Budd car restoration and re-letter \ UPDATED - it is finished, pictures added.

J&A Hobbies offers a line of Post War repro dry transfers. Their email is:

warnick@pa.net

If you have a flatbed scanner you can place the car on it and scan the lettering. Most decal makers can use the image to make decals.

How bad is the lettering? If most is there you can mask off the lettering with liquid masker and the spray paint the whole car.

Pete

Testor's Silver in a spray can is a great match for post war Lionel Silver. Using an airbrush? Floquil Old Silver is a perfect match. If the heat stamped letters left impressions deep enough, you can paint them with acrylic craft paint. Let dry and clean up anything "outside the lines" with a wooden toothpick.

Thanks for the response guys.  I might try the Testors first with a bit of masking.  The lettering is pretty good, it's the silver that is in bad shape.  I was just going to repaint the whole thing and reletter but maybe now I'll try it in sections first.

The frame was easy.  Remove the rust and battery damage, prime and repaint.  Black is black. (well at least for the frame anyway!)

AF 

Artie, the MPC Amtrak Postal car in front was painted with Testors silver. The number boards were simply masked off with tape:

The Williams 624 was completely repainted but all of the graphics are original. Each letter was masked off using liquid masker.

This 6420 work caboose received the same treatment. As long as you can match the paint its not that critical that the masker stay in the boundaries. The closer the better though.

Here are the materials you can use:

Typical application. This will dry clear.

Pete

I use them both. Tamiya is a little brighter that the Testors. I think Lionel silver varied a bit over the years so if you are trying to match something its good to have options.

Pete

Pete, that liquid masking is a great idea.  I'll have to see if I can get it around here.

AF

This restoring Budd car info is very interesting.  I have wanted a scale length RDC-3 in

three rail, and none has been made, so I have considered some of the above projects

of restoration, after splicing a couple together to get the correct length, etc.  (yes, they ran after my model era, and I have no business with one)  Has anybody done

this?  There was a hard to find RDC-1 kit done in O scale, (which I think is in extruded aluminum) but I'd think I could get a better model with less effort working with an

existing plastic model, if other dimensions are close.  I think both Lionel and MTH made RDC-4's and 1's, but I have not seen any inexpensive enough to kitbash in

shows.  Did K-Line make both types?..I vaguely think they might have, too....NOT

counting the Marx mold one.....

Pete,

The liquid masking worked GREAT!  It was the first time I've ever used it.

Thanks!

AF

Artie, nice job! It looks like you were very careful to keep the masker within the edges. While you can still touch up the letters where they have been scratched, I usually do it before masking them off and being extra careful with the masker so the body paint will cover any letter paint that extends beyond the edge.

You can usually get pretty close to the letter color with something from Floquil assuming its not white or black. If its not close enough you can mix a darker or lighter shade of the same color. Apply test patches before using it on the model.

Post some pics of the whole car when you are done.

Pete

It is finished.  I put it all together last night.

AF