Jerry,
The Atlas O California Zephyr passenger shells are thick and sturdy. You will break the Excel Knife before anything breaks. I used an Excel Knife or better yet, the smallest flat head screw drivers to lift the end of the chassis away from the shell. (Of course, I am assuming that you removed the four body screws.) (Put them in a container or plastic bag so you do not lose them.) There are two levels at the end of the car: the metal chassis and further up inside, the surface of the plastic interior floor. (Look at the photo of the left end of a car with the white plug to the lighting bar: silver chassis and above it is the ivory plastic interior floor. (Second BIG picture) The interior floor can sometimes hang up as the chassis is lifted.
The worst you will do is scratch the underside of the plastic shell that nobody sees., but I still know the scratch is there. It bothers me, but there are trade-offs to detail these cars.
There are no videos. The process is one of "feeling" the chassis and plastic interior floor move upward and out of the shell. It is a sense of coaxing the floor up and out of the shell.
"May the Force be with you." Or better yet, "Just Do It." I know this is not what you are looking for, but there are so few of us who detail the passenger cars that no video has ever been made. Not everyone's style of detailing is the same either.
I have never cracked a body shell, but I did have a LED Light Bar melt the roof of the body shell of an Atlas O California Zephyr "Silver Poplar" Sleeping Car. That was long ago and under warranty.
Late at night when I work on my cars, I am all alone, but encouragement is as close as typing a note on OGR Forum. (I also talk to myself a lot.)
Have a good weekend. Sincerely, John Rowlen
