Still waiting on the thermal paste remover and I have had a dull ass day so I started thinking....
Yeah thats always dangerous especially when I have had so much time to myself lately!
I wanted to Jazz the old girl up a bit, Nothing to crazy but wanted to make it "mine". I got thinking about the Jewel on the top and I first thought about making a custom Jewel like I did with my GC but then I thought wheres the fun in that!?
Also as I would find out a little later on it turns out the "XBOX" on the Jewel is sort of cut into the jewel.
So I had seen people who fitted Windows to the top with light and I had seen people who have put LED's around the Jewel etc but I wanted something a little different.
I want RGB for a start (Not seen a RGB XBOX but I presume there is one out there somewhere??)
And I dont want to put LEDS around the Jewel, I want to light the whole Jewel up.
So to the power tools Batman! (Sorry I got that excited with my plans I forgot to take pics.....)
First things first I had to remove the Jewel, Turns out MS probably used the previously mentioned thermal paste to glue the sucker down because to say it was a ---smurfette--- to get off is a understatement!
I heated up the lid from the back using a heatgun after removing the RF shielding and gently pryed the Jewel away from the case.
Even with the heat it did not want to release and took a good 5 mins of me heating and prying to get it off without busting or melting anything!
Once it was off I had to get the sticky pad off the Jewel, This took time, Like lots of time....
I think I spent a good hour dousing it in sticky stuff remover and scraping it with a plastic razor blade scraper thinggy.
I was trying to not damage the plastic underneath as although I intended to polish it after deep scratches are harder to hide!
Once that was all off the real hard work began....
Getting the paint off!
This was more elbow grease and I did it over 2 sessions due to my hands crumping up.
Firstly attacking it with a well worn medium grit sanding stick and water then going over it again with a fine stick and water once it was all transparent.
Now this is where I changed tac to some others, All the XBOX's I have seen where people have made the Jewel transparent have left it that way, I didnt want to do this.
I probably would of if you could see something interesting like the mobo but all you can see is the top of the DVD drive and thats boring!
Soooo I decided to coat the back of the Jewel in white Vinyl I had left over from doing the Neo 29.
Now my hope is that this will serve 2 purposes:
1) It will stop you being able to see the dull internal of the top of the DVD drive and look more "normal" when its off. Besides White always compliments black!
2) Act as a diffuser of sorts for the RGB LED's I plan to install underneath.
So after doing that I banged a 64mm Hole through the top of the XBOX lid and test fitted.
This unfortunately is where I made a mistake in haste albeit a easy one.
Under the Jewel in the middle of the round bit was a small mark which I assumed would be central....
Yeah it wasnt... So when I drilled through the hole was off to the side by a few mm
Luckily I "fixed" it by filing out some of the excess on the side that was not cut but managed to leave just enough of a lip to glue the jewel back to.
Thats the only pic you get for now sorry :p
Its not glued yet but sits in there ok.
Now I have ordered some RGB LED's that are powered via a Molex connector so will be dead easy to connect up and fit.
I am not sure how exactly I am going to fit them yet but I will make that call once I have them and can work out how the light gets thrown around under there.