Nishijin Super DX Model B Restoration

[takethecastle57]

Taking the machine to "Factory New" is something I am seeing a lot these days.

For me since I started in the hobby in 1977 I always want to leave a little of it's former life in it .

You're doing a really great job of getting your machine looking fantastic !

[Yungoe]

I was in town this weekend which is rare for me right now. Thus, I was able to dedicate some time to this project. I spent a total of about 8 hours on the machine. There was a lot of putting it together then taking it apart again because I found another part that needed to be installed under some other piece. The mechanical part of the back is finished. The mechanics all work perfectly. The only thing left on the back is to redo the wiring harness. Today, I was able to mount it back in it's frame and begin to reassemble the front. Here is what it looks like now, front and back:

Super DX 035.jpg Super DX 036.jpg

Total time: 62 hours

[Yungoe]

During the first week of August I cleaned up the chrome frame and reassembled the lower chrome door/ball loading system. I put those back on the machine and it looks like a pachinko machine. All told this took me about 3 hours over a couple of nights. so the total time is now at 65 hours.


Super DX 037.jpg

I still have to do the following:

Get the spinners repainted and installed
Re-wire the lighting system
Fix the center attraction
Set the nails properly

Looking at how this machine looks now I have a good idea of how it will look when complete. I may wind up giving this a paint job like the ones that Wayne-Ooo does. I will complete this restoration before I do that though.

[sparky kilowatt]

Looking forward to following along when you paint your spinners Yungoe, I've got a couple of machines that have some rusted ones, if I can't find replacements, painting may be my only optionl

[Yungoe]

I've already tried one unsuccessful technique. I'll be trying another one soon. I'll keep you posted.

[takethecastle57]

I was using my Testors enamel paints to detail the machines since I started back in 1977' with our little Marvel's .

[takethecastle57]

Now I use Acrylic paints . Way less vapor and when fully cured harder wearing . The best part brushes clean up with Water and biscuits

[sparky kilowatt]

Now I use Acrylic paints . Way less vapor and when fully cured harder wearing . The best part brushes clean up with Water and biscuits

Thanks for the tip on the paint, any particular brand and are you making the spinners to get perfect circles or are you painting freehand?

[Wayne-Ooo]

I've already tried one unsuccessful technique. I'll be trying another one soon. I'll keep you posted.

For what it's worth, this is how I paint spinners. Maybe it will help or give you ideas.




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[SibSr]

I ended up putting base color painted spinners on a dremel tool, and used a metal rod wrapped with a couple layers of masking tape for a mandrel. If you have an adjustable speed tool to get the speed low enough you can paint the centers and thin rings by just touching one spot and letting them turn underneath it. The biggest problem was even after getting them centered and rotating without wobbling, was they still would have a spot here and there that was lower than the rest of the disk making it hard to get a solid ring and stay with a thin line. I have lots of model paints so I end up using testors enamels also, and found thinning them slightly helps, but leaves you vulnerable to the paint slinging if the speed is too high or paint is too thin.

It can be challenging but the improvement from painting them is usually worth it and the machine looks so good already!

[machgo]

Nice work with the paint!

Another option to consider is custom decals. Waterslide decal paper is available in both clear and white backgrounds, and can be printed on most color laser printers. There are also options available for printing with ink jet machines.

A good, hard basecoat would be needed, but as the face of the spinners does not get impacted by balls, the decals should be OK.

There are products that can make the decal conform to the curvature of the spinner so there won't be wrinkles.

[sparky kilowatt]

Great tutorial Wayne-Ooo, thank you. I saved your pictures so I can refer back to it when I'm ready to attempt painting mine.

[takethecastle57]

For me I like to do painting with brush but I only did touch ups on the paint job and I painted them on the machine mounted from the factory . back in the day my hand was rock steady and I can still do a good detail without Frog tape .

Humbrol paint has been the top Acrylic paint for over 50 years and you can thin it with distilled water for the Air Brush .

[Yungoe]

I started painting the spinners with Wayne-Ooo's method above. This is the second time that I have tried to paint them and if it turns out successfully I will mount the spinners. Otherwise I will try something similar to what SibSr suggested. Oddly enough I found an old project of mine in the garage a few days ago. It's just a 12V DC motor mounted to a cigar box with an input for a DC power supply and a potentiometer. I would just need to make an adapter that allows me to mount a spinner securely on the drive shaft. I had no idea why I was making this thing when I made it but it may wind up being useful.

MotorBox1.jpg MotorBox2.jpg

I just checked the first coat on the spinners and it looks great. I am going to let it continue to cure until this evening when I apply the second coat. Thanks to Wayne and SibSr for their suggestions.

[Yungoe]

The Spinners are as done as they are getting. I used Wayne-Ooo's technique first. I mounted the bare metal spinners on a box using tooth picks and sprayed them white.
Super DX 038.jpg

Then I attached some washers to the spinners with painters tape:
Super DX 039.jpg

And sprayed them with the accent color (a gray my wife recommended). This is the result:
Super DX 040.jpg
The 3 on the right came out pretty well and if they had all come out like this I would have been done. Wayne-Ooo, Does this ever happen to you? Do you know how to prevent it?

I needed to repaint the center of all the spinners white so I used a technique from Dan. I punched some holes in painters tape. I put the tape on some waxed paper and used a crafting single hole punch. Then I applied the tape to the spinners and covered the rest of the surface with some more overlapping tape. I made sure the tape was pressed firmly onto the surface of the spinners:
Super DX 041.jpg

I sprayed them with a little more white spray paint and this is the result:
Super DX 042.jpg

It is far from perfect but it is good enough for this go-round. I will be mounting these to the machine tonight and then working on the wiring harness.

[Wayne-Ooo]

And sprayed them with the accent color (a gray my wife recommended). This is the result:
Super DX 040.jpg
The 3 on the right came out pretty well and if they had all come out like this I would have been done. Wayne-Ooo, Does this ever happen to you? Do you know how to prevent it?

By spraying several light coats of paint, straight down. If you spray to heavy, or at an angle, it may "bleed" under the washer.

The way to help prevent what happen, is once you have the washers in place, paint them with your base color again, (which in this case is white), and let it dry before you paint them your accent color.

By painting them the base color again, the base color "bleeds" under the washer, thus sealing it. So, when you paint your accent color, it shouldn't bleed.

Also, when removing the washers, pull them straight off the spinner, not at an angle.
First starting out I had spinners that looked just like yours, some even worse. With practice, I have developed my technique and get pretty good results, as you will.

[Yungoe]

I have finally finished this machine. The mechanical restoration is complete and will be installing it in my cabinet once I get the electronics restored. I blew out all of the lamps using a rechargeable "9" volt. battery. Thus, I decided to build my own electronic system based on an AVR microcontroller and some really awesome 5v LEDs I found on amazon. I still have to design and 3D print the lamp mounts for these LEDs but I don't consider that to be a part of any restoration as it is, strictly speaking, a modification. I will put a video on YouTube when the electronics are mounted.

The final steps were:
Stripped and repainted the spinners
Repaired the center attraction
Reattached (then promptly destroyed) the electrical system
Glued that little metal strip back into the upper ball tray (forgot to do that when I was reassembling).

I estimate that I have another 5-10 hours into this machine bringing the total to about 70-75 hours of effort. This does not include the new electronics that probably took me about 10 hours. Here is the final picture and a picture of what it looked like when I bought it:

Super DX 043.jpg Super DX 001.jpg

I took the glass out because the reflection was too visible in the photo.

Thanks to everyone who provided me with advice when I was restoring this, especially Wayne-ooo.

[sparky kilowatt]

I have finally finished this machine. The mechanical restoration is complete and will be installing it in my cabinet once I get the electronics restored. I blew out all of the lamps using a rechargeable "9" volt. battery. Thus, I decided to build my own electronic system based on an AVR microcontroller and some really awesome 5v LEDs I found on amazon. I still have to design and 3D print the lamp mounts for these LEDs but I don't consider that to be a part of any restoration as it is, strictly speaking, a modification. I will put a video on YouTube when the electronics are mounted.

The final steps were:
Stripped and repainted the spinners
Repaired the center attraction
Reattached (then promptly destroyed) the electrical system
Glued that little metal strip back into the upper ball tray (forgot to do that when I was reassembling).

I estimate that I have another 5-10 hours into this machine bringing the total to about 70-75 hours of effort. This does not include the new electronics that probably took me about 10 hours. Here is the final picture and a picture of what it looked like when I bought it:



I took the glass out because the reflection was too visible in the photo.

Thanks to everyone who provided me with advice when I was restoring this, especially Wayne-ooo.

Wow, nice job, that thing was filthy, doesn't even look like the same machine now.

[MrGneiss]

Wow, very nice!!