Blast City renovation (my posts from Killercab forums)

[stellarola]

Hey everyone, I found my dream cab...a Sega Blast City. I also am getting a hell of a price on it too....$275!! It does however need some TLC. The marquee has cracked plexiglass, and the control panel has a crack in it. You must remember this cabinet was in an american arcade, which are the worst! So i'd like to do a full renovation on this cabinet. Here are some pictures...











I already have a 2-player 6-button blast city panel that is ready to be swapped. I'd like to make this a Dreamcast cabinet for vertical shooters. I'd love to see Ikaruga in Hi-Res at 29".

I plan on using bondo on the crack on the white cp area. For the plexiglass, I don't really know what I am going to do. I have a friend that lives in Japan, maybe he can get a replacement for me. I will be sure to document every aspect of this cabinet I change/fix. Also I will add this under the 'articles' section of my site, Candy Cabinet City. http://candycabinetcity.tz4.com/

Thankyou all,

-Ben

[stellarola]

Here are a couple pics of the 'damage'.










There is a ton of dirt and grime all up on this cabinet. I'd like to take every piece apart, but I'll try to be realistic about this process. I believe some kid spilt some soda and also got some ashes from a cig under the panel. How does that happen?

The picture on the monitor looks great. I've only hooked it up vga so far, but plan on checking out 15khz. I did have it on 24khz for the Get Bass game, though. I will take more cp pictures soon. The cp was loud because it has the huge motor thing for the fishing reel controller. Took that ---smurfette--- off! I plan on selling the Get Bass model 3 game, lemme know if anyone is interested!

[stellarola]

Here are some pictures of the progress I've made with the cracked panel...

Here is a picture of when we put the epoxy putty on...




Here is a pic of using a piece of tape to hold it together while it dried...



Picture of after sanding the epoxy a little...



Added the bondo to re-enforce the back side where the crack was...



Didn't take a picture of sanded the bondo, sorry

After this, we took the control panel to a car wash. Paid $1.50 for the power wash, sprayed this thing down. I couldn't ask for better results, just look!



I need to still fix the part near the coin insert. I also need to sand it down a bit more and then will come the priming and painting.

[stellarola]

Finally got the panel basically done.

I patched the hole where the coin slot was. It's been covered up completely and I will dremel out a slot for the coin very soon.




After the patching, I waited about an hour then sanded it down nice and smooth. Afterward I used a couple coatings of primer, then flowed up with semi-gloss white spray paint. It went on very well. Very even.

The Before picture...



The After picture...

[stellarola]

Almost done with this project. Here are some updated pictures. Sorry for the mess in the garage, still moving in.








What's left...

-Wire up dreamcast controls

-Buy new marquee/replace cracked marquee plexi

-Clean the right side of the cabinet more

-Vaccum the spiderwebs inside the cabinet

-Replace buttons with NEW all pink and all green buttons and joysticks

-Play

Just a second ago, I traced the sound plug so I can amplify the dc sound. Man I love the DC

Games to play on cabinet...

-Zombie Revenge
-MVC2
-CVS2
-Dynamite Cop
-Virtua Tennis
-Cosmic Smash
-DOA2 LE
-REZ
-SFA3 Upper
-HOTD2
-Virtua Fighter 3TB
-Ikaruga
-Border Down
-SNS2
-Trizeal

The list goes on....and on....
  

[stellarola]

Finally moved this beast back to my house, out of that garage. It's soooooooooooo nice to play these games in hi-res vga, man. It looks gorgeous.

[stellarola]

This post is new to BYOAC. I rotated my monitor for all the great shmups on dreamcast. Here are some pictures

[stellarola]

lol, whoops! Can someone please move this to the Project Announcements. Sorry, forgot what forum I was in.


-Ben

[Dave_K.]

Nice job Ben!  I actually have an update on my Astro City 2 project as well.  I like how yours control panel came out.  I didn't have a good luck painting my cab.

[stellarola]

Nice job Ben!  I actually have an update on my Astro City 2 project as well.  I like how yours control panel came out.  I didn't have a good luck painting my cab.

Thanks Dave.K, I'd really like to see the Astro 2 proress as well.

[arcadefever]

i saw the all process at killercabs
good job !!!!!!!!!!!