Introduction: Second Life for an Old PC Case Part I

WARNING: This is my first instructable and I have not write in english for a very long time ,so my apologies for sintax errors and incorrect use of expressions. I expect to improve my english it will very usefull specially if I decide to make a second instructable.

Recently I bougth a new motherboard (Asrock G41M VS3 R2.0) it is a really tiny format and the case I was using at the time was big for it. I new I had somewhere an old PC case so I started to look for it and EUREKA, I found it covered whith dust, the front end was not its original one neither itscover. Anyway I decide to give it a second chance or I woud say a "second life" and make it suitable for the new board. Since I want a case a litle different from the common ones I also decide to customize it painting it whith a tribal design usually used for tatoos.

Tools: I used an angle grinder to make some cuts, files to work on the edges after cutting to smooth them , sand paper, spray paint, contact paper ( the sticky one that is used to put on coverbooks), an X-acto knife, the tribal design ( a wolf), masking tape, some paper and patience (I found that I need a lot of it when I begun to make the template to paint the tribal design).

Note: While making this instructable I experienced some trouble when I reached step 4, I  got an error message when updating, I tried to find out how to fix it, I updated my browser (Firefox) and the Java version but th results where the same I started again a new   tutorial but  I got the same error since in both tries I reached the 3rd step without  trouble I decide to split in two parts the instructable Part I  Intro and Steps 1 tru 3 and Part II Steps 4 and 5 with this note.

Step 1: Step 1: Some Cutting and Filing

Since the modern motherboards has its connectors layout in a very different way than the old PC´s I had to make some cutting in the back end of the case frame, and also had to remove the grid that are used for the extension cards, here in this pictures you can see the marking of the cuts and the grid thas was removed

In order to smooth the edges and corners after I used the grinder for cutting I use a file to avoid hazarduos cutting edges

Step 2: Step 2: Sanding and Painting

Once the back end was already cut to fit the board, I prepared the whole case for painting.
As you see in the first picture the front end had kind of yellow color, I sand it by hand first with a 120 grain and after I uses a 300 to let it very smooth Maybe one can use a finer grain to do a better job, but grain 300 did it for me . I washed the front end with  laundry soap and drained with  paper towels. The back end was sanded with 280 which was enough to remove the old paint. The cover was also sanded with 280 to remove the gloss of the old paint, once sanded I washed it and dry it.

I used a matte white spray. to paint the whole case taking care of cover with paper and masking tape the front end’s small panel where the start (turbo) and reset button go.

Step 3: Step 3 : the Tribal Template

With the case cover already painted I put the contact paper on one of its sides and used a paper printed copy of the wolf tribal design to cut the template with an X-acto knife ( Here I found that this is not easy at all, by the way was my first time doing so, therefore I needed a lot of patience ). The first try was a fiasco and I had to start over again the second try lead to better results

Step 4: Step 4: Painting the Wolf and Other Case’s Parts

Since I decided to use gloss black for the tribal wolf I used it also in some other parts of the case so I covered them with paper and masking tape to emboss the parts I want to keep in matte white. Here are the final results of that painting