Readers Drives - Moto PC 2007

Posted at: Wednesday 31st October 2007

Motorcycles and PCs aren't exactly similar, but this didn't stop Paul Edwards creating a stunning PC based on Yamaha's 50th anniversary YZR-M1 Moto GP.

People close to me know that my passion for everything related to computers, especially modding, is closely matched by my love of fast cars and motorbikes, and for the last ten years or so, come rain or shine, I've been a regular spectator at most of the UK's larger motorcycle meetings. It was at one such event at Donnington Park a couple of years ago that I laid eyes on the 50th anniversary Yamaha YZR-M1 motorcycles, two of which were ridden to podium finishes by Valantino Rossi and Collin Edwards, who won the previous race at Laguna Seca in 2005.

To celebrate 50 years in business, Yamaha decided to create an updated version of the classic livery of yellow, white and black made popular by Kenny Roberts in 1980, which was a massive hit with the general public (myself included). After seeing such a striking-looking bike, it was only a matter of time before I tried to replicate the design in the form of a customised PC case.

My case of choice was a Cooler Master Stacker, as the case needed to be big in order for such bold colours to make an impact. As the PC would ultimately be used as a home server, I needed plenty of room inside too. It also helped that I already had a standard silver Stacker gathering dust under the bench, which made the decision final.

My first port of call was my local Yamaha dealer for the appropriate cans of paint. I discovered that the colours I needed were special order only and pretty expensive to boot but, as I wanted the case to be as authentic as possible, I decided to bite the bullet and order the relevant colours. I then had a friend decant the paint into rattle cans with flared nozzles, rather than the usual cone nozzles, as I've found that these allow you to achieve a much more even coat of paint.

Once the paint was decanted into the appropriate cans, it was on to eBay to buy a couple of Mini Metro GT bonnet vents, which I intended to use to replicate the vents on the faring of the Yamaha M1 bike, and also a Yamaha petrol filler cap (more on this later).

The vents needed a bit of subtle remodelling with a Dremel in order to remove the inner grille sections; once this was taken care of, they could be stuck directly onto each side panel of the case. This was followed by copious amounts of car filler to blend and smooth them to give the impression they were moulded into the panel. I then wet-sanded the panels and top of the case with 1,000-grit sandpaper to smooth off the standard anodised finish and key the surface ready for priming.

I managed to get hold of some filler-primer, which does exactly what it says on the tin (fills gaps and primes the surface ready for painting). A couple of coats of this helped to conceal any small imperfections in the surface. I followed this with wet-sanding using 2,000-grit sandpaper, after which the case was ready for the first coat of colour.

Four coats of yellow later and it was time to start work on the details, such as the stripe of white-outlined black parallelograms that zip along the body of the M1 bike. However, I also wanted this design to be applied to the side-panel window, which required some fairly complex design work. First, I temporarily fitted a clear plexiglass window and carefully laid out the stripe design across the entire panel, including the window. I then removed the window and used the outline I'd applied to the temporary window to duplicate the design on the reverse side of the original side-panel window. This time, I simply painted the outline of the parallelogram stripe design white, but made up the black blocks (and also blacked out the rest of the window) using automotive window-tinting film. This gives the impression that the parallelogram design runs across the entire side panel, yet still allows the window to provide a view inside the PC.