holes countersunk, deburred etc....all panels will get this treatment.

Let me know what you guys think.

I decided to not use the old cheapie I/O-Plate, but rather gutted one from an old Lian-Li PC70 spare case I had lying around....

On the left is old plate, on the right new....



New one the top one here......looking more quality than old unit, and made of substantially thicker aluminium.....



So that meant I had to make a new backplate, as mounting holes do not line up - I did not expect them to either....

New backplate on the right....



Same here.....



and here are the old Back-I/O plates left, and new right.

Take note I still have to drill mounting holes etc....but there are also some very small cosmetic improvements on new plate....

Spot them if you can....



The pc70 i/o-plate have an extra tab, in the right pic, vs old i/o-plate on the left....

This will add rigidity to the backplate setup.....



Then, the small cosmetics I was refering to.....

I made all corners on the new plate round, to blend in better.....old plate on the left had square corners, and some round ones too....new one looks much better in real life.



Ok, here it will be more clear.....the 1st shot is the old i/o-plate cutout....



and this one is the new one, with more rounded corners, which imho looks a lot neater.

The edges are supersmooth, it's the pics that are saved as jpegs which loose some resolution.....that's why funny edges.....

Nice work.  That is how every back panel should be done.

that's pretty awesome work you've got there.  That'll be an awesome case when its done.

Thanx for the replies guys.

I will keep this log up to date, this progress is up to current.

Keep checking back.

Ok, an update:

Reserved a few hours today to fit backplate to G5 case, and also securing Lian-Li I/O_plate to the backplate, as well as the motherboard tray.

Herewith some photos of my work.


First needed to accurately mark and drill holes in new backplate - accuracy is essential...here the plate is fitted (temporary), and looking good.



Then I marked and drilled holes in new backplate, to mount I/O-plate....



and here a view from the "inside".....



I wanted to secure the I/O-plate to the motherboard tray too, to add rigidity to overall rear section, so I drill these holes into motherboard tray....they go through the side of the I/O-plate, right throught he motherboard tray incase you wondered...

Then they get tapped in the motherboard tray, with 3mm 0.5 metric thread to receive std metric 3mm allencap screws.



and here is another shot showing the same..



Here it is mounted, with bolts screwed into motherboard tray....



another shot showing the rear....



Here's another 1, with screws highlighted...

Area marked show how motherboard tray extends right under the I/O-plate to the rear-wall of the case....



Another shot showing the inside rear - came very neat...



Well, this area here is not complete - this is a tab which is part of the backplate of the priginal PC70 case, so when I removed the I/I-plate, the tab stayed on the backplate....

this is the area of concern....



Another angle.....



and viewed from the inside, which will look incomplete if left like this....



So, what to do?

Well, with all the sidepanels I have been hacking to bits to do this mod, I was bound to have some off-cut I could use as a "donor"

Cut to size, in each raw state....



and after intricate measuring, filing, fitting, more filing, I eventually came up with this.....



and fitting it here, securing with 1 bolt, for now....

looking very good here.....



and a better idea of complete rear.....inside shot....



Another one with all bolts in place....



One shot hre showing rear semi-complete - I still have to mark out and drill/cut holes/blowhole for 120mm rear fan.....that will happen soon - not a priority at this point in time, as tomorrow I will fit motherboard, drill and tap holes for standoffs, and getting board aligned to testfit cards....

One small step at a time, but I'm getting closer and closer



and here is a closeup of the latch area, someone mentioned it looked weird......

not at all......

this is pretty cool but I like the stock look better.