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| Poison Apple |
| Written by Jim Pereira | ||||
| Wednesday, 31 August 2005 | ||||
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I built a G4 into a PC case, after getting my hands on a G3 b/w case, I decide to mod it once again into a Poison Apple.
Modding my Mac - From Dark Apple to Poison Apple
I built a G4 in a PC case and whlle I liked the case that I created, it was still after all, a PC case with a G4 inside, not much style to it. So when I got my hands on a G3 b/w case, I decided it was time for a change. The mod was moderately simple and didn't take very long, I finished it in about a week, but that was mostly working on it after work and waiting for the paint to dry. Tools required were a phillips head & flathead screwdriver, allenwrench, brad nail, hammer, and of course the Dremel. Also needed was paint, EL wire (enough for both sides) and an LED, all in whatever color you like, and of course, a computer you want to mod.
I started with a non-functioning G3 blue and white. While a G4 case would have worked better in some ways, I'm glad I had the G3 case instead, I'll explain why later. The take apart is fairly easy and obvious, (it is always easier to take something apart, you do want to remember how things go so that the reassemble goes easier) just look for which screws are holding things down and take them out. A flathead screw driver works well to release the clips that hold the front and back panels. I took everything out of the case and then removed the plastic panels on the outside. There is a clip in the center of the side panels you have to release. The power supply was also removed.
the back plastic panel is two panels, both have to be removed and they were the most difficult. The only thing I couldn't remove was the back plastic case lock, so I used tape to cover it when I was painting. 
The G3 bare metal case
the blue G3 parts during painting I used GooGone to remove the tape holding the IDE cable and other sticky residue left on the case. I removed the G3 stickers by hand to avoid damaging them; I used a razer blade to get the corners started and then pulled them by hand. They pulled off fairly easily and were perfect and reuseable... although I decided against reusing them. The side panel apples were a little tricky to get off. I tried a Manual CD Extration Device (AKA paperclip) but the one I had wasn't thick enough so I ended up using a nail that fit. I hammered it a couple of times to loosen the glue until it popped off. I used a finishing nail and used the flat (head) end towards the apple so that it wouldn't poke through. With that done, I painted all the blue pieces black.
 The side panels with the painted apple in a test look. 
Case painted red with hole drilled in front to light the front apple
The reason that I'm glad I got the G3 blue/white case is that the panels are clear frosted while the G4 cases are painted and would have had to be stripped to paint them a different color. I thought of painting the back of the panels red, but then if/when I decide I want to paint it again it will be easier if the metal is painted. After I painted the blue plastic though, I wished I had painted them on the backside, it looked much better that way, maybe next time. I first primered the bare metal before painting it red.
 Hole dremeled for EL Wire to snake through.  coiled EL Wire 
EL wire inside case
I wanted the apples to be backlit so I cut the hole in the side of the metal case. There are two holes there already where the side panels clip so I just joined them, taking care not to damage where the clips snap in. I then coiled the EL wire and ran it into the case for power. The wire is held by zipties and some glue to hold it.
 Testing the backlighting effect.  case reassembling  Back of case with blue modified back panel. the front switch was not built yet so I rigged up a switch for power. 
blue back panel, modified for the firewire ports to fit and drilled hole for speaker plug.
I put the apple back together several times, mostly to see what worked best, and where to run the wires. I also had to modify the back panel to fit the motherboard as the firewire and speaker positions were different. The only blue parts not painted were the back panel and the blue rubber ring on the opening side panel, but I got my hands on a G4 clear ring and put it in it's stead.
 blacklight LED positioned above DVD Burner and pointed. 
Blacklight LED used for front apple.
I used a blacklight LED to light the front apple, I couldn't find a red one, might change it when I do. I used double sided tape to fix it to the top of the case over the DVD Burner, it came with a swivel mount so I aimed it where it needed to go
 I used rubber cement to glue the apple back on.  The G3 had a Zip drive, I got a blank from a G4 to cover it, hadn't painted it yet. 
More photos of the finished product. Well that's the mod, I do still need to create a cable to connect the front control panel to the motherboard, the G3 and G4 have different cables, I have the diagrams for both connectors and will probably just cut the cables and splice them so they work, for now, I just used the switch from the pc case and attached it in back. Specs: G4 Gigabit MB 800mhz processor upgrade 1.25g memory 2 x 80 gig HDs
Pioneer DVD Burner Jim Pereira
www.bakerstreet.ws
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