Hey GBFan forum! Back again after a little break.
Things have been going well and my “finished” pack has held up nice! I began my pack build a little over a year ago and gave it all the bells and whistles I could afford. After joining a local franchise here in Massachusetts my pack has stood out and is known among our group as the one that needs to get dinged up. (HAHA)
As I approach 2016 I’m ready to do one last cosmetic upgrade to the “Assembly Line” pack: the ion arm. The ion arm was the first piece of the pack I worked on. This being my first build, ever, I bought most of my parts from eBay, GBFans and great sellers here on the forum. My current ion arm is made from a solid block of shaped resin and I’d like to upgrade to an aluminum one.
I’ve already researched a couple sellers and found some pieces at a great price. Like my pack build I’ll document this upgrade. It will likely be a light build but hopefully it will help anyone switching out parts.
For new people who are not familiar with my build: http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=38499
When I first built my pack a year ago I started with some low cost parts. My ion arm and attachment were made from a solid block of resin and other materials. I found then on eBay.
Over time I wanted more accurate parts and now with the build complete I feel I can go back and rework some areas.
So I went ahead and order a new ion arm attachment made from real aluminum. It’s a GB1 style. My pack is more of a GB2 but I prefer the GB1 ion arm better.
After my new aluminum ion arm arrives I plan to replace the resin one with it.
From there I am going to rework the internal cyclotron setup. I’ve always liked the idea of just lifting off my shell to get to the intervals. Currently my cyclotron lenses are glued to the shell and the LEDS are hot glued to them. This has never really sat well with me and I’m going to take my rework from Phil & Grimmy.
FYI, the “GB1 style” Ion Arm is still accurate for a GB2 pack, as both the Stantz and Spengler Hero packs had the square Clippard fitting on the cap in their GB2 configuration. 
This is my back in early February when the basic overall look was set.
One thing I’ve always enjoyed about the proton pack (in general) is the balance of certain colors.
After I had placed all the parts and got my pack put together I couldn’t help but noticed the dominance of black. Looking at it today I want to take away some of the black in certain areas.
The two way I realized how easily I could do this was by:
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Keeping the ion arm attachment aluminum.
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Getting a grey crank knob*
- Since I can’t find a crank knob I decided to paint my current one (by Wiz-0084) grey.
Right now it’s simply primed so tomorrow I hope to find a lighter shade of grey other than satin grey.
Wiz-0084’s crank knob takes to paint very well. It’s a real shame he’s retired.
Paint I used was Rust-O-leum 2x brand gray primer then satin gray since I couldn’t find “stone gray”
New goodies arrived!
Thanks to CPU64 for the great lumpy ion arm! 
This is my first aluminum replacement and I am just shocked how light this is.
Last night fitted the ion arm to my pack. 
Yesterday I dry fitted all my parts to the ion arm and hit it with some satin canyon black paint. I’m not sure how many coats I want to give it but at least two.
It’s suggested that when painting aluminum not to prime. Once dry for about 12 hours I fitting the parts back on to ensure everything was good. It was. Then I go back and touch up a few spots with a light coat.
One think I’m trying to figure out is how to get the aluminum part of the ion arm attachment to look weathered.
The day after Christmas and I’m back at reworking the innards of my pack. After about a week of rest I realized I was over-thinking the process like I tend to do.
On my biggest struggles was figuring out how to out the cyclotron lenses. After a day of working a two-shelf system I noticed if I just remount the speaker in a diamond shape it would work better. After I desoldered the speaker wire I placed it on a 4.5" x 4.5" piece of styrene.
From there I marked the speaker mount holes.
Afterwards I mounted it to my mobo and leveled it.
I then placed one of my cyclotron lenses on the styrene and gently places the shell on top. There was enough room for me to move the lens around now that the clear acrylic windows were removed. I centered them as best as I could and marked the holes.
Using my old lenses I super-glued a nylon spacer to the bottom (not pictured) and will drill the four holes with a step drill. I tested this on a spare piece of styrene and it fits snug. This will allow me to have a completely leveled set of lenses.
Wasn’t easy but wasn’t too hard either.
https://vimeo.com/150127778
After a long lazy Sunday with my pack the internals are completed.
Today I received my new aluminum HGA and Nfilter. They are awesome. I dry fitted the HGA and it fits perfectly replacing my old one.
My Nfilter will take a little time to put in. I had to remove the old Nfilter which wasn’t easy but I got it off nice and clean.
I’m sure everyone is wondering why I didn’t cut into the shell when I first build the pack. To be honest it was something I didn’t feel comfortable doing at the time but now I have more experience. I’m following Grimmy’s thread, especially the part about fitting the Nfilter to the shell. It’s a little more messy and time consuming since the pchrisbosh1 shell we have is very durable.
I’m going to let my batteries charge, literally before I continue cutting into my shell.
So the pack is stripped of all hoses, fittings and anything that would get the way.
I decided that since I’ll be fitting the N-Filter next week might as well touch up the shell by filling ugly holes and touching up my paint job. I will say it’s amazing how much of a rush job I felt it did when I started this project over a year ago.
After I wiped down my pack with a wash cloth and some warm water I’m gonna let it dry as pictures. I covered the aluminum labels by joeluna33 because I don’t have any replacements and want to salvage them.
Discovered a bad crack after an event one day. So I filled it with JB steel stick and sanded it with 220 grit paper.
More ugly holes being filled and sanded.
Covered aluminum labels with painters tape.
My apoxie sculpt has finally arrived. Note: when ordering order directly from Aves and not Amazon. Amazon will take some time getting to you since it comes from a 3rd party.
Tonight I plan to bond my aluminum filter to the shell and fix a few spots I over cut. Then after it cures I will repaint and touch up my shell. After that I just await my venting kit before the very last of the electronics come.
Update:
So tonight I attached the new N-Filter onto my shell. You’ll notice I had to fill in the right side more due to my overzealous cuts. Builders take note of my error. Fortunately the Apoxie Sculpt is a great material. Hopefully it will not be too noticeable once it’s repainted.
I ordered a complete venting kit from Jimfin and am very, very excited when it comes. This should be the very last of the electronics upgrades; at first I wasn’t planning on having it vent this soon. But after seeing these things in action by other GB members I had to go all the way. 
Early this morning I cut the lip of the shell off and sanded it down with a Dremel.
This should make it easier to mount the venting unit.
I got up early this morning and hit my shell/N-Filter with some Rustoleum 2X Satin Canyon Black paint. I like this color, it’s a good black, slight gloss but not too much.
My pack has been out and about for a year now and have suffered a few scuffs and scratches. 
Of course no pack will ever be free of these, it helps make it look more worn. But for me there are areas I wanted to touch up before I weather the pack myself.
One of the things I’m looking forward to seeing is how my new N-Filter will look compared to my old N-Filter. There major difference being how it was mounted. My old N-Filter was a Nick-A-Tron cut to the shape of the shell and stuck on with plumbers epoxy putty. The edges always bugged me, I wasn’t going for a fake weld look originally but I was in experienced at that point.
Old N-Filter:
New N-Filter:
oh yeah!
