Advice Needed On A Black 1200 Project

[chrispy]

I've stripped apart this horrendously yellow A1200 case I had and have decided to use this over my white enclosures for my Black 1200 project. I've used what's called a plastic spray (normally used on car plastics as it works it's way into the plastic and will not wear off).

What i'd like to know is should I clear lacquer it when finished? I've got a lovely even matt finish on it ( as can be seen below) as it stands (both inside and out) but want to make sure it won't scratch resulting in me having to spray it again.

Any advice would be very much welcomed. TIA.

Also, I was wondering, if I fit in a 250gb ide 2 1/2 inch drive how easy would it be to transfer all of my files over from my 4gb CF card that sits in there right now?

 

[Witcher1979]

Well you could get a PCMCIA reader for your A1200 and stick the CF card in that. Then add a HD then you can read both at the same time. Or stick the CF card into your PC via a card reader, then a 2.5 to 3.5 ide adapter to transfer using winuae. But don't forget with bigger drives you can't use FFS you need something like SFS. OS 3.9 you don't need to do anything but with a bog standard 3.1 you would need something like idefix for the bigger drive.

No idea about the paint though, but it looks mighty nice

Good work

 

[jvdbossc]

Chrispy,

I never finish of with blank spray, but I think it is a personal opinion.

Hdtoolbox will not partition the drive properl. Hdinst.lha will get you further. I must say that kind of size of hard disk sounds like overkill to me on Amiga.

I would use a pc, together with winuae to transfer everything. The cf will fit in a cf reader, there are plenty usb to e-ide (laptop) version on ebay to hook it up.

If you partition on pc you will need to use an option in winuae to allow to do it.

---------- Post added at 16:18 ---------- Previous post was at 16:16 ----------

Link with the option:

https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=4149

 

[chrispy]

Thanks guys, I have a cf reader in my server so I can use that. How do you mean a blank spray, clear lacquer? I gotta be honest, this can of black plastic spray may have cost me £14 but there's enough there to do another one easily and I put three coats on mine.

I think i've sourced some blue led's for the power lights etc so hopefully when they arrive (from some country I can't even pronounce) i'll be able to fit them and send a set off to Phantom as well.

Just need to work out how to make my own custom Commodore badge for the left side of the case now.

 

[jvdbossc]

Yes sorry, not a native speaker

 

[chrispy]

No problem my friend

 

[jvdbossc]

Normally spraying is done 3 times in very thin layers, but if you are happy with the result, it looks ok!

 

[fitzsteve]

Lookin' Good Chrispy!

As the others have said a 250gb HDD is a little OTT for an Amiga, a nice 40 or 80 would be fine (I have a 40gb in my Tower with 1x 500mb Partition for SYS: and 2x 17gb Partitions Work/Games and so far I've only managed to fill about 7-8gb... They are setup with SFS (like how I setup your CF) and as its >4gb I've patched the SCSI.DEVICE

Suggest you use Classic Workbench OS3.9 for that kind of setup (Already has the large disk support) and for that you'd be wanting a faster Accelerator Card/More Ram.

The 4gb CF & Blizzard 1220 you have now is ideal for your Workbench 3.1 (Classic WB lite) setup IMHO.

Keep up the good work and keep the pics comming

Steve.

 

[chrispy]

Yeah, a soon as funds permit i'll be after a faster accelerator card (at which time i'll give you a shout about this one). I'll start looking round for a smaller ide then, maybe 80gig as you suggested.

---------- Post added at 20:37 ---------- Previous post was at 18:38 ----------

Another question if I may. I plan on dropping in a slimline laptop cd drive but the only one's available today are the dvd/cd ones. I suppose an IDE one of these will be sufficient yeah? Where do I take the power from and would I be correct in assuming it would be like a PC and daisy chain along with the CF card on the IDE port or would I need to add something else?

 

[abraXXious]

A few years back I went through the stage of "blackifying" my miggies, I would never do it again.

ALL paint is soft. Some are tougher than others, for instance two pack, epoxy resins and certain acrylics, but at the end of the day they ALL scratch.

As long as you stay away from enamel it will last, but be prepared to start noticing small scuffs etc.

Another thing to remember is that the glossier the surface, the more scratches show up and also the harder it is to touch up. Your aim should be to make the pastic look like it was originally cast in black plastic, not painted. A satin finish will give you this effect, matt is a little too flat and gloss looks horrible. When done, let dry for a few days and then give a good coat of Armorall - it will protect it a little.

Good luck.

 

[chrispy]

That's exactly why i've gone for this plastic spray. As the chap told me )he works in a body repair shop) this stuff absorbs into the actual plastic and doesn't discolour and he said if you do scuff it, chances are it won't even show.

 

[jvdbossc]

I believe the sources you got. I hope you used some detergent before you used the spray and cleand it entirely, I mostly use a metal sponge..

I have some very old objects, like my grandfathers bycicle from the 50's still standing in open air, at least for 10 years know, and I still can't find any rust on my painted pieces.

Also the summer sun is great At least, while you can avoid insects, leaves etc..

 

[abraXXious]

Yessum, Ive been fed that bulls$%t before too. The spray he is referring to is vinyl & leather penetrating paint - it is rubbish on plastic (even though it is often pushed as a plastic painting solution), in my experience at least. Another thing to remember is that vinyl paints are VERY soft wearing - ie you can scratch them with your finger nails.

Even acrylic is better on plastic, again, in my experience. There is a product called polyflex which is a flexible primer designed for painting plastics, but unless the plastic you are painting is VERY smooth and glossy (rough it up with some 800 grit anywho) or has to flex to some degree, then it is completely unnecessary.

Oh, and if you DO try one of those vinyl paints and it DOES work well, please let us know. I myself would be VERY surprised, and interested in trying some myself.

That's exactly why i've gone for this plastic spray. As the chap told me )he works in a body repair shop) this stuff absorbs into the actual plastic and doesn't discolour and he said if you do scuff it, chances are it won't even show.

 

[chrispy]

Well, I finished the spraying and it's come up better than I anticipated. Here's a few pics of it so far :-

The bottom trap door with the sqaure ready to be cut out for ventilation very crudely drawn in lol.

The boy racer mesh ready to add afterwards :-

And fitted with the mesh trap door :-

And the product that gave it it's lovely matt finish :-

 

[abraXXious]

Looks nice. Please let us know how it wears.

 

[chrispy]

Will do. The guy in the body shop says it's very tough and resilient so i'll take his work for it. This actually worke out much cheaper then the plastics spray and primer so he obviously wasn't trying to get me to spend money.

 

[TheoryBoy]

Vinyl dye is fantastic. It soaks into the plastic and forms a very tough surface, as tough as the original plastic surface and retains the texture of the surface.
This is my A1200 and even though abuse (putting motherboards on top of it and being tbh careless with it) it still has an unmarked surface. I couldnt bring myself to buy a cdtv keyboard to do the keys properly but it does the job fine.

 

[chrispy]

Took delivery of my CDTV system and I have to be honest, I am gutted i'm going to butcher the keyboard just for the black keys. The case on the CDTV is absolutely mint and not a scratch to be seen anywhere. That will be making it's way to it's new home on Monday any by then my Project Black should be done. Normally i'd have done it tonight but i'm too stoned for it right now lol.