For my birthday I was going to buy a busted Xbox 360 and start working on a mod for it. I had wanted to do it for a while now. Thing is, most people selling their busted Xbox want too much for it.
I had a brain fart to do the General Lee, but to be honest, the rebel flag bugs me. I don’t want to have to look at it every day. Then I decided to do a car, anything. I know the car Apple pimps is a VW Bug… but I’m not into Bugs either. I want something cheesy. Then my friend Liz saw it! An AMC Pacer!! YAY!
Look at the cheese!
It didn’t take me long to take the shell off, and start mick’n with the internals.
Soon I had the transmission disassembled, and electronics removed. This car was electric, and the magnets in the engines would have played hell with the computer had I left them in place.
Not long after I stripped all the chrome, accents and windows removed, and a quick rubdown with some 1000 Grit
At this point I realized I didn’t even see if the mini would fit into it! Doh! Quick size check… Yeah… we’re happy! I eyeballed it right in the store!
After cleaning up my mess, I put the shell back on, and took a comparison shot. This is how much desk space it’s going to take up as compared to it’s factory state. [img]http://www.minioninc.com/hamstar/applemod/11.png[/img]
There is still a ton of cutting and forming to do. The body is going to need a good deal of bondo work once I have shuffled the body mounts around a bit.
Well since I’m being Mr. Insomniac, I thought I would upload the images of the work I did before I went to bed 2 hours ago.
Where to begin? First off I like to throw down a pre-prime. By using a flat sandable primer, I can see where the body is no right. Some people use the feel method, but I still have some nerve damage, and I don’t trust my hands. I do however trust my eyes. Some folks still try to avoid a pre-prime, and are pretty devout about saving the time/effort. To each their own.
Time to get out the putty knives!
I’m not sure what it is, but every time I get a new toy, I have to take it apart! This is no exception! There comes a time when you know you voided that warranty… I think yanking the power supply button out would be a qualifier.
Since this models chassis was designed to interchange with other models they produce… I took advantage of the rear clip setup. I removed the rear clip, and cut a large square notch. When the model is complete, this is where the DVI cable, USB cables, and power cord will come out of the car.
Next I have to deal with the DVI cable as well as the USB & Power cord. First I notch out the wheel wells…
Next I sight up the transfer case for the long cut
Next I notch the wheels (remember, I don’t want this to be a rolling R/C model). Bear in mind that the wheel cuts are waaaaaaaaay above the wheels “at rest” point when the model is at final stage. They won’t be seen.
I cut down the remainder of the transfer case, while I’m at it I hack up the speaker housing and supports. I clean up the cuts to a more level plane just because I wanna.
My last act before going to bed was to remove & reinstall the factory speaker in the newly cleared path. The speaker will be under the mainboard subcase in final assembly.
Although the inside where the speaker goes looks pretty raw, it was not as important to me to knock out the aesthetics as it was for the outside. As you can see, it’s much cleaner.
That’s all for today folks… pesky job getting in the way of all my fun! The next steps I plan on doing some bondo work to the body while putting the main CPU assembly back together and make a test run.
I’m working on another project, so Friday I should be able to buy the last of the parts. That said, I plan on some lighting mods, as well as some additional cooling mods. I would be a stone cold liar if I said I’m not tempted to liquid cool it. Oddly enough, I’m 98% against it. I really like Apple’s layout… it seems rude to liquid cool the mini.
Registered: 11/15/07
Posts: 1797
Loc: Florida, USA
One question. How are you going to make the CD accessable? Take off the body each time or are you going to make a bezal in the front windsheild of the body?
I haven’t halted on the Mac Mod, but other obligations have made it hard to work on it. For such a tiny model, I’ve put in a sick amount of body work in it… and I’m not even remotely close to being finished. Right now I would say that I have about 20+ hours of body work done. I’m getting ready to cut a large hole in the hood, and make a hood scoop that doubles as a holder for the remote. I have a lot of detail carving in the jams etc. I like detail, and I think it will payoff in the finish. One other mod that I’m not sure how to go about doing is the Apple Logo. I’m thinking of making it in miniature as you would expect an imprinted logo to be on some models of cars and more prominently… trucks.
Even when I took automotive body work in school, it didn’t cover this kind of detail. It’s a good learning process. I have a number of ideas, and will post pics asap.
Registered: 09/01/06
Posts: 13
Loc: McKeesport, PA
I'm into building models, and it made me think of this idea: Why not get another AMC pacer, and jazz it up just like the main Pacer, but just make it into a trailer! On the trailer you can mount an external DVD drive and connect it using a firewire cable. The cable might look like the cable for brake lights on a trailer hitch, but it would still match the rest of the setup. Even if you don't go thru with those plans now it can always be an extra addition anytime.
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"Tuesday's in the 80's? I was in bed by 8... ...and home by 11. OH!" -Quagmire http://emax4.fortunecity.com
Registered: 11/15/07
Posts: 1797
Loc: Florida, USA
A friend of mine cramed a laptop into a plimoth prowler. He has the HD in the trailer of the model.
Know what would kick ass with this mod? make the headlights and taillights work too. Wire it up to the HD so they flash when theres HD activity. But don't go with real bright LEDs, that might bug ya after a while.
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