High Octane & Diesel

[BlackCat]

So this will be my first worklog here and hopefully not the last as I have way to many ideas for new mods. Funny thing is i barely have the insides for the cases i make but i make due with all the old stuff i have laying around. anyway on to the mod so heres how it all starts

One day i'm trying to clean up around the house and come across some gas cans i have been storeing for about 2 years. I got them from a friend while we were working HAZMAT clean up and he got them off a job and had no use and so he handed them of to me of course being a pack rat like myself i took them. So here they sat for 2 years through 2 moves i had lugged them around.
"Hey hunny i'm gonna get rid of these damn gas tanks unless you know anyone that wants them."
"Really i thought you were going to mod them."
this is the point at which i kick myself and kiss her for being such a great find. I hadn't even thought of it in the slightest.
So here are the annoying gas tanks that have become my next project.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0079.jpg
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0080.jpg

[BlackCat]

so i pull out my 3D sketch prog and get some rough ideas.
here we have the front intake fan and rough compnent and window layout
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/gascan03.jpg
then a little more components in there with some clear walls so i can see how it will lay out
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/gascan04.jpg

With this roughed out shape everything "looks" like it will fit in there lets hope i'm right. i'm useing a miniatx to save a little room. Sorry for the next part i got a little caught up with the design and cutting so i forgot to take pictures but here abouts how it went.
1. i snap a cut off disk onto my dremel and start cutting out the bottom plate this will hopefully end up being the cover for a slide out mobo and component tray.
2. I find out there is a lot of rust in this old thing so out comes the sander to get it cleaned up since it's all a bunch of surface rust anyway it should clean up really nice.
3. Realize that i am wasteing my time trying to get my hands and the sander in there and get the dremal back out to cut the window since it would open up a nice big hole to get in there. size out the window and get to cutting after i run out of cut off disks after about an hour i am now left with a 3/4ths cut window. luckily i had thought of this problem before hand and cut a deep groove all the way around just in case i ran out and so i grabed it by what was already hanging and very very carefully started to wiggle it back and forth to bend it out as i did the joint got weaker and weaker and thn finally snaped. a bit of clean up on the edges and phase one is complete.

[BlackCat]

With a little edge molding in place i test fit the mobo tray, PSU, and the CDR
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0076.jpg
everything seems to fit in there just as planed and at this point i rant off to my friend about how my brilliant pre planing has made this project so much easier and he rolls his eyes at me. but the truth is if you plan well you can get things done a lot faster. and avoid cutting out the wrong side of the gas can yes the mobo is mounted upside down but this was honestly in the plan. i wanted the airflow to come in and over the harddrive then across the board then back out over the cards rather than getting trapped under the cards in the bottom of the case. so overall it did work out to plan just a diffrent design as my friends are determined i just screwed up. i guess the world may never know who to believe. anyway I will be testing out the diffrence with the second part of this mod. on with the show. here is another shot from above of the compnents inside.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0077.jpg
Over all the project is coming along nicely. Over all the fit is going to be tight if i try to avoid cluttering up the window but it will work out. I will post more when i get a little further along. tell me what you think let me know.

[Megatron1977]

That's pretty cool, I never would have thought to put a comp in a gas tank, but it's pretty nifty. Welcome to the forums, keep us posted, and keep up the good work.

[soul-assassin]

That's a great idea! It looks like it's turning out nice. And that case would be perfect for lugging around to LAN parties(built in handles).
Did you clean out the insides before starting? I'm not sure if I would just start cutting away on an old gas can(gas + sparks = ouch). Obviously from the pictures nothing bad happened, but I couldn't stop thinking about that as I was reading your worklog.

[BlackCat]

I took a lot of precaustions before cutting into it trust me working in the HAZMAT field you don't want to know the kinda stories some of my old co workers could tell. first i let these things vent for about a month just left them open outside. Since gasoline is light than air and tends to evaporate quickly it disapated very fast but the extra time was to make sure no fumes were caught up in there. Then i filled them with water to force any remaining fumes out also to gather as much residue as i could. after that the gas smell was a very very very faint whisp of what it was. At that point is when i held my breath and started hacking. Luckly my guess was more than right and there wasn't anything to worry about the faint smell was only the left over. after that i cleaned it out with these awesome... , well to be honest they look like diapers, from work that only soak up oil products. and then sanded off the surface rust.

Actually the point of this rig is to be a LAN rig imagine walking into someones house for a LAN with a gas can in your hand. The faces alone would make it worth it.

[TVR&PC_Fan]

That is a great bit of work keep up the great work what else, do you plan to add to it are you thinking about adding a neon light.

Or something else I look forward to the next part of the log.

[DevilHacker]

Wow this is One of the most original mods that i have ever seen!
Keep up the good work i look forward to seeing the finnished project and how you got there... :)


Also, what program did you use for thouse drawings that you made?

so i pull out my 3D sketch prog...
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/gascan04.jpg

[Wesker Reborn]

Awesome idea, and I love the plans.

[BlackCat]

i used Sketch Up and hopefully i will be posting some more over the week end. I am glad to see every one likes the idea. it's nice to have a little outside approval.

[Wesker Reborn]

You'll have an "explosive" system lol

[Yoshiadmin]

Yea thats a great idea.

[BlackCat]

So now it’s time to make this thing “Sparkle” literally but first lets handle the window. I cut a piece to fit out of some spare plexi and went searching for the right image to etch in. Then it suddenly hit me, “contents are flamable do not expose to heat or flame.” It’s a gas can what else would it have on the side but the DOT Symbol for flamable. so i got to etching with my dremal and here are the results.

http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0059.JPG
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0060.JPG

[[GF]Burke]

(This is not the same BlackCat from before - incase others wondered - )


Welcome to the site. I'm lik'n the case, can't wait to see more.
Continue on
;)

[sixshot666]

I noticed no place for exhaust fan(s).Was this on purpose or did you forget?

[XEON]

That is really really really really cool man! I aprove with 5 stars! By the way were those full at any time? Cause you cleaned them out and stuff right? CASUE BO!M<O!M!! :D

[DevilHacker]

I noticed no place for exhaust fan(s).Was this on purpose or did you forget?

He plans to put 2 fans in, look at earlier sketches on page 1

[BlackCat]

good eye devil and no i'm brand new to this board. Black cat is the name of my company and my handle that everyone has clled me for 7 years now is CaT

[BlackCat]

Next Step took some thought and some amazing ideas were offered up by several friends but only one took the prize. Mirror Finish. Not an easy task when talking about a gas can that was made out of very textured metal but I LOVED the idea and had to do it so... hence the birth of the High Octane mod. Hence why there are two names here i have a total of 4 of these gas cans so i desided i would make two diffrent project out of them. heres a few pics of the paint stripping process.

http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0100.JPG
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0101.JPG

I used this OFF paint stripper from krylon i believe and this stuff is truely amazing it bubbled off the heat treated enamal of this gas can. granted it didn't work exactly how it was supposed to since you should be able to simply wipe the paint off but it got it down far enough that i could take if off with a wire brush on my drill.

[BlackCat]

http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0104d.JPG
one more picture i will update very soon

[DevilHacker]

lol, wow look at that paint! :)

also it sounds like your trying to do 2 mods at once...
are you?

[BlackCat]

just to clear up a few things A. yes i'm doing two mods at once (maybe more) i've got the cans why not use em. B. yes they were all cleaned out VERY VERY well before i ever started with the sparkes.

[WVJammer]

Nice job Cat.

(yea, I was wondering Burke)

[BlackCat]

Ok so finally i was able to find the time to get my pictures uploaded sorry it's taken so long but first off the sanding took for ever, and then theres the fact that i started another mod which i will be posting in a little while in the worklogs. anyway so on with some pics

First i started out with a wire brush on my drill to remove the rest of the paint and get it down to the bare metal then i started with the base plate to make sure i didn't gouge the metal with the sand paper i was useing since that would just make more work for me in the long run.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0102b.jpg
A few hours and some wire brush work for the hard to get places and here it
is half of the paint gone.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0106f.jpg

[BlackCat]

After a few more hours and a few more grits the True shine slowly starts to emerge and now we’ve got it down to a chrome like apperance. Looks good but still not the goal I have in mind.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0110h.jpg
While sanding out on my porch I got a visit from a cute little praying mantis. I guess someone approves of the idea.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0022.jpg

[BlackCat]

Looking much better starting to get that chrome like apperance with some spots of the mirror like showing through
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0023.jpg

[DevilHacker]

Wow I was not sure how this was new paint idea was going to turn out... but it is looking good... My only concern is that by painting the can a different color that what you started with that you will loose some of the "feel" of the rugged bad-ass Gas Can...

While sanding out on my porch I got a visit from a cute little praying mantis. I guess someone approves of the idea.

LOL how strange... strange but cool! :)

[BlackCat]

It's not paint i'm removing the paint and sanding it down to a mirrored finish

[yoniz2]

....http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0022.jpg
While sanding out on my porch I got a visit from a cute little praying mantis. I guess someone approves of the idea.
....


too bad that little guy/girl will get is head eaten off or eat it's mates head off after mating.

[Rotkiv]

you are sooooo smart! :P



BTW: blackCat, i'm lovin yo mod.

[yoniz2]

upsdates?

[Bob Wire]

So what is the latest. Did this project flop?

[DevilHacker]

So what is the latest. Did this project flop?

Beats me he was updating a lot than all of a sudden...
*POOF*
He’s gone!
Maybe Aliens got to him, LOL :)

[BlackCat]

Sorry guys i'm currently up in alaska visiting family i was hoping to get and update in before i left but i wasn't able to i will be back aroud Nov 4 and hopfully get an update in when i get back

[BlackCat]

So after a lot of putting it off I finally just got down to business and finished up most of the sanding here are some pictures of it.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/Picture_058.jpg


And after about an hour I got this image looking pretty good if you ask me but not there just yet.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/Picture_061.jpg

[fryguy]

This is by far one of the most original ideas I have seen in a long while.
Nice work, keep the lovely pictures coming.

[Bob Wire]

Good to have you back. I'm glad to see that your still working on this. Keep up the good work.

[Big_Joe]

Looks great, Love the mirror finish.

Best of all that thing will be indestructible.

[GrayGhost]

Really awesome concept, definitely opening up my mind to some new ideas about what I might use in my next project. Keep up the good work Black!

[BlackCat]

http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/Picture_061.jpg


And a couple shots from the out come of this session of sanding.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/Picture_060.jpg



As you can see it’s looking pretty good overall the mirror like shine is coming out but the texture is a pain to work through. Over all the sanding takes a lot of work as you can’t do it for to long or it will heat up the metal and start to discolor it and then you have to let it cool back off and come back and take off the discoloration

[BlackCat]

http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/Picture_062.jpg

[nate007]

oooooooooooo! shiny!

[Xtremist]

Man that looks good so far, keep it up

[BlackCat]

So the final sanding session, pretty much went from 400 to 600 to 1200 grit to
take it down to a nice clean smooth surface. so after about 5 hours of
sanding it finally comes out pretty sweet a few spots still have to be
hand sanded down to a nice shine but the bulk is done. heres a few pics.
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/9-16-04_008.jpg
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/9-16-04_009.jpg

[BlackCat]

http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/9-16-04_010.jpg
http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/9-16-04_012.jpg

Over all other than the detail work in some of the parts i couldn't get the sander into the sanding is pretty much complete. next i'll start actualy putting the computer in there.

[AMD64-bit]

man., noice and shinny! :D :D

[Bob Wire]

Nice! Are you gonna put a clear coat or wax on it to protect the bare metal?

[BlackCat]

once all of the exterior work is complete i will vinish it off with a nice coat of crystal clear coat to protect it yes.

[FuNkyGuY]

wow, alot of sanding there. looks great.

[DevilHacker]

Hey, it is looking better and better, are you planning on painting the inside?

[KatanaSwordfish]

http://www.blackcatpcs.com/assets/images/IMAG0079.jpg

ROFL, at first glace i honestly thought that was a HL2 screenshot >< :D

seriously though, this is one of the coolest mods i have seen in a long time... keepup the good work ^^

[KatanaSwordfish]

----------------ooops doublepost ----------------

[BlackCat]

sorry it's been so long since my last post been very busy around here i will be posting pics as soon as i can .

[hungrych]

Yeah I can't wait to see this, I can tell that it's going to be awsome and very original. Keep up the good work.

[BlackCat]

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/9-26-04_007.jpg
So there are these two holes up top in the handle a perfect place for a Power button and possibly the Restart button. ( I say possibly since the buttons are not exactly hard to push and what would be worse than having someone bump the button and restart the whole system.)
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/9-26-04_010.jpg
Here’s my buttons I originally got them for a completely diffrent project but they seem to work to perfectly in this case. Unfortunatly the whole I wanted to use is just a hair to smalle So we must make it bigger. So after searching the house and finding nearly every one of my drill bit sets missing the exactly bit I needed I did what any good modder would do...

[BlackCat]

Pulled out the dremal and got to work.
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/9-26-04_011.jpg
So here the button is installed looks pretty good but I think it will end up getting painted silver to better match the tank.
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/9-26-04_012.jpg
Here’s a side shot of it.

[MEDIA ROCKER543]

NIce job i like it!

[MEDIA ROCKER543]

wow BC you must be busy... being that you havent posted in a while..

[TMG]

he has more updates on his site, he added fans and what not

[Darthness]

Very nice mods. Glad to finally see somethign besides a few casefans, a window, and some blue lighting

[BlackCat]

My first two mods were the hellraiser cube and the Ice queen (not posted yet) one was a coplete fabrication and the Ice queen was a lot of basic mods done in unique ways. Currently i'm also working on the Icequeen 2.0 while finishing up the gas tank so when i get a little further with it i'll post a worklog for her.

[hungrych]

Very nice mods. Glad to finally see somethign besides a few casefans, a window, and some blue lighting

Ditto. But why is it always blue?! :P

[FuNkyGuY]

Ditto. But why is it always blue?! :P

blue looks so cool!

probably because most mods are made by guys, and we tend to like blue. I have a red MX510 mouse and I wish I had it in blue.

[kennyt772]

blue is ssoooooooooooooooooo ccccoooooooooooooooooooooolllllllllllll

[BlackCat]

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/10-7-04_009.jpg
Time to get some air into this monster. placement.

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/10-7-04_011.jpg
Masked out and marked for the center hole.

[BlackCat]

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/10-7-04_013.jpg
Pilot hole Drilled no problems right on the dot.

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/10-7-04_014.jpg
And here through half the drilling with the 3” hole saw I say again, ALWAYS make sure your battery is FULLY CHARGED BEFORE you start (waits for 30 minutes while battery recharges.)

[BlackCat]

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/10-7-04_022.jpg
After some grinding with the dremal and grinding stone it’s done beautiful.

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/10-7-04_021.jpg
Time to mark up those pesky screw hole. I grab my cheap extra fan grill and use it as a guide. Marked and ready.

[BlackCat]

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/10-7-04_023.jpg
Drilled them out gave them a quick double check with the fan grill everything lines up. Pulled off the masking tap and found that the hole saw heated the metal up just enough to melt some of the sticky onto the can (the slight dicoloration on the left side there) no problem we will just clean it up with some goof off or something.

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/10-7-04_024.jpg
One fan down time to work on the other. Looks pretty good if you ask me.

[SLAY3R]

Nice

Good to see you back.,

[Yoshi]

Glad to see the update , looking good so far. Keep em coming.

[BlackCat]

sorry it's been so long honestly i have a few more mods that i have worklogs for that will be coming at you all soon. they've been taking up a lot of my time. but the finished products made the time worth it.

[SLAY3R]

sorry it's been so long honestly i have a few more mods that i have worklogs for that will be coming at you all soon. they've been taking up a lot of my time. but the finished products made the time worth it.


Will be looking forward to that. This gas can mod is turing out better than I expected. Good work!

[Jimbo-b]

this is an awesome project i hope you dont mind, im starting one somewhat like this but instead with an old metal outboard motor gas can, thanks for the inspiration :)

[BlackCat]

thank you that a great complament. sorry guys life got a really ... complicated and i had to travel for work for a while so i haven't been able to get more work done of the case ... yet.

[deafboy]

simply awesome.....i really like that.

[doorman444]

can't wait to see more pics

[BlackCat]

Ok so i've been doing some work on it and things were going pretty well till an idea FAILED misserably. So anyway heres some pics for you guys new layout and such. (still no fans or grills but supposedly they're on there way now.)
Ok first to pics everything but the window in place (nothing solid just mock up)
This first pic you can see the new layout motherboard in place loose light placement (which is actually around the window on the upper wall in this pic.) PSU there at the bottom.
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04009.jpg
next another pic of the PSU and there you can see the CD slot drive on bottom don't know if you can see it but the pins are really tight there against the tray.
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04010.jpg
so to solve this pin problem i'm going to cut out a passthru so you can get to these pins without pulling the entire thing out.
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04012.jpg
A quick pic of the slide mounts that the tray will rest on this will allow the entire tray and all components to slide out the bottom for easy access and trade outs.
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04019.jpg

[BlackCat]

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04020.jpg
after a few holes drilled and the passtru cut and tray placed on mounts (not secured yet):
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04021.jpg
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04022.jpg
so everything was going well then i went to mount the slides in place since i didn't want to deter from the outside apperance i thought ok how about we secure a few small bolt to the inside. In theory this seemed like it would work wonderfully. allowing me to secure the entire inner workings without drilling any holes.
so out comes the good old JB WELD this stuff has worked for me many times before time for it to do it's job again. got the JB the bolts and the paper to mix this stuff on time to get to work.
http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04023.jpg

[BlackCat]

Mix it all up goo up the bolts really well avoiding the threads of course put them on the marks everything going beautifully now we just take a pic and go to bed since it has to set for 4-6 hours over night being better.

http://www.bcpcs.com/assets/images/12-01-04024.jpg

So i wake up today and deside to mount the slides looks good they haven't moved all night (two cats in the house you never know when things are going to dissappear on ya)

Line the holes up looks beautiful they are perfectly alligned so i start to bolt it in.....
SNAP!! the first one i try to tighten the nut down pops off... well that sucks lets try the other maybe that one just didn't have enough surface gooed. switch to the other side and start off this sides looks fine no sudden snaps everythings holding. bit of a stress test i push down slightly trying to get a feel if it will hold the tray and all components POP!! both of them pop right off with the slightest downward push.

So.... much to my dismay that idea will not work so at this point i give up my dream of a spotless exterior and give up to a few bolt heads on the outside. Stablility in my opinion is a bit more important than keeping the exterior perfect. besides the bolts will line up nicely with the exterior X on the other side giving a nice accent to it.

[MEDIA ROCKER543]

Glad to see the updates BlackCat :) i didnt think of checking your site. lol keep it coming!