Sega New Astro City restore

[c1v1ta]

Recently acquired a Sega New Astro City from a certain individual who has since been banned from this forum. The buying experience was bizarre and had its share of hiccups. Nothing more needs to be said there that hasn't already been said elsewhere. Now that I mention it, if anyone is selling one of these in California, or knows where I could get one, I'm thinking of getting another. Let me know.

In this thread, I'll outline my process in restoring the NAC. Overall, my philosophy was to keep as much original as I possibly could, and what absolutely needed to be replaced or repainted would be as close as possible to what was there before, ideally even using official parts.

First off, here's the final, finished product:

Here are some photos showing off the original condition:

Upon receiving the cab, it wasn't in great shape. Some genius put green tape all over it during shipping, which pulled the paint off in some really noticeable areas. Buttons were missing, joysticks weren't stock, there were scuffs all around, almost everything was discolored and filthy, lights didn't work, locks were missing, there was rust, etc. Bizarrely, the seller (who is outspoken against restoring/repainting cabs) painted the service door and literally nothing else, so it didn't match the rest of the machine.

The machine needed some love.

My first step was to disassemble. I made sure to note where all the individual nuts and bolts went as I went along. For anyone taking this project on themselves, documentation as you go is critical. I also recommend taking pictures of how things are installed inside, and where cables go. Unhooking something? Take a picture first. Future you will thank you later.

Here are some shots of the teardown.

Once the cab was torn down, I got into some deep, deep cleaning. If the instructions insert on the control panel wasn't a giveaway, the PCB manual I found inside the cab confirmed that this machine was set up for Strikers 1945 III for a good while. I also found 2 100 yen coins, which helped me recoup .0001% of the investment cost to buy, ship, and fix up this cab. Nice.

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[c1v1ta]

Here are a few detail shots of some of the damage to the cab's body:

But, before I could address the paint, first things first: I chucked all the rusty bolts and coin return button into some vinegar to see if anything could be salvaged. Left them in there for a few days. Once out, I used a brush and some Barkeeper's Friend to clean. The coin return button came out much better, but the bolts for the outer body had been seriously corroded and couldn't be saved. I did my best to find a close match.

Then, it was onto the control panel. What a mess. A 2P, 6-button layout, 2L12B panel, and each side only has two buttons. Those two buttons are discolored. The joystick ball tops are also totally mismatched and weirdly melted/damaged somehow. Coin slot is discolored, edge of control panel is totally rusted all the way around, and the inside is filthy. BUT, the panel will be spared and repaired.

I was able to get a lot, but not all of the rust off the other side. Then, I wired up the additional four new Sanwa buttons for each player, and replaced the rusted out and mismatching joystick shafts with new Seimitsu LS-32s. Also swapped out the springs and dustwashers with new Seimitsu replacements. These were all purchased through Focus Attack, and I had a great experience with them. Recommended. I kept the original start buttons as they were in solid shape. For the coin slot, it had some pretty significant yellowing. I sanded down some of the abrasions on the surface, then soaked it in some concentrated hydrogen peroxide, wrapped in plastic, and set it out in the sun for a few days. The results were great, I think (see photos above and below to compare). Then, to wrap up, I carefully sanded then painted the rusted edge of the panel and reinstalled.

Here's the finished panel:

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[c1v1ta]

Next up, speakers! They were rusted out, so I took them apart, set down some masking tape, sanded, and painted. I believe I just used a matte black Rustoleum for these. Kept it simple here.

After that, things got challenging. Painting. I made sure all decals were masked off, as I wanted to keep them original, and I used plastic to prevent overspray. I started sanding everything down, then primed.

I ordered some paint, thanks to Thomas and his restoration thread. Used the same colors (Honda Frost White), as his exploration was as accurate as I could find in my research. Loaded it into my paint gun + compressor and got to work. Hit it with a clear coat, and I was done!

...Except I wasn't. I forgot a major step: wet sanding. After 2 layers of primer, 2 layers of paint, and too many layers of clear coat, I had an awful bumpy eggshell finish. I had spent so many hours painting and was ready to just assemble the machine and be over it. My wife though, a true legend, told me what I already knew, and that was that I'd never be happy with the cabinet in that state, and to just start over and do it right. She even offered to help. So I did. Here she is helping me sand things back down.

We spent a few weeks sanding everything down. Then priming certain areas again. Then sanding again. Then painting again, making mistakes, sanding again, painting again, making more mistakes, driving a half hour to the auto paint store, and back, and back again, and sanding again. We even broke the plastic marquee piece, to my horror. That added a good 5 hours of work onto the project, forcing us to get some Bondo on there and sand (endlessly) and re-prime.

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[c1v1ta]

Finally, eventually, despite all the challenges, we got everything to a great place, and we were ready to clear coat again. In the previous painting attempt, I had tried several clear coats and sanded them all off because they were difficult to apply evenly or had the wrong type of finish. USC Spraymax 2k High Gloss Clearcoat was the best I found. I bought a 4-pack, but would recommend 6 for a project like this. We didn't have much room for error. Applied, and success. It looked excellent.

From here, I reassembled everything. Replaced the florescent bulb, reapplied some new adhesive foam strips around the marquee and control panel, installed locks, bought some fresh Taito stools, and was good to move on to the games.

I learned that I needed some an additional kick harness connection for the 6 button layout to be wired in, so I ordered and installed that. Bought myself a Chamma multicade and a Chamma-to-Jamma adapter to connect it to. The adapter didn't have a spot for my kick harness, so I had to get rid of it and swap it for a JNX CPS2 connector. Got that, snapped in the kick harness, and hit the on switch. Miraculously, everything worked when I turned it on, though I did need to re-arrange my button wiring.

One more note before wrapping up: I found a purikura sticker stuck under the control panel. I'm guessing it's from the late 90s/early 00s. I carefully scraped it off before painting and placed it under the instructions panel glass. Not sure if the guys in the picture would be honored or creeped out by that. Anyone recognize what/where this might be from? The X△O has me thinking something related to Playstation, but where's the square?

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[c1v1ta]

Finally, I cracked open the Chamma multicade and started tweaking things. I changed the generic menu music to classic Sega game soundtracks, swapped the multicade logo with a Sega logo, and swapped out the boot video to the classic Sonic 1 Sega logo intro.

This was a huge learning experience for me, and there were a ton of challenges along the way. Would I do it again? Not sure, though I'm confident it would be easier the second time around. Big thanks to Focus Attack for their parts and customer service, @Thomas for his great restoration thread and insights, @Lemony Vengeance for his help with my kick harness needs, and Tim Wilson of Team Pandory.

So, again, here are some shots of the final result. Thanks for reading through! Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to be helpful if I can. And LMK if you know where I can snag another NAC cab in Norcal for a decent price!

End.

 

[Robertguy09]

Awesome job!

I need to do this for my New Astro City eventually. I'll definitely keep an I eye on this for tips and inspiration!

 

[Anselmo]

Epic!

 

[PASTBLASTER]

Really good job on this! Looking forward to more!

 

[c1v1ta]

Awesome job!

I need to do this for my New Astro City eventually. I'll definitely keep an I eye on this for tips and inspiration!

Epic!

Really good job on this! Looking forward to more!

Thank you guys! Glad you liked it.

 

[benime]

Just curious, but what do you think of that compressor? I've been looking to step up from rattle can and don't have a ton of space for a compressor, so something smaller would be preferable.

 

[c1v1ta]

Just curious, but what do you think of that compressor? I've been looking to step up from rattle can and don't have a ton of space for a compressor, so something smaller would be preferable.

Very loud, but it definitely did the job. Pressure was fine. Price was reasonable. Will be able to use it for other things as well. I'd recommend it. I used it for priming, painting, and clear coat, though as I mentioned the automotive clear coat I bought for the paint gun wasn't a great match, so I switched to Spraymax 2K clear, which only comes in rattle cans AFAIK. Those worked really well.