The pictures below are of one of my recent E-Bay buys. This Lionel 114 car cost me about $16.00 including shipping. And no it didn't look like this when I got it. It had rust on the trucks and lots of paint scrapes and chips. After a bath in Easy Off oven cleaner and quite a bit of work with a brass wire wheel it was ready to begin it's new life. Rustoleum Paint, some old Walthers O scale decals and Rustoleum Automotive clear coat have changed it from a cheap ugly old car to something that's pretty decent looking. It's still bent in few places, I need to work on the roof more it's still warped. I really enjoy buying something old and beat up like this was and turning it something that's pretty nice. I think I may go back and trade one of the couplers with a combo unit so I can hook it to my B&M caboose that you can also see in the photos.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Great job! It looks awesome! I wouldn't mind seeing the "before" picture.
Attachments
The next ones I'm working on are two 514R's that will be a Hoods Milk Car and a D&H I love NY car. I know the D&H car is totally in the wrong era but I always liked that paint scheme so I'll do one.
I'm hoping to do the same with some cheapo Marx CV's at some point. Never did the easy off- always used the bead blaster.
Nice job. See my post Polar Express. What does the clear coat do? I have noticed a few chips on my paint jobs. I use auto primer and the chips go back to bear metal. What kind of paint do you use?
This may not be the place for this reply but for rust removal try http://www.evapo-rust.com/. I have used it on many different tools. Even used it on a couple of tools with electric wires I did not want to attempt to remove and there were no ill effects. Have not used it on a train part yet but have used it on light ga. metal and heavy metal with excellent results.
very nicely done!
Above Gene mentioned paint chips and i have had problems with that also until i started clear coating with the rustoleum automotive clear coat. it put a very durable final finish on and seems to keep the paint from chipping. One part i painted and clear coated i decided i didn't like so i decoded to strip it and with the clear coat it was extremly difficult to get the paint off so this stuff really works. It also can be buffed and waxed with automotive wax to really make an item shine. Another alternative is to bake the paint which also makes a durable finish and rustoleum paint , not clearcoat, also works for this.
I bought the rustoleum clearcoat on Amazon for around $21.00/ quart, I also think Home Depot carries this.
Thanks for posting what you did. Beautiful!
Bob
Looks great what a great job you did there.
Pete,
Nice work. Thanks for posting.
Tom
Pete, you do really nice work. Very tastefully done. Keep it up.
david
Nice job, I like all the prewar stuff, glad to see you breathe new life into them.
Below is the latest work in progress, a Hoods Milk car based on a 514R. This is another ebay car that had been previously restored and now had faded paint so i don't feel guilty repainting it again. This time I used Rustoleum Hunter green and O scale decals from Highball Graphics. My photo booth is the wifes' kitchen counter using the under cabinet lights so it is glaring but it looks much better in real life.
Attachments
Pete you're giving me some ideas for some of those rusty tinplate cars I see out there......that Hoods car looks great, love the green.
Yeah - that's some serious green. I mean, that's green.
I like it!
Pete,
Great restoration jobs sir, real nice work!
PCRR/Dave
Pete, that looks awesome. I love the green.
Here's what the Hoods car looked like when I started. These pictures don't really show how badly it had deteriorated. In some areas it had changed from the original ivory white to almost a caramel color. Time had not treated this paint job well so... I striped it. I also stole a door off a second car I have, now I'll have to find one before I do that car.
Attachments
Here is how the 514 pictured above now looks. It came out pretty good. I decided to black out the ladders and brake wheels as the nickel on them was in tough shape and I was too cheap to buy new parts. Overall the effect is pleasing but I do like the bright shiny brass or nickel parts.
Attachments
Great job, I love the Hood Milk logo. My Grandfather was a commercial artist and designed the Hood Logo for their milk bottle caps.
This is a copy of his original Hood Milk drawing, on my converted tender to a Tin Plate milk car. The Logo was probably drawn around the same time these trains were made.
Attachments
I haven't done much in the last few weeks but here is my latest E-Bay buy, a Minitoys Pedestrian Bridge. It was speckled with rust when I got it and of course everyone knows how I like to paint things so I had at it. I also made a wooden foundation for it to secure it and also to raise it enough that my 17 caboose will fit under it. It may be a little small for Standard Gauge but it looks pretty good on my basement floor layout.