I paint my mac

[motion]

Hello,

I decide to try some painting on a old Mac 512k i get from an "iron seller" (not sure of that word) wich was not working, it was very used caused it has been storage outisde, connectors rusted and plastic used, the mac was power on with the ? on screen, i tried to make it working but the floppy drive was broken, looked on ebay to buy another one but it was a little too expensive to try to get on working, so i decided to sell boards on ebay so they can profit to some mac addicts and keep case with screen to do a light-painted Mac.

For those who want to do that and try to do that correctly, it's a long work, need to sand plastic, prepare plastic with paint base, as i had never paint with spray before i had to do some test, need multi coats to get a great result, etc...

The result is not exactly what i expected, the paint is not so bad, some drops its hard to miss cause sprays, the final varnish give a nice gloss look, but the problem is on the light. I used an halogen desk light, and the light with the screen painted is very low, but i hope i can do better on light on a future design.

i hope you like it

(sry for bad english)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36250055@N07/

 

[macgeek417]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o

8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o

8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o

8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o

8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o

8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o

8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o

8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o 8-o

How could you???

 

[Dog Cow]

I think it looks pretty cool, especially the lettering on this side:

Noooooo (&c) oooooooooooo!! 8-o

(&c)

How could you???

Melodramatic as usual, no?

 

[benjgvps]

Not bad, I have seen MUCH worse paint jobs on older Macs.

 

[luddite]

I really like it... the colour scheme and graphics suit the compact mac lines quite nicely, but give it a totally different feel. Nice work!

 

[motion]

thanks for comments

 

[lumpydog]

It made me smile.

The artist clearly put some effort into it - I think it's great.

Nice work and thanks for sharing it here.

 

[MacPlusOwner]

looks cool in white! Kinda star trek-ish (not in a bad way) with the font.

Too bad apple hadn't discovered "snow" back then. Snow compact macs would look cool.

 

[Charlieman]

A bit more information about the lamp that you are using and the mesh that comprises the "screen", please. I appreciate that it will be difficult to take photos that show what is wrong in your eyes about the lamp, but a few words might help. Some of the photographers here may be able to advise how to construct a reflector that might produce the effect you desire.

BTW, I have no qualms about this hack. Some Macs have to be sacrificed to maintain a supply of spares, and this one sounds like a prime example for donation rather than restoration.

 

[motion]

the lamp i use is a 20W halogen desk light, i'll take some shots to show it, problem comes from the screen, i've painted it with multi coats to get a nice effect (primary paint to give a "base" to paint, + 2 coats of white spray +2 coats of smile black stencil + 2 coats of varnish) all these coats of paint had lowered the transparency of the screen so when the light is on, the effect is very low with that light but at base theses halogen lights makes a high clean power light.

the effect i tried to get was not to get a working high power light, but an ambiant light, and the effect i got on light effect is very weak even to do an ambiant light.

i think about ameliorate effect with using another light inside case but not inside screen, as i have many holes now where was the connectors it will make a light effect wich can be nice.

and for the ones who think it's a bad thing to destroy an old mac and paint it, i can just say that this mac was stored OUTSIDE on rain, bad weather and all, on a top of an pile of old pcs on a iron seller (dunno the right word fir this job (a guy who sold old parts of iron like old cars, olds chairs, old things from army, things like that) (i have to go back there agian becuase there's still one or 2 apple II in this stock i couldn't take the 1st time i go there + some old apple keyboards an parts), if i didn't get it (the 512k) rain had destroy it at all cause no one had buy it + i sold boards on ebay for nothing so they have make some mac collector happy).

 

[~Coxy]

The english term would be "scrap metal merchant" or perhaps "metal salvage/recycling" these days.

Nice paint job!

 

[tecneeq]

I think it looks nice. Maybe you should use another paint for the CRT? Something thinner, to let more light through.

 

[superpantoufle]

I love it, it looks really cool! Congrats!

And it's a nice touch you didn't kill any « living » Mac, but instead save parts for transplantation. Being an artwork AND an organ donor instead of a rusty piece of crap outside in the rain is what makes that 512K smiling again!

 

[GnatGoSplat]

looks cool in white! Kinda star trek-ish (not in a bad way) with the font.

Exactly my thoughts. Makes me think of something from an older sci-fi movie or TV show. Good work.

I think you should make it functional though, then run some program that puts weird hieroglyphics or Matrix-like screen saver.

 

[luddite]

Well, I totally didn't see the Star Trek thing... it reminds me of a 1980s jet ski.

And I mean that in a good way!

 

[motion]

i uploaded some picts so you can see how the light system is.

i tried to use original reflector but i can't put the bulb inside monitor with it, tried too to put light just into the case not into monitor.

http://picasaweb.google.fr/stefcoug/2009_03_13#

 

[MacMan]

That is a good paint job, which has a sort of 1980's "boy racer" appeal to it. It's the sort of style in which you might see a Mk 2 Escort or an Audi Quattro painted.

 

[Mac128]

i uploaded some picts so you can see how the light system is.

Oh I see, you actually cut the neck off the CRT and put the bulb inside.

Did you strip the phosphor off the inside of the monitor? That will go a long way to letting more light pass through. Not exactly sure how you would go about doing it without direct access to the back of the CRT display area. I'm sure some kind of chemical stripper would dissolve it as has been done for at least one LCD Mac mod.

How did you cut the neck off? With a diamond wheel Dremel tool?

 

[Bunsen]

You could also try translucent paint, made for painting on glass and light bulbs, from a hobby shop.