S96J Cosmetic Tweaks

Thought I would share with you fellows a few tweaks I did to the s96J.
I purchased a piece of carbon fiber that I had the shop cut to the panel specifications. Unfortunately, the carbon fiber was not cut exactly right, and the panel was too big by about 1/16". I ended up cutting this bit off, but the job I did was no where as good as the original piece.
I also applied some static cling sheets to the palm rests and removed the various stickers that were applied. My hope is that this will prolong the life
of the laptop.

Enjoy!

 

Wow... the carbon fiber part on the lid looks pretty cool
Props for the good work

 

Wow great job, I bought a "vinyl" sticker or schticker as they say from schticker.com, looks awefull I had alot of bubbles forming I bought 2 going to try to apply the other one and see if I can get it to schtick (as in stick) without any bubbles. But that carbon fiber lid looks way cooler and if you can get your hands on a Asus sticker and place it over it would look even cooler. Does the shop you bought it from have a website I can order from or something? but I'm starting to doubt if I can do the same with the Z96J since there is a slight bump in the middle that has the powerpro logo.

 

Is it possible to purchase an ASUS logo for the little slot under the screen? (In pic where the POWERPRO logo is). That carbon fiber looks really smooth looking. How much was it?

 

Carbon fiber (the real stuff) is a little bit more pricey. The sheet itself is about 22 bucks, 10 dollar cutting fee, and about 3 bucks for adhesive + shipping.

The shop i bought it from is robotmarketplace.com . They do have a form you can order custom cut sheets of carbon fiber. You will also want the .015" thick sheets. The thicker ones will not sit flush with the lid. Just be forwarned that they can be off by just enough with the cutting that you'll have to do some of the cutting yourself...

 

man, that looks awesome, i think im gonna try it out. what adhesive did you use to apply it?

 

Do you know if the thinkness is good for the Z96J as well (taking into account the little bump in the middle)?

 

All you need is a big fat TYPE R sticker and you're good to go!!!

From the pictures it looked like you applied everything very well.

 

When you apply the vinyl use some soapy water in a spray bottle. Apply the soapy water to the surface then put the vinyl over it. Squeeze out the bubbles and let it sit for a few days while drying. Dont press hard enough to amage the lcd beneath

 

Yukon,
Can't you remove the powerpro sticker? That's what I did. In the last picture, you can see where I removed the sticker too. I don't know about the dimensions of the z96j, is it any different from the s96j? If it is the same as the s96j, you can always find all the specifications on intel's vbi website.

nerj,
i used whatever permanent adhesive the robotmarketplace.com . I did do some research on the adhesive they were using and from what I recall, it does match the adhesive recommended by intel. Don't guarantee that though, and too lazy look up.

 

Nice one, looks good, I am thinking the my palmrest will look good finnished in carbon fiber ha ha.

Anyway a few questions, the carbon fiber is it a flat coated finish or is the cloth exposed? (when you run your finger over it, is it flat or textured?) can you take a photo looking accross it or looking closely at the fiber? can you cut it with a craft knife?

Cheers

 

Where did you get the carbon fiber and how did you put it on the lid?

Also, can you please give me a little more detail on the palmrests mod?

Thankyou!

 

So are you telling us that the soapy water doesnt interfear with the adhesive??

 

Carbon fiber is glossy. Adhesive is on the rough side of the carbon fiber. For closeups on the carbon fiber click on the link here...
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=207752111&size=o
The robotmarketplace.com has a pretty good faq on how you may work with the carbon fiber. As for me, I did my cutting with a nail clipper (of all things!) to round the corners and a big heavy style paper cutter. Recall that I bought the thinnest possible carbon fiber that they sold. The difficulty in working with the material will increase as the thickness of the material increases.

 

um............... i still dont get what adhesive you got?? did you get it from robotmarketplace?? or did they provide it with the fiber??

 

The adhesive is an option that is given to the carbon fiber that robotmarketplace sells. I highly recommend that you browse through their website as they do give quite a bit of useful information (including the datasheets on the exact type of adhesives used).

Oh, I know I have mentioned robotmarketplace on a few occasions. Just to be safe, I am not associated with them. They were the first company that came up in my google search and the one I chose to do business with.

 

Where did you get the film for the palmrests from and what exactly is it like? I can barely see it in the pictures, all i can see is a small line above the touchpad where I'm assuming the cover ends.

 

I am sure if you put masking tape over the keyboard and touchpad, you could stick a whole sheet over the palmrest and after it is applied you could cut out the keyboard and touchpad, bit of a waste but at least then you wouldnt have a line where it ended, you could continue the sheet untill you hit natural joins in the chassis. that would look good.

 

Yes upon re-examing the lid I noticed that I can remove the powerpro sticker I will check out the website you mentioned. Looks like I will order one for myself.

 

Thanks for the tip, just one question as other people have asked won't the soap water have any effect on the adhesive?

 

Nope. That's a trick used in applying graphics to dirtbikes to prevent bubbles. Gives you some room for error. Works great.

 

Film i used for the palm rests are nothing special; they are some ultra static cling typically used on laser printers for printing out stickers. It is not completely clear and there is certain roughness in the appearance. However, they are removable and this is why I chose to use them. Source for palm wrests is at papilio.com .

 

So are you telling us that is is only held on by static, no adhesive used at all?

thats great if you need to replace it.

 

hey skchow, sorry for bugging about the same question, but isnt the adhesive only an option if you purchase those standard size fiber? i cant seem to ifnd it as an option for custom size ones.

 

Not quite. I *believe* there is a bit of adhesive, but it is removable. There was no residue when I tested it.

http://www.papilio.com/hewlett packard clear ultra cling adhesive poly film.html

is the exact type of film I used.

 

anyone else did this mod? I'm thinking about applying the carbon fiber to the palm rest as well, will it stick out too much and scratch the LCD?

 

sorry, but carbon fiber makes it look like a floor mat

 

As long as you go all the way to the edge, you should be fine the screen bevel (surround) will sit on the carbon fiber, the only thing is I do not know how tha would impact onthe look of the W3J with the lid closed.