I would advise you post some pictures of the trouble areas to get more precise advise on how best to fix the case. Good luck!

Yeah pictures are always nice.

Here it is... what this poor machine must have seen Oo

The eletronical parts are 100% working, by the way. It took me most of my evening to clean it up (it looked like it was never cleaned before, SO MUCH DUST!), but the metal frame is in perfect condition. The white chassis is somewhat beat, but I guess I could just paint it.

Gorilla Glue is an amazing product. Just be sure that you are very precise with the application, DO NOT get it on you, and have how it is going to be glued together mocked up before hand.

I'd use some epoxy. Just use some Elmer's, it'll cure white and its really strong stuff. Sand down the excess and you can do a paint job if you like. This is what I did with my Dell dimension xps. The corner near the CDROM was broken through.

Part number is 243088-001 if you want to get a replacement. Its a hard decision as its purely cosmetic. If it was me I would attempt to repair the one you already have but keep an eye out for a replacement going cheap

Epoxy is the way to go. It's a bit trickier to apply than super glue, but produces better results. The trick with epoxy base glues is to use as little as possible.

ODwilly wrote:

Gorilla Glue is an amazing product. Just be sure that you are very precise with the application, DO NOT get it on you, and have how it is going to be glued together mocked up before hand.

+1 - have used it many times. But yeah, do not get it on your skin or you will need skin grafts.

Artex wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Gorilla Glue is an amazing product. Just be sure that you are very precise with the application, DO NOT get it on you, and have how it is going to be glued together mocked up before hand.

+1 - have used it many times. But yeah, do not get it on your skin or you will need skin grafts.

Thanks for the tip.. I also need to repair some AT case front mounting pilars.. I hope this would be super strong stuff.. I think, would use gloves so use that glue.

Any cyanoacrylate-based glue would do 😉

If there's room, us a bit of thin plastic on the back as a patch, rather than trying to glue edge to edge alone.
Cyanoacrylate based (superglue) sticks pretty well to the thin plastic that many things are packed in - used some as a patch. in applying though I used some tissue to press it, and ended up with some bits of tissue glued to my fingers (didn't take too long to wear off)

JB weld worked miracles when the front bezel of my model 95 arrived shattered. It took a few days to tack all the little pieces together and then the two halves were joined, set in a jig and left to set for two more days.

Robin4 wrote:

Artex wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Gorilla Glue is an amazing product. Just be sure that you are very precise with the application, DO NOT get it on you, and have how it is going to be glued together mocked up before hand.

+1 - have used it many times. But yeah, do not get it on your skin or you will need skin grafts.

Thanks for the tip.. I also need to repair some AT case front mounting pilars.. I hope this would be super strong stuff.. I think, would use gloves so use that glue.

That's exactly what I used it for! Worked great.

Well, things seem to be holding together quite well, is there anything I can use to paint over it? Should I polish it with sandpaper beforehand?

Also, the CD drive that came with it isn't the original one, and it's front doesn't quite seem to fit the front cover well, any thoughts?

I might just as well start looking for a replacement... I intend to leave this assembled permanently near my main PC, so I'd rather have it look nice.

Depending on how smooth the bezel surface is, you may just have to rough the surface a bit with a scouring pad. It should paint just fine if you want to go that way.

I work in a collision repair/body shop and to fix non textured trim pieces and the like we use a 3m brand 2 part epoxy called "super fast plastic repair". You can find it on ebay or anywhere else. It's kind of expensive but really does hold up. Here is what you do:

1) Sand BEHIND with a piece of 80 or 120 grit (in a pinch 180 or 220 would probably work but go no higher than 320) to get it the surface kind of crunchy to allow the epoxy to "bite" to it.
2) Clean the area with some isopropyl alcohol, make sure it has evaporated. Clean the spot two or three times with the alcohol to be sure your rag is coming up clean.
3) Get an "acid brush" and a piece of paper/cardboard and mix up the solution. This stuff sets extremely fast, literally 20 seconds.
4) Spread it inside and hold the piece together for a full minute then allow it to cure for an hour.
5) To fix up some small cracks that may appear on the outside surface you could use some 3m flexible plastic repair to inject into the crack (same deal as before sand with 80 or 120 to allow the epoxy to bite to it). And then you can go in steps starting with 180 grit working up to 320 to get it flat.
6) Spray primer over the surface, sand the primer to feather-edge it out.
7) Spray another coat of primer and this time use red (for white plastic) or gray/green (for black plastic) scotch brite to prep the surface.
😎 Paint it!

If you go this route make sure you get some extra "static mixing nozzles" because this plastic stuff setups insanely fast and after 20 seconds they are junk. The scotch brite must be the real stuff, not the kind you get in the grocery store for cleaning your pans that stuff is way too aggressive and may show fine scratches in your paint surface after all the paint fully cures after a few days.

The flexible plastic repair epoxy is meant for bumpers and rubber trim pieces. Obviously it is flexible so it won't just completely crack like most epoxies. You could use any other brand besides 3M, but we use 3M exclusively at the shop I am at so I can't recommend any other brands but as long as it's all stuff rated for collision repair it should be more than overkill for some plastic parts that won't be subject to extreme vibrations like on a car 😀.