Here's a quick mod I did today. Moderate difficulty level. The triple layer panel construction makes it difficult n delicate to work on. U hafta b really careful while drilling n cutting it. Any mistakes will cause the aluminum skin to delaminate from the triple layer sandwich.

I did a few trial runs by drilling n cutting the inner section 1st. I purposely handled it roughly on the inner section that's to be replaced by the acrylic, to c what wud happen n true enuf it delaminates if handled badly.

The triple layers r made up of, a very thin aluminum skin on the outside n inside with a very thick layer of sound deadening plastic sandwiched in between.



Anyway, here's how the stock Antec P180 panel looks like. It looks pretty messed up with sum kinda glue all over it.







Masked n marked out, ready for cutting.







Cutting is complete. drilled the holes for acrylic mounting points as well. I also cleaned off all the ugly glue marks.







Here's a picture of the triple layer construction.









Cut out a piece of acrylic for the window.








All done. The P180 window mod is complete.



This post has been edited by ianho: Nov 23 2006, 08:00 PM

so what happened when u handled the inner part roughly?? did it warp? or crack or koyak or nuttin really happened?

The alu skin delaminates big time. It kinda peels off from the plastic layer n bulges out. Looks scary. Those with a weak heart shud not attempt this.

uncle ianho waiting u king kong update anyway great work also

Is this Irenic's P180 sidepanel?

i also wonder...
wat a quick mod btw..

Irenic's P180 is currently owned by me hehe
By the way, nice job there..will see u soon after my trip..

This post has been edited by kerryking: Nov 24 2006, 02:42 AM

No it's not Irenic's sidepanel. Irenic cut his own panel.






Ya I had to do it super quick in 1 day coz I had a 1 day deadline.





Oooooooh, so ure the 1 who bought Irenic's P180. I got a secret to tell u later about it. N don't forget my 2 Bintang t-shirts dude.

This post has been edited by ianho: Nov 24 2006, 07:44 AM

ianho is master of side panel...

This post has been edited by ikan_semilang: Nov 24 2006, 07:56 AM

what's the triple layer for ?

------------------------------
1st layer - metal
------------------------------
2nd layer
------------------------------
3rd layer
------------------------------

all of that is glued together is it ?

It's plastic sandwiched between 2 pieces of aluminum. Reason for that is that it acts as a dampener for sound and also makes the panel more rigid so that it won't vibrate/hum.

I doubt the effects of a window mod are beneficial to it's acoustic properties, but it's a good, clean mod nonetheless.

Ya the 3 layer panel is absolutely fantastic. When u knock on it with ure knuckles it makes a nice solid "thud" sound rather than the Proton Saga kinda empty hollow "thong" sound. Surprisingly, even after I modded the window, it still has the solid "thud" sound when u knock on it. It still has a substantial amount of the sound deadening plastic material on the sides to deaden the sound I suppose.

wah ianho so mean to me meh?
btw, was the inner plastic tough to cut thru?

This post has been edited by DaRkSyThE: Nov 26 2006, 11:47 PM

It was very very soft. In fact too soft. That's what makes it difficult. Coz it's so soft u really hafta becareful no to delaminate the 3 layer thingy while cutting.

if it was like kinda soft, wouldnt the thing like have some "kesan kesan"
but knowing u, u always do a good job lol. wonder how u managed that

Ya got "kesan kesan" as u put it. But i sorted it out. The edges were all smooth.

There was 1 minor compromise I had to make for this mod though. The initial plan was to make a square window with rounded corners. However, after trial cutting sum corners on the inside part that's meant to b cut off, I found that the 3 layers thingy was delaminating. This particular panel was not laminated properly by the factory. There were gaps between the 3 layers thingy. The gaps allowed the alu to peel off when I turn the jigsaw n causes it to look all dented n jagged. So I had to settle for square corners to make sure it ends up looking good instead of all dented. Only the acrylic ended up with rounded corners in the end.

This post has been edited by ianho: Nov 27 2006, 12:36 AM

Looks kinda elegant and cool......

Many thks Ian for the mod

Sorry for the short notice as well

Interesting detail with this. What did you actually do to avoid damaging the outer layers of alu? Besides being slow and careful?

tis is 1 of my favourite casings