M14x R1 - Refurbish Project

I picked up a pretty good deal on Gumtree yesterday for an M14x R1 - $250AUD (i7 2760QM, SSD plus DVD drive caddy, working battery, adapter and even a decent mouse). The palmrest had been covered in cloth and was stuck to the old soft-touch material. The seller said the palmrest material had degraded over the years and it had gone really sticky so he put the cloth down on top. Never seen anything like it.
Last night, with a few glasses of red in me, I decided to rip off the cloth, remove the old sticky soft-touch and get back to bare plastic. He previously had stickers on the soft-touch lid and I tried to clean off the residue but it still left the lid sticky so I decided to remove the old soft-touch from the lid as well.

Once it's all gone I'll do a fresh respray once I decide what colour to go with.

I thought I'd film what I was doing last night so my hope is to document the process from start to finish.

Interesting note, I had always thought the soft-touch was a black material but it's more like some sort of clear resin. It comes off like glue, with a bit of help from Solvit Citrus Clean spray.

 

Palmrest with the soft-touch removed.




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Here is the lid with the soft-touch removed. If it was polished up it would be a nice metallic black



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My brand new M14xR2 palm rest is already becoming sticky after less than a year. It's still good and doesn't cause issues but idk why this is an issue on the m14x series and not on m17x and m18x

 

Yeah that’s weird. My M18x is still perfect after 8 years.


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Prepped and ready for priming. Haven’t decided on a base colour though




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Primed. Need to let it set for 24 hours and then lightly sand before the base coat




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I’m an idiot and forgot to prep and prime the main frame.
I went and got some Brilliant Red auto spray but I’m thinking an orange would be better.






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I think either color will look good.

 

I'll do this one red and I'll do orange on one of my Rangers.

Seeing MrFox's pearl orange/yellow M18x all those years ago is what initially inspired me to start paint modding laptops. At the time I thought there was no chance of me trying anything like that. It took a few years to finally give it a shot.

 

I'd love a custom painted M17xR4 but too bad shipping would cost so much

 

Yeah, probably not worth it. I have a spare lid and frame for an R4 so I may give it a shot. I'm keen to do a flat orange/black combo soon.

 

When spray painting doesn’t go to plan.......




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The lid is looking great though.




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What happen?

 

Not sure, maybe I sprayed it too thick. It wrinkled instantly, it was actually kind of cool. Kind of like a science experiment.

I had to strip the paint and primer off and start again. I’ve put extra layers of primer this time and I’ll put the base coat on in light layers.


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I'm wondering if I try red on the palmrest again or keep it black (or even white....)

 

It’s starting to come together. The lid and the frame are completely done. I decided to switch to a satin black on the palmrest after my earlier setback. It will need a satin clear coat in a few days and then reassembly can begin.






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Palmrest is still a few days away but the rest is all back together




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All done. It’s always good when it boots after being in a hundred pieces.







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Wow so nice. I should practice on my old M14x palm rest i have laying around lol

 

Thanks man, it turned out pretty well. I just need to take some decent light to see how the paint pops.

 

Hi there, guys, just wanted to pop in with a question, could anyone provide me with a model number on M14x R2 display model with 1600x900? I got a very decent state but very scrapped M14x R2 for around 20$ with no screen, but with i5-3230 CPU and most cables and I've got a vision of bringing it back to former glory. Screen is stage one.
@Maxware79 , fantastic job as always, I am constantly envious of your results

 

THP6D 36NXH

Assembly.

 

Thanks, but let me rephrase that, screen model, the assembly is ok, all I meet is a screen, LTN? BN? Which one would you guys recommend?

 

A few final pics








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