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Anyone ever polished their Aluminum Laptop?

im on the fence if i like it. i think it looks way better then that stupid 24k gold macbook pro that is floating around.
 
justperry said:
Erm, No, look in the last picture under the CD/DVD drive there is a huge crack there.
This aside it looks cool but without finish aluminium will oxidate fast and you get black hands by even touching it for a short time.
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The "crack" is from me not screwing down the bottom panel down. It is perfect now though. You are right about the oxidation...I didn't think about that when I was putting it together. I will have to find some wax or something that can protect it. The next one I do will be clearcoated for sure. I never thought about the oxidation...damn oxygen. Hate the stuff. Oh, wait...:eek:

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Wicked1 said:
ariethekid said:
Here you go!

I would love to be able to change the backlight color to Blue though? how did you get Pink?
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Just get a layer of cellophane from the 99 cent store and cut a square out to go between the keyboard backlight and the keyboard itself.

I was going to go with blue but I felt it was too close to the original white that was used. I was going for a red but too many sheets of cellophane make the keyboard backlight kind of dim. So I only put one thin sheet so I guess it came out kind of pink. Maybe try green? After I put it together I was thinking about doing a rainbow pattern with the cellophane to match the apple logo in the keyboard.

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Acorn said:
im on the fence if i like it. i think it looks way better then that stupid 24k gold macbook pro that is floating around.
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I totally agree.

These are just early pictures though. I haven't finished the polishing yet. It will look much better when it's done.

I'm going to keep it in one of those speck cases when I finish so protect it so it doesn't look like the old ipods...
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S-Man said:
A thought crossed my mind as I was reading a thread on here about a scratched macbook pro.
Aluminum will polish like chrome. I've done it many times. It's alot of work, but boy does it shine.

Has anyone polished their MBP or aluminum bodied laptop?
Has anyone seen anything like this?
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No, because it doesn't make any sense. Aluminum that's used for any sort of equipment enclosure will be either painted or anodized. Pretty much all metal Apple products have anodized aluminum enclosures. The anodized layer is a very hard ceramic layer and it's somewhat porous and it can't be merely polished. To polish it you'd need to strip the anodizing, polish the bare metal, then do a very low-etch anodizing. Since anodization is done in an acid bath, you'd need to strip your machine to bare metal, literally. Electronics don't like taking acid baths. I've done aluminum anodization on small parts.

Bare aluminum can be polished, but since you've never dealt with anodized aluminum (demonstrably) and can't even tell that your MBP exterior is in fact anodized, I'd stay the heck away from it since you don't know what you're doing.

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TommyP. said:
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Let me know what you guys think.
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I think you'll regret it as soon as you put it on your lap, or try using it with some sun shining on it, blinding passers by. It's silly IMHO. A laptop is always in contact with corrosive bodily fluids/excretions. Have you ever worn a polished aluminum ring? Have you ever seen one for sale? No? Well, there's your reason.
 
S-Man said:
Are you sure? Because as long as it's aluminum, it should polish. There may be some sort of coating on it but if you sand this off with some fine-grit sandpaper, say 320 grit or 400 grit, then polish it with progressively finer polishes, it should work.
Like I said, it would be a tremendous amount of work which would probably require dis-assembly, but I'm fairly sure it could be done...
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I've used a beauty / cosmetic nail filing kit on my 2006 17"MBP here and there, to highlight certain parts - tough work but it is possible to do, it takes that matte/textured layer off and reveals a blade reflective shine like polished silver. I'm a very experimental/adventurous girl. ^_^

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ariethekid said:
Here you go!

Image

Image

Image

Image
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This girl here LOVES you and your awesome HAWT mod wow! Do mine do mine please?! How much?! Love this so much. Yeah individuality !!!

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TommyP. said:
Thanks guys. I like it, and i guess thats all that matters. But yes the sides weren't done at the time of the pictures. I got eager because it looked so good, i just had to show someone. And im going to leave the keyboard section of the computer as it is. The finishing polish brings it to a mirror finish though. Im not positive, but i dont believe this will be the last thing i do to my computer.
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Keep up the awesome work !!! This girl approves big time (hearts).
 
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This girl here LOVES you and your awesome HAWT mod wow! Do mine do mine please?! How much?! Love this so much. Yeah individuality !!!

Thank you. I haven't thought about charging people to do it. It's a lot of work. If I could come up with a fast way to do it that will last a while I may start doing it for people. I'm going to buy an orbital sander today and try it out on my other macbook and find a good sealant for the polishing part so it doesn't oxidize. What do you think would be a fair price to do the whole computer?
 
You could easily charge 170-230$ to get this done . Color mate does it for people's Beats by Dre headphones
 
i wish color ware wasn't so expensive, or else id love to send my stuff in. I get new stuff too often to justify dropping 500 to get my laptop done.
 
duervo said:
Holy crap, that looks like a lot of work. I wouldn't have the patience.

Don't forget to polish those screws, too! Don't want them looking all drab next to that polish! Would look neat if you could get them dyed the same color as that pink keyboard backlight.
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The keyboard looks red to me.. Also, polishing tiny steel screws is much harder than polishing large aluminum panels. The screws look fine as is, IMO. I'd be worried about scratches. Maybe get some sort of a clear coat on it? Or maybe a clear skin?
 
duervo said:
Holy crap, that looks like a lot of work. I wouldn't have the patience.

Don't forget to polish those screws, too! Don't want them looking all drab next to that polish! Would look neat if you could get them dyed the same color as that pink keyboard backlight.
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No Need. It looks fine without the polish, since it's on the bottom. I also added another sheet of red to make the keyboard backlight light look more red.
 
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