Sega New Astro City (Part 2)
Stripping paint. It’s Thursday, I’m not working, and I have paint to strip. The things I ordered yesterday have turned up, so now for the hard work. The rest of this post was written in real-time, with the odd notes I want to record for later use. I’m stripping the front frame and speaker bezel.
Prep
It’s around quarter to ten, 9:45AM. I’ve taken the upper-front of the cab, including the speaker bezel, and moved it into the dining room. Takinbg screws out, I’m starting to think I should just replace most of them. The brass screw heads are quite worn, though not unusable. Some are missing. I should measure them with the calipers and replace all of them when I put things back together. The marquees have been stashed in the office in a safe place. The back-sides scratch easily, and fixing up anything other than the black parts is hell, so I’m being careful.
There’s a broken bit in the display bezel, right at the top. The washer will prevent that being an issue, but I should probably dig out some epoxy putty and repair it. There’s a spare in the loft, but I’m not going to touch that yet. The display bezel is black, in relatively good condition (one small mark) - I never painted it, so I’m not doing anything else with it today.
With everything laid out on a thin painter’s sheet, I applied a relatively light coat of the stripper. It does say to use a generous amount, but I’m taking things slowly. Application made with a wide brush. The speaker bezel is plastic, so I’m keeping an eye on that specifically. It isn’t a part that’d be difficult to make with my 3D printer, but let’s try to minimise the work.
Stripping
The paint underneath is starting to bubble up. I scraped a bit off the speaker bezel, just to make sure it was only the paint coming up. It was surprising to see the original yellowed plastic I covered up all those years ago, and it made me feel slightly better about my haphazardous paintjob. The bubbling is inconsistent. I’d assumed the thickest layers would be first - specifically the part where the frame mates the control panel. But it’s actually the sides. I think I may need to buy more stripper. Still checking every 25 minutes.
11:30AM
I took the opportunity to scrape off some of the bubbled paint, to see how deep I was going. Unexpectedly, the stripper seems to be managing to get right down to the fibreglass in some places. I’ve resigned myself to multiple rounds of coating and scraping - the closer I can get to the fibreglass, the less 1990’s paint-and-tar dust I’ll potentially breathe in when I start sanding before the primer coat. Second, thicker coat of stripper is on, and I’ve ordered another 1L tub. The control panel has a finish about as thick as the parts I’m doing now, but the lower-front and back are quite thin, so I think this will be enough.
1:00PM
Third coat is on. Few notes - scrubbing with water is far more messy than I thought. I had to drag the bits outside to use the hose. I’ll stick to scraping and kitchen roll until I’m satisfied there’s no more stripping to be done. The areas that showed no indication of bubbling have been roughed up with a 120 grit sponge. I at least need the stripper to work for the thin structs going from side to side - they flex quite easily, and sanding runs the risk of cracking them.
2:30PM
Last coat on. I think. I’m out of stripper. If it isn’t the last, I’ll just live with however far I’ve gotten with the speaker bezel. I don’t actually need to get down to bare substrate, after all. Just deep enough I can prime the surface. The black fibreglass looks surprisingly nice - if not for the differences in materials, I might have been inclined to just varnish it.
4:00PM
I’ve taken the last coat off the speaker bezel, the finish is… rubbery? I suspect that’s less to do with the stripper contaminating the plastic, and more to do with the paint (which was paint for plastic) adhering something awful. I’ve scrubbed it down with warm water, and rubbed it down with a towel so it’s at least dry. The stickiness is gone, so I’ll leave it for a day or two and then finish it off with some sanding.
The fibreglass front is mostly done. I’ve also scrubbed and rubbed it, but I’ve put an (actual) final coat of stripper on the few spots where a thick layer of paint remains. Like the speaker bezel, it’ll get a last scrub and rub, and then left to dry for a few days before sanding. Although it needs it less than the speaker bezel.
7:00PM
Removed the last bit of stripper and wiped everything down with kitchen roll and warm water. I’m not terribly worried about leaving slight stripper residue on the surface, as I’ll be wiping all the metal and fibreglass parts down with spirits prior to a light sand.
The rubbery surface of the plastic speaker bezel has hardened - I do think it was just a layer of paint that had softened but not detatched from the plastic. I tested how it sanded with a fine finishing pad, and it came out well enough to apply primer.
Total cost for this project so far is around £40. There are other expenses, like sanding stuff, clingfilm and kitchen roll. But the main cost is certainly the 2L of Biostrip 20 stripper.
