This gives me an idea. The black, that is.Just a thought....you could paint it black, and use a matching black keyboard and mouse, and maybe go all-out with an OS skin, to make it look something like the TEMPEST SE in the movie "Watchmen"
I still want to use the Macintosh Plus case, if possible. As I said it's a much better design than the SE case, it's in much better shape than the SE case, and it gives me the kind of look i'd be after in the completed project with that boxy but suave and smooth front bezel. I could save myself a lot of time and just fit the SE rear bucket on to the Plus bezel (after the SE bucket has been repaired that is) but then i'd lose the top vents, which I was pretty keen on having. So I may still have to go the cut, machine, epoxy, fill, sand and paint route.
If I had access to the thermoformer and the perspex sheets, i'd even consider remaking part of the rear bucket in an iMac style, a tinted transparent graphite with portions of the frame chromed, with twin exhaust fans on the back. That would be true hot rod style.
I think a gloss, metallic or matte black finish will be the ideal base for the graphic work to go on to it. I'm not entirely convinced that paint is everything, i've seen some incredible work done with polished aluminium and copper that could really set the project off.
EDIT: I have the SE Analog board and Logic board in the Plus body. I've connected it all to the Plus CRT and it's working as expected. The only issue I can see with running it in this configuration is that the Plus internal frame does not have a hole in it for the SCSI ribbon, so i'll have to swap it over with the frame from the SE. The other issue is that the Plus has its speaker on the analog board, so there's no speaker in this case at the moment, but that couldn't be a simpler issue to resolve.
However there's an upside to using the Plus frame. The drive cage has the floppy drive mounted higher up, with a large gap below it. If I mark out and drill 4 holes in the floppy drive cage, I can mount the hard disk below the drive and still have enough room for some great airflow. It solves the hard disk drive mounting issue that I have with the SE.
That's the first part of my experiments anyway. Good to see I have plenty of options for swapping components as I see fit.