New Altair 8800 Tops!

[glitch]

Look what showed up on my dock today!



It's all of the missing Altair 8800 tops!



Installed on a customer's Altair 8800B, which has never had a top since he owned it:



Closeup:



The paint is actually textured powdercoat, which very closely matches the texture of the spatter coat paint used on the original. We paid to have a custom color match done, and checked sample coupons against a number of MITS cases and Optima instrument cases to ensure it was right (and that the sample sent in wasn't sun faded!). Dimensions were taken from one of my original tops. And, even though I've been assured it's not possible -- especially for a good price -- these are MADE IN THE USA!

 

[deramp5113]

Looks great! Do these have the hem fold in the back like the original? What did you decide to do about notches for the fan screws? If you worked from an 8800b original, I assume you put notches in for those screws?

Mike

 

[charnitz]

Very impressive. What are these made out of?

 

[glitch]

Looks great! Do these have the hem fold in the back like the original? What did you decide to do about notches for the fan screws? If you worked from an 8800b original, I assume you put notches in for those screws?

Yep, these have the reinforcing fold! I did have the notches for the fan screws put in, since I hate how it looks if you have to add a fan to a case that doesn't have them, and I don't like having to countersink an original backplate that's not already countersunk for flathead screws.. I believe the top we used was from a transitional 8800A which did have them.

Very impressive. What are these made out of?

Thanks! It's 5051 aluminum.

 

[glitch]

Now available on Tindie: https://www.tindie.com/products/23219/

 

[dfnr2]

Looks fantastic.

 

[Hugo Holden]

Lovely work !