smrieck511
Well-known member
Thanks so much. I'll have to look up the brand when I get home. The shade was called "cool grey" (got it at Home Depot) which to me looked similar to the Apple Platinum. It's actually a bit lighter (too white) and it even looks a little yellow in the pictures but that's the lighting I think. I guess with the earlier models like the 512k you'd want a yellower tone.
What I found while doing this was Bondo alone would not adhere well to the case. I actually mixed it with JB Weld to make it stronger.
I used masking tape to put a piece of cardboard or shipping box on the inside of the case flat up against it as tight as I could get it.
Then filled it in with the Bondo/JBWeld. After it was dry, I used a flat sanding block to level it out. Using finer sandpaper as I progressed. Removing the shipping box material was pretty easy with pliers and tweezers...I would not recommend anything plastic for that job as I suspect it would by near impossible to remove.
I then cut out the grooves using a small saw blade of the right size and then sanded everything again.
Then spray painted in several light coats masking off the back labels and serial number of course.
It came out really well but not perfect. One challenge was the logo (Macintosh SE FDHD) on the front. I masked that off and after the fact retrobrited the logo area to get it as platinum as possible. Anyway, the mistake I made was trying to smooth that area with 1500 grain wet sandpaper. A magic eraser would have been a better choice. It began to remove some of the printing but I basically caught it in time ...sort of.
It was fun project though and it's working 100% with two reconditioned 1.44mb floppies and the original 40mb Quantum hard drive!
What I found while doing this was Bondo alone would not adhere well to the case. I actually mixed it with JB Weld to make it stronger.
I used masking tape to put a piece of cardboard or shipping box on the inside of the case flat up against it as tight as I could get it.
Then filled it in with the Bondo/JBWeld. After it was dry, I used a flat sanding block to level it out. Using finer sandpaper as I progressed. Removing the shipping box material was pretty easy with pliers and tweezers...I would not recommend anything plastic for that job as I suspect it would by near impossible to remove.
I then cut out the grooves using a small saw blade of the right size and then sanded everything again.
Then spray painted in several light coats masking off the back labels and serial number of course.
It came out really well but not perfect. One challenge was the logo (Macintosh SE FDHD) on the front. I masked that off and after the fact retrobrited the logo area to get it as platinum as possible. Anyway, the mistake I made was trying to smooth that area with 1500 grain wet sandpaper. A magic eraser would have been a better choice. It began to remove some of the printing but I basically caught it in time ...sort of.
It was fun project though and it's working 100% with two reconditioned 1.44mb floppies and the original 40mb Quantum hard drive!
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