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iBook clear trackpad?

L

livingfortoday

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 17, 2004
2,903
4
The Msp
I finally got the guts to take apart my iBook G3 and remove the paint from the inside of the clear case, and lemme tell ya... it looks awesome! It's really cool having a clear case and seeing the insides, especially if you remove the bottom shield. I wanna keep going, but I don't know if there's anywhere online where you could buy a clear trackpad assembly for the iBook?

If you know of any such product, please let me know!
 
L

livingfortoday

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 17, 2004
2,903
4
The Msp
Pictures!

Ok, these pictures aren't the best, but here ya go:

http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/1.jpg
http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/2.jpg
http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/3.jpg
http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/4.jpg

As you can see there's a sticker in the middle of the back that says "Stolen property". I bought an extra iBook case on eBay, and it came with a security tag on it, and that was under it. Good thing I still have the original case. This was more of an expirement, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out!

Also note that the Apple logo is upside-down, I didn't notice I had done that until I took these pictures. Whoops.
 
Sutekidane

Sutekidane

macrumors 6502a
Jan 26, 2005
936
1
Good work! though I've seen this done a few times before, you did a really good job, and it looks like you put the lid on backwards. The apple logo is facing the wrong way. I've seen someone put a picture inbetween the back of lcd and the back lid and it looked great.
 
L

livingfortoday

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 17, 2004
2,903
4
The Msp
Sutekidane said:
Good work! though I've seen this done a few times before, you did a really good job, and it looks like you put the lid on backwards. The apple logo is facing the wrong way. I've seen someone put a picture inbetween the back of lcd and the back lid and it looked great.
Click to expand...

Yeah, stupid lid! Dammit. I'm gonna either end up airbrushing on a design and then painting white behind it to make it look like the original color + cool design, or just print out a really high resolution picture and put it behind the case. At that point I'll put the case on the right way, too.

I was just thinking it'd be really cool if I could make the whole thing clear, so I've been looking for a clear trackpad assembly, but I can't find anything like that anywhere.
 
L

Logik

macrumors 6502a
Apr 24, 2004
616
0
livingfortoday said:
I'm gonna either end up airbrushing on a design and then painting white behind it to make it look like the original color + cool design, or just print out a really high resolution picture and put it behind the case.
Click to expand...

man.. i say do some wild Tiger air brushing or somethin for it ;)

you gotta come up with somethin cool... maybe some cool apple propaganda or something. any ideas? this could be a really cool project hehe..
 
dsharits

dsharits

macrumors 68000
Jun 19, 2004
1,639
1
Plant City, FL
Maybe paint it to look like this:
attachment.php


Wow, that is a horrifying thought. :eek:

Daniel
 

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L

livingfortoday

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 17, 2004
2,903
4
The Msp
Update

Hey, just wanted to let you guys know that I've decided on dark brown top/bottom and black middle paint scheme. I took a background that I found on the February Desktop images forums here, and printed it out to use for the top of the laptop. Here's a pic:
9.jpg

That's my rough draft, if you will. It's kinda messed up, so I'm reprinting it on different paper, and redoing it. You can see some wear on the corners where I bent the paper too much, because I printed it out on too thick of stock. The bottom will match that color, too. Just thought you'd like to see what progress I'm making! Oh yeah, I'm also making a step-by-step guide on how to do this yourself, just so you can avoid *all* the mistakes I've made so far. And there are quite a lot!
 
L

livingfortoday

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 17, 2004
2,903
4
The Msp
runninmac said:
livingfortoday that is awsome when will the guide be out?
Click to expand...
As soon as I'm done with it completely. I still need to paint the bottom of the case and the trackpad part, and I'm waiting for a new case that I bought on eBay to come in the mail. I should be done with most of it by the end of this week, though, and I'll post it up then.

Here's a guide to the start, though, but it's kinda incomplete:
http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/1.htm

Any tips or questions would be appreciated, so that I can make it easier for people to follow!
 
I

ibilly

macrumors regular
May 2, 2003
248
0
Boulder
The best idea in the history of the world

...well, sort of. You sould follow the dell idea, but of course printed on papre. It would so hilarious to have people being astounded at osX on a dell. MWAHahahaha 't would be terribly great!
 
FightTheFuture

FightTheFuture

macrumors 68000
Oct 19, 2003
1,877
3,029
that town east of ann arbor
nice mods. now someone do that with an imac G5! i dont understand exactly, did you simply scrub the paint off? or is it like a hard white lining in the inside? i'm wondering if you could pull anything out of an ibook to make it lighter. maybe you could also do a lid with some plastic fish to make it look like a portable aquarium!
 
L

ldburroughs

macrumors 6502
Feb 25, 2005
258
0
Virginia Beach, VA
I've looked around a lot for this sort of thing. Great job with yours so far! I only wish the newer ones could be customized this way. Mine is solid opaque plastic (G4 model). I really wanted to do something creative but I don't think the lids are compatible (or at least they don't appear to be based on some of the descriptions I've read.)

Again, good job with yours! I'm jealous.
 
N

neoelectronaut

Cancelled
Dec 3, 2003
3,417
2,093
livingfortoday said:
Ok, these pictures aren't the best, but here ya go:

http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/1.jpg
http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/2.jpg
http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/3.jpg
http://umsis.miami.edu/~atsatsou/ibook/4.jpg

As you can see there's a sticker in the middle of the back that says "Stolen property". I bought an extra iBook case on eBay, and it came with a security tag on it, and that was under it. Good thing I still have the original case. This was more of an expirement, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out!

Also note that the Apple logo is upside-down, I didn't notice I had done that until I took these pictures. Whoops.
Click to expand...

....

..

.

NICE!
 
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