Thursday, June 26, 2008

Xbox 360 enclosure freshly fiberglassed gets pulled from the dash

Imagine this enclosure is in the dash at this moment. You can see how curvy the fiberglass is when we use stretch cloth to form it first. The mushroomed edges are intentional as they overlap the dash at this time. They make sure that everytime I set it back into the dash that it sits securely without screwing it down. Screwing it in and them unscrewing it over and over through the finishing of this peice would be such a pain. Also since I don't care about the edges with the excess there , if the sander chips and edge it it doesn't matter as I will trim is before installation anyway.


This view from the back really tells all. The cloth is affixed to the frame ans stretched to edges. However now I need to apply resin and a layer of fiberglass matt to the backing. This will reinforce the enclosures shape so that it does not warp from heat or crack from pressure of sanding the opposite side to make it pretty :) PS: Anytime somthing is made of fiberglass, if it only has one layer of fiberglass matt it will warp and flex with heat. Fiberglass gets stregth from multiple layer supporting each other and bonden with resin.
Taken in mind we need at least two layer of fiberglass matt I will test fit the enclosure tonight to make sure fitment is still good and add another supporting layer. This will mean the finished piece will have 2 layers backing the enclosure. I did add one layer to the inside, but much if not all of that layer will be removed from sanding.


This is the bottom of the enclosure and Xbox 360. All the wires and even the fans exhuast downward. This all faces the floor board and makes wiring fairely simple as it could look like a complete rats nest and noone would know. So for now this works very well. We already have a water cooling kit so that it can operate without issues in summer temperatures. The 360 water cooling kit is from Thermaltake, but we may use an Koolance unit instead. The hoses would come out the area where the fans are now, so there are no need for extra holes or changes to the enclosure in the future.



Here is a broken 360 I have at the house that I slid inside the enclosure standing up to show a view from what would be the passneger area. This is just a substitute 360 and not the one shown in previous posts with the drive window and other mods. It is being powder coated right now and I will have it back this weekend I believe.





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