Modding The MacBook.

Posted on March 1st, 2007 by phiber811, under John, New Mods, main.

One of my coworkers came to me last week and said, “I want my Apple Logo to have a rainbow in it, like the old days!” He has a MacBook, and I’m willing to mod just about anything, so I said “Okay.”

I sent him off to buy inkjet/laser compatible overhead transparency film. Its perfect for this sort of thing. He came back yesterday with a $30 package of it, which is what they had at the office supply store. Eh, no worries. We’ll find a way to use it. Last night, we stayed late, and I set to work. Here’s the process.

I started by popping off the front bezel assembly with a nylon tool. Yes, it just comes right off. I then removed all the screws around the LCD assembly, keeping them in order. Once done, the LCD panel just pulls out of place and tips forward. I laid it flat on the machine, and tipped the lid assembly forward so as not to stress any of the wiring. I then used my thumb to put pressure on the apple logo, and pop it away from the lid housing. Its held in place by adhesive, so it took a little work. I then noticed that unlike the iBooks, Apple had painted the back of the apple logo white. You Bastards! Okay, no biggie. the paint they use is alcohol soluble. I’ll soak it off. Nope. Didnt work. Next step, sandpaper. I took 1000 grit, and headed to the sink. There, I began sanding in a circular pattern, under the running tap. Lo and behold, the paint began to come right off. Once I had all the paint off, I dried and buffed out the logo some. Still a bit hazy from the 1K grit. I grabbed some 2K grit and began the same process, with a light touch, checking regularly. When I had a uniform haze, I dried it off, and began polishing it with, of all things, Zildjian cymbal polish. Once buffed out, the apple logo was crystal clear. SCORE!

Next up, I pulled up photoshop CS3 (Beta!) and a picture of the old apple logo with the color bands. I measured the apple logo, put guides in the right places, and spot filled the colors necessary. A test print to regular paper confirmed it being spot on, so we printed it to the overhead film. Woo. A quick cut on the matte cutter, some tape, and assembly later, and we were done. Its not a huge ground breaking mod, but man, does it look good!

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MacWorld SF

Posted on January 5th, 2007 by phiber811, under John, Modding News, New Mods, Publicity, main.

Tuesday is the official kick off of MacWorld San Francisco. With Keynote A La Steve Jobs, it should be exciting. But this year, I’m excited about things other than the keynote. In particular, MacMod.com will have a booth there. Yes, I’m amazed too. Something thats been talked about for ages, and now its happening. With SF only a ten hour drive away (yes, only ten!) I’m totally making the trip.

At the MacMod booth, you’ll be afforded the opportunity to see both NecroMac’s, my custom painted Mac Mini, the handy-work I applied to a set of Speck Products’ MacBook Pro shells, a custom flamed Powerbook lid, and maybe a set of iMac G5 shells. At least, thats what I plan to bring. If all goes according to plan, you’ll get to see all the current episodes of the Pimp My Mac podcast, in rotation throughout the week. Class, can we say awesome?

I’ll be there through wednesday, so if you wanna say hi, look for the MacMod booth next to the gaming pavilion. We’ll be hard to miss, I’m sure. We’ll be the morons hawking MacMod.com, and the website in general. I may also hand out business cards from my shop, if I can get away with it. (they gave me time off, c’mon.)

There’s also this rumor about a silent auction for the Necro 2, so if you’re hot to trot to own a NecroMac, it’ll be there, and no, it wont be cheap. That level of customization is never cheap.

So, with that in mind, come to MacWorld SF! If you can make it, do so! If not, come here for the pictures. I plan to take my camera, and some of my collected mac shwag. I’m hoping to get Leander Khaney to sign my copy of Cult of Mac, if woz shows, I want him to sign my Lego PodBrix, and if the Jobs wanders by, I’m hoping to con him into signing my Jobs podbrix. Total nerd hero worship kinda stuff. Course, if I can get Jobs to wander by and start twitching violently when he sees what I do to his stuff, I’ll take that as a victory as well. I’m sure that all our customization, on a certain level, totally chaps his ass.

So yes, come to MacWorld! Then come to MYM for photos! I’ll be trying to post interesting updates while I’m there, but I dont know what the internet scene will be like. We’ll see. Vive Le San Francisco!

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Updating, cause I havent.

Posted on December 19th, 2006 by phiber811, under John, Modding News, New Mods, main.

Its been a while since I updated with some real meat and potatoes kinda stuff. Mostly I’ve been babbling about this or that, without any real substance to show for it. Well, that changes today. I’ve got a few minutes over lunch, and I’m going to put up some recent work I’ve done. Lets have a look.

Blue Purple Fade.

This imac G5 was painted for the daughter of my employer. She wanted blue and purple, she got blue and purple. I used the Auto Air Nightmare Blue, and Cheap Wine purple. Its a pretty simple fade, but it looks damn good.

Black Flame iMac.
I painted this one for the son of my employer. The boss asked for pearl black with flames, and thats what he got. Its a simple flash flame job, but I really like how the pattern came out.

The Copper Fade Project.
Since my shop is offering mods as an option now, they felt that we needed a display. Well, they got one. One of the guys at our design firm came up with a reference for what he was thinking, and the powers that be selected a color range. The boss and I picked the final colors, and I got to work. This masking job and the flame imac are where my giant roll of masking tape came in so handy. Anyway, the shells are a pearl copper and a pearl russet.

LimeBurst iBook.
Before my buddy Jim moved to Las Vegas, I built him an iBook, and painted it as a surprise. He was definitely surprised. I shot it with the sparkle toxic green, and detail black around the apple logo and the edges. It’s gorgeous in sunlight!

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NecroMac 2.0 Video Podcast

Posted on August 28th, 2006 by phiber811, under John, Modding News, New Mods, Publicity, main.

Yes, thats right. The headline speaks the truth! There is more than one NecroMac. This time, instead of getting only the finished product, you can see the whole thing, start to finish. Evan and I took the opportunity to recreate our beast for the Pimp My Mac video podcast, hosted by MacMod.com. Roll on over to MacMod, and follow the link (you really cant miss it) and check out the first ModCast dedicated to that most evil and ancient of computers!

Yes, no lie, we’re excited about this one. We love this computer.

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The reward of a job well done.

Posted on July 28th, 2006 by phiber811, under New Mods, main.

I recently got in a bottle of Auto Air’s Sparklesent Toxic Green. I had also promised to paint an iBook for one of the MacMod boys. With that in mind, I set to work on a thursday evening, and came out of the garage with this.

Only a preview of the final project mind you, but damn, it came out well!

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