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Namco Exceleena Restoration

Ziggy Cheetos Dust

Ziggy Cheetos Dust

Grand Master
Joined
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Australia
This is one of two I own. I overpaid for it originally as I was given less that honest information from the seller. I did have it up for sale but there were no takers as most wouldn’t be interested in spending the time and money to get it going. But no regrets. I’m going to use it as a learning experience and bring it back to its former glory. The main issues are surface rust in the base and control panel tray, wiring hacks galore, a jury-rigged TV tube/Weiya chassis, cold gal spray paint on wiring and random areas, a few dings and no marquee holder.
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The first step is strip the entire machine. I will then do some initial prep myself by removing some rust and trying to clean up a few deeper dings and scratches. The powdercoat guys only go so far as they’re mostly restoring wrought iron garden chairs and the like and don’t go for the perfection I would.
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I’m keeping a log of what I’ve done as I go - including placing groups of nuts and bolts in little bags with a description of where they came from. Because I have another Exceleena I also have the luxury of referencing it when I put it all back together. I think the most intimidating part for me will be getting the mains wiring right. I want it to be close to original but have accepted there’ll be some compromises. These things also have little credit boards in them that operators seemed to disconnect and use LAI ones instead.
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So I’ve stripped the cabinet completely and removed the control panel. I sprayed a bit of vinegar on some rusty parts just to see if it helped at all. I also am soaking some parts in a vinegar tub. I got the wire brush attachment for the drill and started getting some of the gnarly rust off. As I mentioned - the better I prep some surfaces the better the powdercoat will be. I layed out all the pieces for a visual reminder of what the machine consists of. I’ve also got a couple of spares including a marquee holder and pcb board guide from @nidulans which is great. I’ll get the marquee holder reproduced down the track after I powdercoat this one.
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I also tried the blowtorch on the CP. The last one I did of these was so difficult to get the glue residue off I thought I try and burn it off. It’s more crispy than sticky now so I might be able to sand it off, or perhaps bathe it in some sort of stripper?
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No idea if they sell it out there, but I've used aircraft remover (stripper) to remove control panel adhesive in the past. Just spray it on, walk away, come back in an hour or two. Everything flakes right off. Wear gloves and be careful with overspray, that stuff can mess you up.

It's no longer available in a lot of places because of changes in environmental law.
 
I would skip straight to naval jelly and avoid vinegar. Vinegar will give you flash rust after bathing while naval jelly will not. Not sure where the vinegar trend came from but seen too many people recommend here and it is a poor solution for rust.
 
JohnRambo'sKnife said:
I would skip straight to naval jelly and avoid vinegar. Vinegar will give you flash rust after bathing while naval jelly will not. Not sure where the vinegar trend came from but seen too many people recommend here and it is a poor solution for rust.
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I tend to agree. I saw the flash rust you mentioned. You have to keep on chasing it. You can wipe it off and it comes back again.
 
kazuo said:
No idea if they sell it out there, but I've used aircraft remover (stripper) to remove control panel adhesive in the past. Just spray it on, walk away, come back in an hour or two. Everything flakes right off. Wear gloves and be careful with overspray, that stuff can mess you up.

It's no longer available in a lot of places because of changes in environmental law.
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Thanks, I’ll look it up.
 
A few more hours done this weekend. The parts are all ready for powder coating. I spent a fair bit of time and attention to putting sacrificial screws in all the threaded holes and nuts on all the threaded studs to protect them from the powdercoat. I’ll start examining the wiring harness next and try and wire in a new quality Jamma connector. There will be some visible dings and marks through the powdercoat no doubt but I’m mainly concerned about just having no corrosion left. I considered removing the bottom of the cabinet but some of the rivets were in a spot that I couldn’t simply replace with screws.
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FWIW, i wouldn't bother saving that power supply. They're a straight up fire hazard
at one point I had 5, 3 of which had visible fire/arcing damage from past failures.

My solution was an NVS-4000 power supply and a Versus city harness.

Also when you're done powder coating, i found that using heat shrink tubing on the little wire tie down bits is a pretty solid replacement
 
Do you mean you replaced this whole board @bartre? NVS-4000s aren’t easy to come by around here. Domestically anyway. My other Exceleena has been okay but I’m happy to hear more about what you did to your machine. Thanks for the tip on the wire ties. I wasn’t sure whether they’d survive the blasting and powdercoat process. I wonder what the original process was. It reminds me of a kind of soft powder coating I did in metalwork class in high school.
 
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What have I got here? Mains power in, various cabinet power out and the speaker amp and speakers out? I haven’t had a good look at the wiring diagram yet.
 
Yeah I just dumpstered several of the original PSUs, kept the two that didn't catch fire in case I ever want to go back or if I sell them and the buyer wants original.
Tapped screw holes into the base for mounting, then crimped my own adapters/extensions to make the really nice VS city harness work nice.
The harness part # is 600-7143-002

I sourced both the NVS and harness from yahoo Japan, harness was like $30, NVS was like $65
Then shipping of course, which was like $100 cuz these blocks are beefy
 

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bartre said:
that power supply. They're a straight up fire hazard
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Can confirm. Design looks very beautiful, and it’s 100% custom by Namco, but for whatever reason they are all beaten to hell. Those big resistors get really hot and either burn the board or desolder themselves.

If you do choose to restore the power supply some notes/bom here might help,
Post in thread 'Namco Exceleena 1 + 2 cabinets.'
 
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