So I was sitting at work on a somewhat overcast afternoon engaging in
the strangest conversation of my career, (No sir. If you spill hot
coffee on your powerbook and then drop it into the toilet while
relieving yourself in the Men's Room at National Airport, it is not
covered under warranty.) when my good friend Cannonball pops up on my
iBook screen with news that has been deemed important. He proceeds to
enlighten me to the fact that MacMod.com is having a custom mod contest
and that there are prizes. He continues on and in due conversation,
informs me that it happens to be my moral obligation to enter the
contest. At that point, I was forced to inform my rather excited friend
that computers, unlike idiots, most assuredly do not grow on trees. He
counters my wit by offering up his desktop machine and flat panel
display in the name of art and adventure. Surprised and impressed by
his determination and faith, I inform him that if I'm doing the work,
and he's doing the donating, he gets to pick the theme, as this is
going to be a mod with a theme. My friend smiles for a moment, and then
says one word. "Tiki!"
Okay, things being as strange as usual, I've just been charged with turning a graphite G4 into the epitome of Polynesian Pop. Based on my love of tiki bars, polynesian shwag, and the hole style in general, this shouldn't be a problem. The world abounds with tiki, and I can rock that party. Little did I expect that it would be a month long adventure, and a piece that would cause me more than a little frustration. with all that said, lets get rolling.
"Grog me Barkeep!" - Guybrush Threepwood, "The Curse of Monkey Island"
With theme mods, your topic is usually pretty defined. You have a central subject that you work based on, and the changes, additions, and other such nonsense you apply to the project should all directly relate. For this, I needed immersion into tiki. Being that I'm already a lover of polynesian pop and the ultra-lounge stylings, I dove into tikiroom.com, Shag's website, Bosko's website, konakai.com, and downloaded Kenny Sasaki & The Tiki Boys' album "Tiki Moon" from the ITMS. Konakai led me all over the internet finding tiki things I never knew existed. From tiki antenna toppers, to 6 foot tall Moai statues made of concrete, I got to see it all. This led me to inspiration for the display.
I reasoned that I wanted to go au natural with the display and have it look as organic as possible. Well, as organic as an LCD panel can get. I also wanted to depart from the apple form factor as much as I could, without destroying the display. The original bondi's are classics after all. So, I decided to unscrew the front bezel plastics and give them a faux stone finish. A trip to Wal-Mart yielded the faux stone paint from Rustoleum. I sprayed several coats of this onto the front bezel plastics will I was happy with the coating. Be aware, that stuff thats several very long hours to touch dry, unlike the usual enamel aerosols. Once the plastics were dry and reassembled, I cut apart a place-matt I had purchased from the World Market, and two small votive torches. I wrapped and hot glued to the place-matt parts to the front and sides of the display. I then cut two equal pieces from the 6 foot length of Bamboo that I got at Wal-Mart (I knew, shocked me too) and drilled into them so I could seat the mini-torches. the torches were then glued together, and then glued to the sides of the display. This rendered our finished display. In the process or building it, I made a mess of the kitchen, found out my glue gun leaked, all over the floor, and had to change the filters on my respirator because that stone spray paint clogged my filter heads all up. So, a gorgeous display, and a lesson learned.
  
With the display complete, I had to get cracking on the computer. I was a week behind because of the work I had to do to get the Flaming Blue G4 finished. So, I laid out the plans for the tower. First, I needed to strip the machine down to the chassis and parts, that was easy. Then, the side shells needed clearing in the alcohol bath. While the shells were clearing, I could pain the plastics, the chassis, and shop for other stuff to complete the mod. For this one, I would need brown airbrush paint, Bombay Mahogany wood stain, a red lava tube, 3 kinds of Rum, balsa wood, bark textured paper, water transfer decals, and several yards of masking film. I also enlisted the help of my partner in crime. The Reverend is a much better sketch and draw artist, so I tasked him with laying out the palm trees on the shells, which he did like a champ. Once they were masked, I attacked them with Sharpie Poster Paint markers. While he was laying out the trees however, I took the chassis outside. In the garage, it got several layers of Auto Air white base coat sealer. Once sealed and heat cured, It got 5 coats of the Auto Air Metallic White (Fine) paint. with curing done, it was clear-coated with my usual Valspar lacquer in a can.
  
Once the chassis was painted, the Rev. and I applied the wood paper to the non-door side with 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. Once dry, the Rev. trimmed everything to shape. All I could say was "WOW." The paper looked awesome.
I then proceeded back upstairs in order to scrub off the gray paint from the side shells. Luckily, Apple used a pretty cheap paint for the shells. They figure that nobody is gonna tear their stuff apart, so why worry. But, 15 minutes in the Rubbing Alcohol, and the stuff comes right off. In the past, I've seen people use household sponges and toothbrushes to remove this crud. Not me. I don't feel like wearing out my arms scrubbing. I let the Black & Decker Scum Buster do the scrubbing. Amazingly enough, it tears the gray paint right off, without marring the plastic. It works like a charm every time.
With the chassis painted, the shells cleared and palm treed, the Rev. headed home to paint the tiki faces on the apple logos. I got to work locating a beach scene. I broke up the winner into four chunks that were then printed onto full size sheets of water decal film. I then took this film, soaked it, and applied it to the door side of the case. Once it was dry and tacky, I cut it along the door, so the case would open. the whole shebang was then clear coated to protect the image.
Once the beach was applied and the palm trees painted, I attached the door to that side of the machine along with the front, top and back plastics and hoops that had been painted brown. I then soaked and curved 1/32 inch balsa wood to match the curve of the front of the machine. this was then glued in place with more Super 77. Once dry, I cut out the optical drive slot and waited for everything to dry hard.
  
Once dry, I stained the entire fronting with the Bombay Mahogany stain. The Rev. then returned and cut out the tiki god pieces for the front of the machine. these were also stained. Once dry, they were hot glued into place. this left us with only some small pieces left to finish.
  
Tiki masks and such were printed onto more decal film and applied, along with the other tiki apple logo to the non door shell, that was then put into place. this finished the front and sides of the unit. Leis were then glued to the bottom of the machine to trim it out. Before attaching the top lei's, a hole was dremeled into the top plastics and case to run the power and switch assembly for the neon tube. The tube was installed and connected, and the power button was mounted. the top lei was then glued into place.
  <> 
Finally, black Sharpie marker was used to detail the tiki face on the front of the machine.
With everything complete, it took us a little under a month. Some of these tasks sound like they were quick and easy, but most took several hours. I've condensed this a little so that reading it wont take several days.
Please head to the gallery for the complete photo collection. below, and at the end of the gallery are the photos of the finished project.vPlease note that there are in fact real votives in the tiki torches. There were plans for a miniature coconut fog machine, but the darned thing spattered water everywhere, making it unusable around electricity. Please look over this wacky mod, enjoy the fruits of our labor, and remember, only one G4 on the planet makes the computer room feel like the islands!
 
 
Over the course of this mod, I took almost 200 photos. I weeded out about 70 garbage shots and kept the remaining 130. Then, in lieu of MacMod.com having server problems, I build a small site to showcase this mod, due to its extreme tackiness and kitsch value. Realize that what I've uploaded here (hope I've done it correctly) is only one section of the overall project site, and only a few of the photos. If you want to experience the full scope of the project and see all of the photos, tools, materials and write-up, I encourage you to go to www.modyourmac.com/tikiproject and see the project in its entirety so that you can either love or hate what I've created in it's full glory.
|
