Namco Blanc(s) Rescue/Rebuild

[PASTBLASTER]

Let me start by saying this will be a much slower restore thread than normal for me. It's WAY too hot to work on these things in my warehouse, but I will make progress as fast as I can and update you all here.

I recently made a trade with a friend for 2 of his Namco Blanc project Cabs. These are the big Dragonball Z Zenkai cabs with the MASSIVE headers. These cabs aren't fully wired with IOs, but that's totally fine as my goal for these is to have a head to head Street Fighter 6 setup for my arcade in Tallahassee. The day started with a casual 2.5 hour drive over to Jacksonville, FL. There we met up with some friends, got the tour of his space and projects, then began the process of digging out the Blancs and loading them up for the drive back to Tallahassee.

Here is the current state of the cabs. Very dirty / Dusty but in overall solid shape. Both monitors power on and everything looks complete (Minus the Banapass readers, but more on that later).

In order to get these things in my friend's trailer, the Half Pipe toppers had to be removed and partially disassembled.

It's hard to explain just how big these things are.

After these were loaded we tried (and failed) to load a HOTD cab my local friend purchased too. Will have to drive back over another day to pick that up. After loading up, we got back on the road and dropped everything off in my warehouse.

Over the next few weeks, I will be taking everything apart, cleaning, and repairing some things before the journey of rebuilding these things begins.

These are really cool cabs and I look forward to documenting the process.


-PB

 

[jermz1]

I have the manual for this if you're looking for anything

 

[PASTBLASTER]

I have the manual for this if you're looking for anything

Awesome, thanks for the heads up. I'm sure I'll need some pics from you at some point!

 

[PASTBLASTER]

I was able to put about 90 minutes in today on these, before tapping out due to the heat. My main focus was to get these things stripped down and to remove all of the DBZ arts to see the true condition of the cabs.

There was a LOT of console related cabling and accessories in these cabs. There was a make shift shelf held on with tape, component and HDMI distribution amps, RCA extensions, and more! All of it had to go.

After that was sorted we could focus on testing the monitors and amps. I gave the cabs a good wipe down and tested out the monitors. Both fired up and are slightly yellowed, but nowhere near as bad as the Lindbergh Monitor was. The Volume pot in the access panel appears to not control the volume. Am I missing something here or is there a different volume pot somewhere? The monitors have a decent picture, but i noticed that they appear to be a bit laggy, but it could have just been my laptop's settings.

After function testing, it was time to peel the arts.

There we go. Starting to look like a proper HD cab. And we finally get the Cab's name reveal.

I'm going to need a LOT of adhesive remover, Simple Green, Magic Erasres and a Shop Vac to get these things right.

This is the only real "Damage" to the cabs. Both Control Panels and surround have a bit of surface rust near the wrist rest. I'll be able to sand the surrounds down and respray, but one of the panels has a bit of creeping rust. The panel is still totally usable, but it's still annoying.

Both cabs here are stripped, and quickly wiped down. Starting to get good visuals of how these will turn out! I took the panels home with me for full teardown and rebuilds. The JLFs will be rebuildable but the buttons are toast.

Last pic of the night before leaving the sauna. Turns out Vewlix height stools are not tall enough for these. They are about 2 inches shorter than they should be. Might be in the market to trade these for 2 Air Benches.

More to come soon!

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Got a little more time in this weekend to begin scrubbing / vacuuming these things out. I started by taking both of the control panels home as they needed to be fully cleaned and rebuilt.

They aren't in terrible condition, but there is some light rust and the buttons are trashed. The JLF's will be fully rebuilt.

These got sanded, buffed, and rebuilt.

They aren't perfect, but with being rebuilt they feel MUCH nicer! Now, on to the scrubbing part of this restore.....

The cabs were covered in Adhesive from the Original DBZ arts. There were arts glued to the top and sides of the monitor bezel. When removing these, the arts came off in solid pieces, but left behind most of their adhesive.

Some goo gone, magic erasers, and elbow grease got all of this off, and the top Namco sticker stayed in tact! While working on this, I also pulled the instruction glass off and removed those arts as well. At some point, I'm sure an entire gallon of Coke was dropped in this thing. The area was SO sticky. Once fully cleaned out, I plugged the LED panel back in, and it fired up!

You can see the areas that will need touch up paint, and also the 3D printed Banapassport panel!

Yes, I know the Neutrik is crooked, this wasn't tightened down fully yet. I think I'm going to Reprint these in a transparent smoke color. I can see these prints getting filthy while in use at the arcade. The two left buttons will act as 4P and 4K and the yellow button as "Home". The Neutrik will allow pad / hitbox players to plug in as well.

More coming soon! In the process of getting parts to build a PC for these.

-PB

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I was able to put about 90 minutes in today on these, before tapping out due to the heat. My main focus was to get these things stripped down and to remove all of the DBZ arts to see the true condition of the cabs.

There was a LOT of console related cabling and accessories in these cabs. There was a make shift shelf held on with tape, component and HDMI distribution amps, RCA extensions, and more! All of it had to go.

After that was sorted we could focus on testing the monitors and amps. I gave the cabs a good wipe down and tested out the monitors. Both fired up and are slightly yellowed, but nowhere near as bad as the Lindbergh Monitor was. The Volume pot in the access panel appears to not control the volume. Am I missing something here or is there a different volume pot somewhere? The monitors have a decent picture, but i noticed that they appear to be a bit laggy, but it could have just been my laptop's settings.

After function testing, it was time to peel the arts.

There we go. Starting to look like a proper HD cab. And we finally get the Cab's name reveal.

I'm going to need a LOT of adhesive remover, Simple Green, Magic Erasres and a Shop Vac to get these things right.

This is the only real "Damage" to the cabs. Both Control Panels and surround have a bit of surface rust near the wrist rest. I'll be able to sand the surrounds down and respray, but one of the panels has a bit of creeping rust. The panel is still totally usable, but it's still annoying.

Both cabs here are stripped, and quickly wiped down. Starting to get good visuals of how these will turn out! I took the panels home with me for full teardown and rebuilds. The JLFs will be rebuildable but the buttons are toast.

Last pic of the night before leaving the sauna. Turns out Vewlix height stools are not tall enough for these. They are about 2 inches shorter than they should be. Might be in the market to trade these for 2 Air Benches.

More to come soon!

Nice progress. They’re going to look great together. I’m curious how you stop people messing up the setup if you’re using consoles to run the games. I guess you just do have a PS button on the panel?

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Nice progress. They’re going to look great together. I’m curious how you stop people messing up the setup if you’re using consoles to run the games. I guess you just do have a PS button on the panel?

It happens from time to time. Yes, I have a "Home" Button set up for the panel. The Yellow button on the Printed panel will act as that function. You just get used to it.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I suppose you could unplug it after you set it up to stop people exiting the game.

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Got another hour in, so got to scrubbing unit 02. This one luckily was much cleaner and had way less arts adhesive stuck to it.

I put the PC for my Lindbergh on these to check both of the monitors and Sound amps. The monitor's actually looked nice! Once I went in and reset the values to factory, both monitors look nearly identical. The "anti Glare" glass is filthy from the inside, so these will need to come off and be cleaned thoroughly.

Still need to sand and paint the CP areas that rusted, but these are starting to feel like actual games now! Had to get at least a little Namco love on there. I need to fix the exhaust fans on these as the monitors put out a LOT of heat.

Here they are all polished up.

Up next is cutting the shelves for the PCB area, finishing building the JLF for unit 02, then Wiring up the Brooks.

More coming soon.

-PB

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Back to work!

I finished building the PC for these cabs. Specs are Ryzen 7 2700, RTX 3060ti, 16gb Ram. Pretty good little rig.

Thought i'd be fully done with the main unit today, but sadly not the case. Upon powering the cab on today, I heard an alarming "buzzing" noice. I assumed that the fan on the man cab was on it's way out, but it turned out to be the fans directly mounted to the Monitor. The crazy dust on these cabs must have gotten into the fans bearings. These sadly can't be saved, but will be replaced with new 80mm ball bearing fans. Ordered these today so can hopefully get them installed later this week.

Pulled the bezel to begin pulling the fans out and to clean inside the lighting housing.

The great news is this glass and bezel cleaned up VERY nice. This has the same "clouded" anti-glare tech that my Lindbergh did. This is not removable as far as I could tell.

The back plastic was pretty filthy, but I was able to get it shined up. the grills will be removed and cleaned fully before reinstalling.

Monitor removed. These are the culprits causing the noise. Twin 80mm fans, caked in dust / debris.

Fans removed and prepped for a good air blasting.

Hopefully installing these new fans, and a main fan get unit 01 wrapped up so we can do the same full teardown and rebuild on unit 02. As frustrating as these cabs have been, I'm at least learning quite a bit about Namco junk. Hopefully more updates this week!

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Back at it, installed new fans (120mm Cab Exhaust and 2 80mm Monitor Exhaust ) on both cabs.

To get to the monitor fans, the entire monitor comes out, and these slot into the back of the monitor case.

Both of these Blancs are using a Wei-Ya MT32W monitor in case anyone is needing to know.

Pulled unit 02 monitor and gave it the full teardown / clean / New Fan treatment.

I noticed that the bulb is out on Unit 02, but when I put everything back together, the bulb flashes like it wants to start. Similar to what happens when a starter is bad on a US style fixture. I didn't see a typical starter on the light, but does anyone know where I can look? I have some T8 24" LED bulbs I may try to see how they fare.

Both Cabs now back together, fully cleaned up and breathing properly. Up next is tackling the damaged paint / metal on the Control Panels, then it's time for Control Panel wiring and we are DONE!

More coming soon.

-PB

 

[mR_CaESaR]

Looking good man!

Imagine you got SF6 art for those massive marquees? I reckon that'd looks so awesome

 

[PASTBLASTER]

I'm having art done for the control panels, but I'm not planning on running the massive toppers. I have them disassembled and put to the side, but who knows, maybe in the future I'll set them up. They're MASSIVE!

 

[notsonic]

Lookin good!

Is it possible to get to the light without removing the whole monitor assembly from the base? I've been wanting to replace one of my bulbs but I keep putting it off.

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Lookin good!

Is it possible to get to the light without removing the whole monitor assembly from the base? I've been wanting to replace one of my bulbs but I keep putting it off.

Yes, if you unscrew the front Bezel Shell, there are two Phillips screws on the front and two bolts holding the light fixture on. You won't need to fully pull the monitor off to do it.

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Ordered some 24" LED lights that came with both wall plug and direct wiring connections. Until I can sort out the ballast issue on the original light fixtures, I'm going to use these for now. Here is the original Light, with the bulb removed.

Here is the new, LED bar wired in. These are MUCH brighter and run much cooler than the original fluorescent bulbs. the bulbs tucked nicely into the frame, and I was able to use a stock hole for mounting these secure.

Once reinstalled, here is the result.

They look MUCH nicer when both are lit up.

These are both now fully playable and will be available for play at Free Play Florida. If you are attending the show, make sure you say hi!

These are NOT fully done, but restoration work will continue AFTER the show.

More to come soon.

-PB

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

Nice quick and effective work there. You don’t see these as much as the Noirs so it’s great to see a matched pair. Thanks for sharing.

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Had some local FGC friends give these a break in. I decided to order some LG 32" 165hz monitors for these. More to come after Free Play Florida.

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Final Pre Show pic. All ready to go for a weekend of SF6! See you all at Free Play Florida!

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I’m sure it will be popular @PASTBLASTER. Those move strips look great. Are they backlit?