Blast City and Astro City Resto Thread

[Ioncannon]

Finally moved into my own house and have the room for arcade machines! I bought three machines from KC that are in need of restoration: Two Blast Cities for my Naomis (and other JVS stuff) and an New Astro City for JAMMA boards.

Here are the machines

I asked KC if the BCs contained a JAMMA or JVS harness and he said JAMMA, but to my surprised they both were JVS ready!

None of them have their kick buttons, though the BCs have the necessary AMP wires ready. The BC fans are grinding so most likely will need replacing. I plan to give these a nice restoration to almost like new status!

Some more pics

The Astro City has some convergence, colour, and wavy issues so most likely the chassis needs a recap.

Inside one of the Blast City machines. Dirty and the crt control panel was just lying on the bottom. 001 harness though!

Ugly yen sticker.

 

[Ioncannon]

(This is the stuff I have done over the last week before posting)

I began to mainly work on the left Blast City as it was the better conditioned of the two. Off the bat I realized that one of the BCs were missing their door. I have messaged KC about it and he said he'll try and get a replacement. For now I have kept the plastic wrap around the bottom because my cats keep trying to hide inside (and potentially eat at the wires). The other doors are held by tape until I can find locks.

The first thing I did was give both the BC and New Astro City a nice vacuum. The BC was pretty clean but the shit I found in the NAC. Yen coins? Cool JP stuff? Random game boards? Nope.... just broken buttons, a cigarette butt, and the husk of the largest spider I had ever seen. Ew.

I tested the BC and it works fine with my Naomi EXCEPT for a strange power loss that happens. The monitor will flicker/shut off for a second though the game board would stay on normally. I cannot at the moment recall but it may have effected the marquee tube too. Any guess on what might be going on? PSU recap is planned.

Messy in here.

Random assortment of buttons. The red joystick's shaft was... peeling barf wood??? It was nasty.

The CPO is toast. I pulled off the cable ties and will add new double sided tape to them for reuse. Will get a reproduction one.

It is rusted through the metal and into the sticker.

Cleaned with Simple Green. Best thing was finding out the 100 yen sticker was intact underneath the crappy one. Goo Gone was awesome. Still having trouble with the rust stains though and some yellow spotting. Any suggestions?

 

[Ioncannon]

Next I started cleaning the brown gunk behind the control panel. I assume it's a mix of cola and salary man smoke.

Like new! Simple Green is a godsend.

I also cleaned up the top marquee interior, FL assembly, and the surrounding area. The clear plastic panel on the right BC was screwed in with the wrong screw and on top of that totally stripped. Luckily I was able to get the screw out by rocking my screwdriver back and forth until the JIS notches had some grip.

Meanwhile I was also trying to debug a sound issue with my KI2 board on the NAC. When I bought it a year ago the seller said the sound was not working. However it seems he didn't know about the -5v line or didn't notice that it was working, but not amplified. I first checked the voltages on the NAC's PSU. +5v and +12v looked good but -5v was showing up as -4v. A recap was in order.

Washing the NAC PSU case and the clear plastic. This is actually the second wash it was a lot more yellow.

Like new!

The PSU was also cleaned, and then recapped.

The end result? Well sound didn't come back but -5v was showing -5v so I still consider it a success. In the meantime I have purchased a used BC marquee to put in the top panel, two I/O boards, and new buttons/sticks.

 

[Ioncannon]

New 5575 locks arrived. Probably need to look into refinishing them but at least I can finally get rid of the duct tape!

 

[amstrick]

Enjoying your progress, looking good!

 

[Ioncannon]

Well fuck. The I/O Board also arrived today. I hooked it up, confirmed it booted, and shut the machine down. When I turned it back on..... no video. Nooooo. I hope the tube didn't die.

I did confirm the other machine works but it has a rainbow color effect across the monitor.

Edit: Did a quick inspection....

- I don't see any arcs in the neck.
- No high pitch whine, I assume that means HV is missing.
- Heater (I assume the orange glow) is active.

I see two fuses on the board.... blown fuse? Will need to take the crt out to get a better look at it.

 

[BlinG]

Does the screen get static when you turn it on? Neck glow on the tube?

I highly doubt the chassis has had any type of maintenance done to it, so you're probably gonna have to pull it and service it.

 

[GeeDee]

Just as a heads up: You're doing yourself an immense disservice if you don't pick up some krud kutter! All the nasty yellowing spots that the simple green won't make a dent in absolutely disappears with a little bit of krud cutter; sans for something like the NAC speaker shroud. Those are always a repaint or bust kinda situation.

 

[Ioncannon]

Does the screen get static when you turn it on? Neck glow on the tube?

I highly doubt the chassis has had any type of maintenance done to it, so you're probably gonna have to pull it and service it.

Mentioned above, it does indeed have the orange glow (I assume that's the heater). No static on the surface other than the crackling that you get when CRTs first turn on.

I hope it ends up being a cap issue. The flyback looks pretty clean but from photos it seems the "goop" is usually on the other side of the transformer.

 

[Ioncannon]

Well after seeing this post of what a necked tube looks like: https://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?p=511870

I am quite relieved. Nothing like that, just silence and an orange glow from the back.

This was the monitor before it stopped working:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfLdZWzhqR4

This is turning it on after it stopped working:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdFREJfoON8

Just as a heads up: You're doing yourself an immense disservice if you don't pick up some krud kutter! All the nasty yellowing spots that the simple green won't make a dent in absolutely disappears with a little bit of krud cutter; sans for something like the NAC speaker shroud. Those are always a repaint or bust kinda situation.

I saw some other projects on how well it cuts the grime! Just bought it!

 

[ItsBobDudes]

Just as a heads up: You're doing yourself an immense disservice if you don't pick up some krud kutter! All the nasty yellowing spots that the simple green won't make a dent in absolutely disappears with a little bit of krud cutter; sans for something like the NAC speaker shroud. Those are always a repaint or bust kinda situation.

Those NAC shrouds can be brought back to proper white with 40 volume creme developer / retr0bright. Takes about 5 applications.

 

[Ioncannon]

Not much to update today; but my buttons and sticks arrived!

I also opened up the PSU of the left BC to check how it looks inside and recap it later. Still waiting on a new desolder nozzle and a noctua fan before I do it though. Looks pretty clean!

One cleaning thing I did do was to get rid of the rust on the CPO hinge. Bathed it in vinegar and scrubbed off the rust.

Used baking soda and water to neutralize the acid, then dried and oiled it. I didn't have any oil but gun oil, but it do. Luckily there is still a bit of zinc coating left on the metal. Unsure if I will get it replated or not.

Waiting on a used Blast City CPO replacement I got on the way and the billboard. Once the PSU is recapped I'll pull the monitor out and disassemble the cabinet further. I also have some Novus polish on the way. Hoping to get the CPO nice and shiny so that I can reassemble it.

 

[ItsBobDudes]

New 5575 locks arrived. Probably need to look into refinishing them but at least I can finally get rid of the duct tape!

Meguiars scratch x 2.0 and a dremel with a buffing attachment can clean up those locks shiny new.

 

[Ioncannon]

Meguiars scratch x 2.0 and a dremel with a buffing attachment can clean up those locks shiny new.

Awesome, thanks for the tips! Is the lock face painted on or just the metal polished to a sheen? Some of them have black scratches underneath.

 

[ItsBobDudes]

Mine did not have any deep gouges or scratches. But the polish did get rid of the spotty surface corrosion look.

 

[Ioncannon]

Replacement desolder tip arrived! Recapped the Blast City's PSU and Amp board. I used blue Nichicon caps for the amp as they say it's good for audio? Might be a marketing gimmick /shrug. Still waiting for a Noctua fan to arrive before I reassemble.

The ejectors on the cabs were all jammed shut, the Astro City especially.... I had to wack it to get it to move. Gave them a vinegar bath and then cleaned and oiled em. Sadly the NAC's ejector was pretty rusted but they all now move easily!

 

[Ioncannon]

Noctua fan arrived! Time to reassembled the PSU. First I spliced in the cables from the old fan into the new one. I was originally going to repin but it seemed more work than I wanted to do.

PSU reassembled. Before putting on the case I threw it back into the Blast City for adjustment.

3.3v and 5v first adjusted with no load in-case they were way over spec. Then I adjusted with a Naomi as a load exactly to 3.3v and 5v, fluctuating between exact and +0.01. Case was bolted back on and the PSU stored away for later. Oh yeah, the fan is a huge improvement; barely noticeable compared to the old one grinding loudly. I used the original bolts instead of the rubber holders, I am sure if I used them it would be even quieter.

Next step is probably removing the monitor for cleaning and recapping. Hopefully I can fix whatever caused it to stop turning on.

 

[Ioncannon]

Minor update, both the BC's didn't come with a marquee. Just got one from Arcadewen84 and it looks great!

I also figured out why the second BC looks weird. Blue is totally missing from the monitor! Any tips on what could be causing this? Interestingly when the screen is shut down; a blue dot appears in the middle for a moment.

 

[ItsBobDudes]

Minor update, both the BC's didn't come with a marquee. Just got one from Arcadewen84 and it looks great!



I also figured out why the second BC looks weird. Blue is totally missing from the monitor! Any tips on what could be causing this? Interestingly when the screen is shut down; a blue dot appears in the middle for a moment.

Chassis might need a new pot at blue gain... or the blue gun in the tube is worn out... need a crt tester to see. I hope it’s not the latter.

 

[Ioncannon]

Chassis might need a new pot at blue gain... or the blue gun in the tube is worn out... need a crt tester to see. I hope it’s not the latter.

Yikes hope not. I think there is a way to force the blue gun to fire by grounding one of the CRT pins right?