COSMOS II side window Mod!

its time to mod a cosmos 2!! came shipped from 600kms away!

the sketch




the package has arrived!



strip down!



everything seems to be in order

time to separate!
first took off the metal bits.

lifting the tabs on the sides. screw driver covered in tape so that it doesnt scratch the surface. by the looks of it, the workers at CM didnt bother about this.


the top and bottom tabs are hidden beneath stickers

lifting the stickers reveal the tabs

they must be stored to be put back


lifting off the metal. its stuck with double sided sticky tape. Very low tech for such an expensive case.

using a spatula and sunflower oil.

done...

lol i aint got time either. get to work on the weekends... havent played a game in a LOOOOOOOOOOONNGGGGG time
but i like working more

i need to sample some heavy duty tape though

made the template



template on the sidepanel, while viewing from the outside.

7 hours later......

cut out the template, put it onto the window to match and mark out.




then as always,, measure twice cut once... so i measured, and looks like i got one of the sides wrong. phew (right side)



started cutting

i hate plastic.
if you are cutting the plastic without an angke grinder or a jigsaw like me, you might find it hard to cut the grid since the dremel wheel wont get in square.
just cut it at angle. nake sure you are cutting on the side to be discarded. i.e. towards the insides of the window.



OH NOES! I BROKE IT!
lol j/k just popped it out after cutting the grids.



and now the hard part. filing the edges smooth. one side done. difference is pretty noticeable.



all done




to give an idea of how much i filed....

thats all from the plastic. except the chocolate wrapper. hey, i earned it XD

thats it for now. good night!

super hard epoxy filler to fill the gaps. Mixed it up till no streaks were visible.



one side filled and ready to cure.


i did one side first because i wanted to know how well it was going to old, and how easy it is to take away when sanding.

started sanding that side..


its bi*** to work with. goes as hard as granite! took me 2 hours to do just this side. i will need to be more careful and near perfect on the other sides. Plus its really heavy as well.


so i took some steps to prevent excessive use and keep the weight in check.

filled up the rest of the sides. and sanded


after cleaning


thats all for today. ran out off filler.

finally the shops here opened up (heavy rain spell, water-logging everywhere)
finished filling the last edge. and started sanding it. this stuff is hard as marble. forced to use it since i couldnt find Bondo here.




i tried wet sanding as dry sanding was taking too much time and making a lot of dust



a lot of sanding later





after cleaning it off with running water
front=


back=



close up

i am in a big city, and no. i tried lookin for what stuff the normal car body shops here use, but they use metal putty, which i couldnt find anywhere .
filler would have been easier and given a much better finish as well. this stuff is like marble once set!

livin in india is hard

an hour and some sanding later.... its a perfect fit

note: it looks warped on the right as the plastic starts curving from there.

i need to clean it again XD

quick disconnect jack made.
v 2.0. wont even post the first one. it was a major fail XD


this will make sure that only one jack needs to be disconnected to take off the side

no, college

Doing the side panel light slits.
beside the hexagonal mesh for the fans, there are little slits in the aluminium through which the plastic bits protrude.
My mission: to use these slits and turn them into light slits.


first off there was a lot, A LOT of measuring and thinking to check if this was even feasible. Cooler master has not helped making things easier at all!

then i started cutting the plastic protrusions with a dremel cut off.
This is after the first pass with the dremel. See the uniform pattern of chip formation? Thats a good sign that the cutting is being uniform as well.



all slits cut, first pass


then i cut a long strip of sand paper, and used that to sand the sides. i needed to enlarge the gap.




Today;-


Final cut of the slits with the help of a drill bit of 3mm dia. this made things a lot easier.
finished it off with my "ruler-file" tool i made.

this is it with the aluminium cover placed on loosely.

sorry cant take a better image in low light.

this is just the plastic bit. with all the slits finalized and cut.



just to show how bad working with this stuff is; this is the amount of material removed just from todays fine tuning.


very bad stuff to get into ones eyes. and easily flies around. so having safety goggles helped.

Now i cleaned off the whole thing, and removed the double sided tape glue using kerosene.
THen washed everything with normal soap to get rid of the kerosene.

First thing i did today was cut the acrylic into shape to fit the hollow area in the plastic bit.
the image shows how it would be on the metal.

i actually used this as the template for the aluminium

then i cut the aluminium. rough cut only, didnt finish off the corners.

marked of the open space in the plastic; then left a 10mm border all around and that will be the area for visible. the border will help glue in the window to the metal.


metal cut out.



first mockup with all the elements -the plastic, the metal and the acrylic window.
view from inside

view from outside


then i went ahead and finished the metal i.e. filleting the corners

so the filler had developed some cracks(actually just no bonded to the plastic) so i used a syringe and injected epoxy in the gaps.

It has cured successfully overnight.


today i will fiddle with the electronic bits and tru to get the leds to behave uniformly.