Well, I got the template for the panel slots made. Wishing we had a router or something of the sort to make some decent straight lines with quickly (upposed to drilling 2 3/8" holes per cut and jigsawing between the holes and hoping for a straight cut).
The part around the HDD's (which theorietically should look something half close to darth vador's mask, for a visual idea) will have 12 vertical slots while the area behind the mobo tray will have all 20 horizontal slots of the template cut out.
each slot is 3/8" of an inch wide and 3 inches long.
no telling when the cuts will get made. It'll probably take 2 to 3 hours to get them cut out by jigsaw. Add 30 minutes to do the 6 holes in the mobo tray. I'm hoping to get this done by the end of the school year. All I need is for my dad to have another overnight trip somewhere.
Once the slots are cut, I'll mask over the holes on the ouside and spray more gold from the inside, so the slot edges will be gold. Then put the case back together, and do a final coat of black from the outside to get all the seams ect. Last thing will be to staple all the window screen in half-taunt to keep the computer guts in and other junk out of the case. I'll get the grill guards for the 80's and 120....sometime (painted gold). Still unsure how i'll do the 250's, probably more window screen pulled tight against the frames.
All that's left to buy (in order of importance):
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...roducts_id=738 120 fan grill 1.99
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...roducts_id=742 120 fan grill x 4 1.29 (5.16)
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...roducts_id=363 fan/LED controller 16.95
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813130542 motherboard 48.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819103196 processor 36.00
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=23524 front panel media unit 29.95
Only $139.04. That's almost halfway cheap, for a computer!