Restoration Project - Capcom Big Blue Collection

acblunden2

Active member
Joined
Mar 26, 2016
Messages
1,028
Reaction score
19
Location
Modesto, California
I am from San Jose, CA and with Capcom USA being headquartered right in the neighboring city of Sunnyvale debuted a SF2CE prototype at the Sunnyvale Golfland in 1991 thereabouts? That was the first time I have ever seen a Capcom Big Blue. My buddies and I took the 22 bus route from downtown San Jose all the way to Sunnyvale Golfland just to play the game. I haven't forgotten that day, the crowd, the game, the height of SF2 craze, or the Big Blue cab.

Fast forward to today and I find that I have six different Capcom Big Blue cabs of various flavors and states of disrepair. Each with their own pecadillos. The first one I'll be restoring I got as a functioning Golden Tee '99. It has been completely rolled over in black. As such, the vinyl had to go along with the black paint. I managed to peel the vinyl off rather easily with Citristrip that I covered over with paint drop cloth. That allowed the Citristrip to stay active long enough before drying out to work its magic. As long as I didn't let the Citristrip completely dry, it came off rather easy.

Edges around the cab had begun to fray. To prevent further fraying, I dripped wood hardener with a straw around the edge before applying bondo. There were also gouges on the sides of the cab that needed to be filled. Corners needed to be rebuilt. My idea here is to try to roll and wet sand one side of the cab. Evaluate the results and either continue on with that method, or decide if I want to invest further money into equipment for spraying.
 

Attachments

  • BBR2.JPG
    BBR2.JPG
    392.4 KB · Views: 45
  • BBR3.JPG
    BBR3.JPG
    433.3 KB · Views: 39
  • BBR4.JPG
    BBR4.JPG
    441.7 KB · Views: 37
  • BBR1.jpg
    BBR1.jpg
    177.9 KB · Views: 49
  • BBR_GoldenTee.jpg
    BBR_GoldenTee.jpg
    91.2 KB · Views: 49
With the cab tipped over on its side to help with leveling, I applied oil-based Zinzer primer. As you can see in the first shot, there was a ton of orange peeling. It took 2 coats with 150 grit->220 grit sanding between each coat. But afterwards, I got complete coverage and it was very smooth. There is one shot of it glistening in the sun so you can see how smooth it is.
 

Attachments

  • BBR13.JPG
    BBR13.JPG
    362.9 KB · Views: 37
  • BBR11.JPG
    BBR11.JPG
    385.3 KB · Views: 26
  • BBR7.JPG
    BBR7.JPG
    402.7 KB · Views: 33
  • BBR5.JPG
    BBR5.JPG
    323.2 KB · Views: 34
  • BBR6.JPG
    BBR6.JPG
    419.5 KB · Views: 32
Here are two shots of the latex applied to the one side of the cab. I had this paint color matched to the Gen 2 Big Blue that I have.
 

Attachments

  • BBR14.JPG
    BBR14.JPG
    386.1 KB · Views: 38
  • BBR15.JPG
    BBR15.JPG
    334.4 KB · Views: 44
And here are a few shots of 2 coats of the rolled latex paint dry. There is a side by side shot with another Big Blue cab that I have that has the original blue vinyl on it (the one on the left is original). As you can see, the paint color that I have is quite striking. Also, that original vinyl Big Blue cab that I have in that shot is much more drab than another Gen 1 Big Blue cab that I have that also has the original blue finish (not pictured).
 

Attachments

  • BBR16.JPG
    BBR16.JPG
    382.5 KB · Views: 48
  • BBR19.JPG
    BBR19.JPG
    440.3 KB · Views: 62
And this is where I decided to change directions. I don't think it behooves me to roll on the paint and wet sand any longer. The process sucks and is messy as heck. Plus, I don't like the results. Here is a shot after I wet sanded the high paint streaks with 400 grit, then wet sanded with 2000 grit. That striking blue color is gone and I am not happy with the dullness.

What I have decided to do from here is to completely smooth out this side of the cab. I will then finish primering and bondo'ing the rest of the cab. Then I will spray. Will pick this back up in December after the Thanksgiving Holiday.
 

Attachments

  • BBR20.JPG
    BBR20.JPG
    63 KB · Views: 36
  • BBR21.JPG
    BBR21.JPG
    59.8 KB · Views: 32
  • BBR22.JPG
    BBR22.JPG
    62.8 KB · Views: 32
  • BBR23.JPG
    BBR23.JPG
    60.6 KB · Views: 39
Looking good!

Man I'd love to have just ONE Big Blue and here you are rollin in them!😀 I'm in the same predicament with the edges of my Z-Back (mine is actually a lot worse). Currently using wood hardener, bondo and sanding. Hope it comes out as good as yours!
 
I worked really hard to get those Big Blue's. None of them were less than a 3 hour round trip.

One other thing I did was on the edges, I debrided them with a stiff wire brush to knock off any wood particles that would not stay attached to the main substrate. Then I dripped on the wood hardener. So far so good.
 
Back
Top Bottom