hey guys, looking for some help stripping a Mac Pro case.

long story short, i came into a free case. problem is, it's slightly damaged. it looks like it's been dropped, bending the rear foot and causing the outside case to come away from the inside cage. not a problem i thought, i'll simply strip the case, re-mount the countersunk mounting points, which i luckily have, and screw it back together. wrong... i got as far as the last two screws hiding behind the optical drive shutters.

being the impatient sod i am, i decided not to post here first, but skip straight to gluing the outside case to the inside cage with some Araldite, reading that it's "as good as a weld". i left it for nearly 24 hours with a clamp on it. when i took it off all seemed good. i attached the side door and marvelled at my god like DIY skills. until i unlocked the door and the join broke.

which brings me back to what i should have done in the first place. if anyone knows how i can remove the optical drive shutters, i'd greatly appreciate it.

I have the same problem, tried with epoxy glue and contact glue (neoprene)
Would be interested in a way of doing.
Totally disassembling the two components (to try and bend it back) is risky and a lot of work...

have you managed to disassemble it tho?

I did not picture a step by step procedure to disassemble a Mac Pro, sorry for that, should think it would help others. But if you check the pictures in my reply 29, here, you will see that around the inner case there a lot holes, through those you screw the outer part with the inner one. If you look at your case inside you wil see the big round screws which are use for.
There is a step by step for a G5 case inside one thread; I have to look for it. The difference with the Mac Pro is that the panel which support the dual optical drives and the Power Supply Unit is also screwed to the outer panel.

Here,CZ*DarkLight is showing the steps to dismantle the opening door system for the G5 case. It will be nearly the same for the Mac Pro. The difficulty is that you do not see very well the three "small black flexible metal laminas" used for the locking mechanism. And the Mac Pro upper plate is more difficult to take out than the G5 top floor.

thanks for the links, but i'm still a little stuck. i've unscrewed everything apart from the two screws that are hiding behind the far right side of the optical drive covers. i've unscrewed the screw that holds the cover on the left side (nearest the door as looked at from behind) but the drive bay covers seem fixed somewhere else, somewhere i can't see. if i can get the drive door mechanism out, i can access the last two screws.

Hi Grumptink I got as far as you and coud not take out compleltely the drive door cover on the far right side. But for the hidden screws, I usually use the removable heads of screws driver without the hand holder when the acces space is very small . And if you separate the inner case from the outer case first, then it is easier to unscrew those screws.
When I start to be interessted in the use of a G5 case for a hackintosh, I found a full dismantled description with pix , but I have looked for it yesterday without succes. Still looking for it.

Grumptink, I found back a discussion where you can read extra infos.

sorry baudouin, been busy with work. thanks for your help, i'm reading you link as we speak

Tell me when you succeed and I'll be happy.

Any updates on this?

I need to take the back piece out. Suggestions?

Jedric, do you mean the back panel with in/out and PCI connectors ? completely out or a piece of?

Baudouin the whole back piece, but I looked at it again and look like its whole piece forming an L shape to the bottom, same as the front and top.

On top of that the back piece looks to be welded to the frame that holds the power supply.

Hmmm now I'm think I might just sell it. The case is in perfect condition no scuff and all that, thats why it might be hard to let go, the only thing is lock piece in the back was cut off which I was hoping to fix, but I have no time right now.

you got it right, the inner cage is made of two L form, the back and the bottom is one and the front plus the upper plate is the second. Could you upload some pix of your case from diff views ?

just to let you know folks, i've given up. i can't for the life of me access the last two screws. i might Araldite it again, but this time leave it for a week or so with a heavy weight on top of it.