XPS to ATX Conversion Week 3 Update

Sorry for the delay in this week’s update. I have spent a lot of hours working on this over the past week. First, let me say that the polished aluminum looks great, but it is taking WAY longer than I thought. In fact, I was not happy after doing the entire case and I decided to start over. To get it down to a great shine, it takes 7 layers of sanding with 2 layers cross sanding. This all has to be done by hand since the orbital sander leaves scratches that don’t show up until you get to the high grits. All that said, I do not have pictures of a final finished panel yet. Maybe next week?
Now for what I do have. I got most of the parts I ordered in last week. I got my removable ATX mobo tray, the power switch, the USB/Firewire cable from Dell, the Modder’s mesh from FrozenCPU, and a new foot for the case. I cut the back panel to fit the new mobo tray. After making sure it fit, I grinded down the edges and painted both sides with the textured black spray paint.

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I also painted the Drive cage and the cross beam in a metallic blue. The pictures do not give this justice.

Here are a few shots of the partly finished back panel. The trimmed the plastic to fit the new mobo.

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I cut two panels from the Modder’s Mesh. The mesh will make 4 panels, but mine was damaged during shipping. I painted one black and the other I left silver. I will have a set of each as soon as FrozenCPU sends a replacement. I think I prefer the black. The silver almost looks white against the case.

I also added the power button to the front I/O panel. I am not sure I am going to keep the Dell I/O yet, but this is really still just a test. I like the look of the single silver button on an all black front. Sorry, my camera was being used during that day so I did not get any pictures of it all together.

The good news about the I/O is the Audio and USB will work without an issue. The Firewire is a different story. It is Firewire 800 with 9 pins, but the plug looks VERY different. I might have to do some splicing. I may also look into building a custom front I/O panel with all the same features.
There might not be an update next weekend since I will mostly be sanding and polishing. If I get finished, I will post the results. I am really excited about this project. So far, it is coming along MUCH faster than I had planned. There are still a few things up in the air. I appreciate all of your opinions and suggestions. I also want to thank Sean for helping me with a few questions.
Please discuss either here or on this forum http://forums.rampantspeculation.com/viewtopic.php?p=9806#9806