B&W G3 + G4 Case Plastics Mods

[lastmile77]

I'm cleaning up the plastics on a G4 and thought about removing the paint from the inside of the side panels and either leaving them clear or painting them another color. Then I realized that won't work for the apple in the center. Is the apple covered by a separate piece of plastic that can be removed? I don't want to just paint the outside of the case so if there's no way to get to the back of the apple and repaint it then I'll just polish the plastics and leave them the original color.

 

[mcdermd]

I did this exact mod. I sweated the paint from the back of G4 plastics using isopropyl to leave them clear, then mounted them on a B&W G3 with the blueberry-colored accents. The apples in the center are a separate piece (actually two pieces) and they pop right off. I swapped the blueberry apples from the G3 onto mine.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

:O A case hack done in your wild and crazy youth? :lol:

Now you're into restorations, what was it that brought you over from the Dark Side of the Force? :?: ;D

 

[lastmile77]

How do you get the Apples off? I haven't tried real hard to pry them off in case there's some "secret" to it.

 

[lastmile77]

Another question...actually its a statement that hopefully can be proven wrong. The G4 is a Quicksilver. I guess there's no way to change to color of the optical drive door and ZIP bezel without painting the front of them. The grey plastic looks to be part of the same piece as the clear portion.

Maybe I won't do a color change then. Unfortunately that means I need another side panel because I was a bit too anxious to get the paint off. I guess I can try to paint the front of the door and see how it looks.

I was thinking dark metallic red with matching acrylic Cinema Display also converted to red but I don't want an ugly grey optical drive door. If I would do a color change I have to figure out a way to make the Apple on the sides darker than the main color. I picked up some Duplicolor metallic red and I can try to find another shade from a different manufacturer but finding a good combo will probably be difficult. I just used some Rustoleum metallic dark blue to do some heatsinks on an old P3 PC and they came out great.

 

[mcdermd]

I think with the Quicksilver you would have to paint the plastic front/back/top. I just used the Blueberry colored pieces on my clear G3:

I think it has a Radeon 7000, 1 GB RAM, etc in it. It's pretty maxxed as I recall. So, there jt. I do some modding. It's not the primary focus of my "collection", though. That's pretty much the "time capsule" approach of original software on original machines. In addition to the B&W, I have a CC Mystic, a frankenstein MacBook and close at hand is my brother's "SuperCube" I made for him with a GeForce 6200 and a dual 500 MHz G4 from a Gigabit-E PM. I just finished a Super LC475 for uniserver with a full '040 with heatsink clocked to 33 MHz, a ROM SIMM slot, 36 MB RAM, 1 GB hard drive, and a LC PDS network card. My gears got turning a while ago to use a spare Mac Classic bezel as the starts of an LCD-faced monolith Mac. Maybe one day I'll get around to watering that idea in my copious spare time :lol:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Glad to hear you're a switch hitter with the light sabre, mcd! That G3 is just beautiful, are those recent pics?

@ lm77: give a good look at mcd's contrasting Blueberry/Silver G3, especially the peripherals. I just took a really good look at my QS'02 and decided that if I were to paint the insides, I'd leave the front silver to match the peripherals and paint the just the clear sections, that way it's more like an automotive two-tone feature. It would be epecially cool if you did the front panel of a Studio Display to achieve a matched set.

Do a vHack prototype before going ahead with the process, I think you'll like it. [] ]'>

 

[lastmile77]

The G3 looks great! Did you just pry the Apples off from the outside or was there more to getting them off?

 

[mcdermd]

I wish I could remember for certain but I think they were just stuck on with rubbery adhesive.

jt: you noticed the lightsaber on top of my SE/30? I put that one together myself from a Graflex three cell flash handle.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Nope, just goin' with the Dark Side of the Force/Hacker motif. GotPix?

You'd like my brother-in-law's collection, I've never seen it, but littler sis says it's quite impressive . . .

. . . it overflows their bonus room. :O

I saw Star Wars after college, while I was apprenticing in my trade . . .

. . . Slave Leia's the only figure in my collection. }

 

[mcdermd]

I used to have a pretty big Star Wars toy collection (I had a small room for it). But that all went away along with the first Mac purge in 2006. Divorce and downsizing convinced me to shed some of the extra baggage. At least the toys went to my long time friend. The Macs ended up in the trash.