X61 with a few mods

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megacrazy · #1 Post by **megacrazy** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 12:16 pm

So here's my X61. For some reason I love the size of this laptop so despite a few Macbooks that I have and other laptops I still come back to this.

I bought it pretty much bare bones and added fingerprint reader, SSD, WWAN etc.

Fixed_Rider · #2 Post by **Fixed_Rider** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 12:20 pm

Nice Unit!

#3 Post by **Tasurinchi** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 1:20 pm

I like the sticker on the palmrest! (not so much on the cover lid, but that's just me

)

#4 Post by **dr_st** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:36 pm

megacrazy · #5 Post by **megacrazy** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:43 pm

Tasurinchi wrote:

I like the sticker on the palmrest! (not so much on the cover lid, but that's just me )

Haha come on the tire tread sticker gets no love? I mean...carbon fiber...tire track...cars...stuff..No? Nothing?

Ok how about thinkpads...build tough...tire mark and still works?

Hahaha.

Fixed_Rider · #6 Post by **Fixed_Rider** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 10:08 am

I love the carbon overlays! The tire track isn't bad.
Do you know if one can obtain these without the tire track?
Are these precut or do they come on a sheet?

Thanks

#7 Post by **Tasurinchi** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 12:45 pm

megacrazy wrote:I mean...carbon fiber...tire track...cars...stuff..No? Nothing?

Ha ha...

I like those things, but I find it's too overloaded on the cover lid. But again is my personal taste. I like that you took time to customize your X61

emeraldgirl08 · #8 Post by **emeraldgirl08** » Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:19 pm

Me likes

The tire tracks are a nice touch to your X61. Mix it up!

megacrazy · #9 Post by **megacrazy** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:17 pm

Fixed_Rider wrote:I love the carbon overlays! The tire track isn't bad.
Do you know if one can obtain these without the tire track?
Are these precut or do they come on a sheet?

Thanks

Oh, they are not pre-cut but it's very easy to work with the material. You need a heat gun, sharp knife and some patience.

The tire track is an additional sticker. The carbon fiber material is 3M carbon fiber overlay vinyl. It's pretty popular in the car world....and pretty forgiving to work with.

Here's one place that sells it: http://www.carbonfiberfilm.com/.

However, buy it wherever it's cheapest

.

Fixed_Rider · #10 Post by **Fixed_Rider** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:55 pm

Thanks for the link!

I have to admit it looks like a pro installation!

megacrazy · #11 Post by **megacrazy** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:20 pm

Oh thanks!

It's not hard. The material is very flexible when you heat it up and it hardens when it cools...so it keeps its shape very well. Look up some vids on youtube and you'll be set to go.

Cola · #12 Post by **Cola** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 11:48 pm

Very nice X61 you've got there, and very nice modding!
I've got large sheet of some carbon fiber film that looks like the stuff you got, myself, but I find it very difficult to apply it to anything with a slight curve in it.. Then again, I haven't tried heating it yet. How warm does it get when you use a heat gun?

DaKKS · #13 Post by **DaKKS** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 6:28 am

Cola wrote:How warm does it get when you use a heat gun?

Warm enough to melt the palm rest, as i learned not too long ago...

megacrazy · #14 Post by **megacrazy** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:35 am

DaKKS wrote:Warm enough to melt the palm rest, as i learned not too long ago...

Haha. Well don't go crazy with the heat gun. You could also use a hairdryer just to be safe. I removed all electronic parts before I did it...which is probably advisable. Here's what I have learned:

- It's probably a good idea to remove the top cover and wrap it separately. You have to remove it to cut around the edges anyway.
- It's probably a good idea to remove the fingerprint reader before you heat up the palm rest. They seem to be sensitive to high temperatures.

Fixed_Rider · #15 Post by **Fixed_Rider** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:43 am

Thank you for the tips!

How did you wrap the lid corners so well? Does the heated material stretch enough or did you do relief cuts and remove material?
From all the videos I watched doing this to laptops none had the extreme hard edge or corner of a ThinkPad lid to deal with.

megacrazy · #16 Post by **megacrazy** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 8:56 am

Fixed_Rider wrote:Thank you for the tips!

How did you wrap the lid corners so well? Does the heated material stretch enough or did you do relief cuts and remove material?
From all the videos I watched doing this to laptops none had the extreme hard edge or corner of a ThinkPad lid to deal with.

Well I expected it to be a pain. Originally I was just going to apply to the top surface, not wrap the whole thing. I did some testing and the material is REAL easy to work with. You heat it up it stretches quite a lot without ripping. So, no, I did not cut anything. I stretched it enough to go on smoothly. Then I cut away any excess on the inside of the cover to make sure the screen bezel went back on smoothly.

Again, make sure you have the 3M material. Others are not nearly as good.

For the palmrest I just took a piece of paper, put it on the palmrest, shaded all the edges with a pencil then overlayed it on top of the vinyl and cut it to size. The holes for the FP reader and the Thinkpad logo I did directly on the palmrest itself. If you have a very sharp blade it won't damage the surface if you don't press too hard.

Hope that helps

DaKKS · #17 Post by **DaKKS** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 10:51 am

megacrazy wrote:
Haha. Well don't go crazy with the heat gun. You could also use a hairdryer just to be safe. I removed all electronic parts before I did it...which is probably advisable. Here's what I have learned:

- It's probably a good idea to remove the top cover and wrap it separately. You have to remove it to cut around the edges anyway.
- It's probably a good idea to remove the fingerprint reader before you heat up the palm rest. They seem to be sensitive to high temperatures.

Wouldnt quite go as far as crazy, but I did use an industry specced heat gun. Which according to the owner, and I quote, "Will burn yer boIIocks off." This wasn't your 30 quid tesco heat gun, mind you.

Also, I was using automotive vinyl wrap, which is slightly thicker and not, I repeat NOT, suitable for computers or any other piece of technology below 500kg...

Thankfully I managed to find a T42 for cheap that had gone one a late night swim in the Mediterranean. So the plastics are all but new now.

megacrazy · #18 Post by **megacrazy** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:30 am

DaKKS wrote:
Wouldnt quite go as far as crazy, but I did use an industry specced heat gun. Which according to the owner, and I quote, "Will burn yer boIIocks off." This wasn't your 30 quid tesco heat gun, mind you.

Also, I was using automotive vinyl wrap, which is slightly thicker and not, I repeat NOT, suitable for computers or any other piece of technology below 500kg...

Thankfully I managed to find a T42 for cheap that had gone one a late night swim in the Mediterranean. So the plastics are all but new now.

Hahaha well you should've probably stopped at "burn yer bollocks off". Glad it all worked out in the end.

If anyone else wraps in CF or other vinyl post it up. I wanna see!

Nprod · #19 Post by **Nprod** » Fri Oct 26, 2012 10:54 am

Heey, that's quite fancy. It's certainly a good way to beautify a scratched up lid cover

X61 with a few mods

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