Disassembling AF 600 series cars

Here is some info at Port Lines. Hope this helps  Roger Young

http://www.portlines.com/portlinesclinic16.htm

Roger, it's helpful in that it totally dissuaded me from even trying.  That loose silhouette strip doesn't look so bad all of a sudden.  Thank you very much.

TrainsRMe,

Actually, it can be fairly simple to fix your loose window strips. There are two screws in each end cap, one on the top and one on the bottom.  If you remove these the end caps just pull straight out.

I agree that spreading the sides of the car body to remove the chassis can be a challenge. But it is totally doable without damaging anything, it can be done by hand, but is hard on the fingers.

But the good news is once the end caps are off you can slide the window strips in and out.  They are not glued, they actually sit in a groove, which can be seen once the end caps are off.

Please let me know if this helps, or if you want to discuss further.  I actually have cleaned up 7 or 8 of these cars, they are easy in my opinion, because they are aluminum and polish up so nicely.

Aflyer 

As Aflyer sez - pulling the end caps off is pretty easy and it allows access to the window strips.  I've fixed several of these by exactly this method. In a couple of cases, the plastic strips were warped and didn't sit flat in the grooves on top and bottom of the windows.  But replacement strips are available from several sources, including the aforementioned Port Lines hobbies.  I think the light diffusers (that look like slightly yellowed pieces of paper) are also available, though I think a piece of ordinary printer paper would do the job...

Well thank you, Aflyer and richs09, for this further information.  Maybe my end cap is just "gunked on" from the last 65 or so years.

Is anything particular recommended for polishing the aluminum?

I've used Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish - available from auto supply stores.  I think it works best with the window strips removed, because its easier to polish around the windows, etc.  I try to be careful to not get polish on the lettering for fear of removing or damaging the letters/numerals.

The end caps, and especially the end of the observation car, require a lot more elbow grease as the cast aluminum isn't nearly as shiny as the car body to begin with.  The next time I plan to try to use a buffing wheel on my bench grinder.

I think richs09 has covered it well, I also used Mothers.  There are probably lots of products that are made for unfinished aluminum.

Don't be worried when you start seeing the black on your polishing cloth, you need to see tyne black in order to see the shine.

I have also changed out the paper light diffusers on my cars using printer paper, I double it up in the center section just like AF did back in the day.

Good luck with your project and we are looking forward to seeing the after pictures,

Aflyer