Engine paint touch-up

Good afternoon Mark,

What I did when errantly removed some of the paint on my Lionel GP30 was to go to my local auto paint store (Genesee Paint here in Utica), with my unit, and had them match it.  They put it in a spray can for me, and matched the finish as well.  This type of paint takes a number of coats to cover.

Then, I carefully masked off the top of the unit, with the tape at either mold parting lines or sections, and then carefully layered the paint so that I had a smooth, even surface.

On a recent die cast fuel tank that was chipped, I did this process and it matches well, but now I need to go back and sand / repaint to get rid of the depression where the chip was (my fault for not filling it first).  With that said, if there is a chip or paint missing that is deep enough to feel, then I would fill and sand flush first, before painting.

For yours, I would mask off at the top of the car body filter, but I can't tell where you would at the front.

If you don't want to spray it, the same auto paint company should be able to custom mix you a touch-up bottle as well.  What's nice about doing this is they will mix in the correct amount of clear to match the shininess of the finish.

The cab roof and top of the skyline casing from the number boards back were painted, not including the intake filter.

FYI... Lionel NYC black is a match for Ford Ebony, but a little flatter.

Good luck.

Thanks,

- Mario

Contact Weaver they have their scale-coat line of paints for al railroad colors. available in spray and bottle

Steve

With black paint the biggest concerns are

-sheen/gloss

-texture

-size of the repair

The sheen is the more obvious one, but the texture is the one that really makes or breaks the touch up.

Try to brush/dab paint only on the white area, not letting any slop over to the surrounding black area. If some gets over to the black, roll a Q-tip over the black area. Don't wipe it, just lay the Q-tip on it and roll it in your fingers, like you used to roll your pencil along a long line in drafting class.

In my opinion, this is absolutely not a spray job. If you spray it, you will have a big area of non-matching paint. If you paint with a brush and keep the touch up to the size of the chip and only that size, it will not be noticeable unless you look for it.

Do not use a magic marker. They dry shiny and purple.

would be nice if the manufacturers would put together a section on their websites of color codes or even color names on the available models for touch up reasons. 

Sounds like a great idea to me too.

Agreed. There are also inconsistencies between manufacturers as to which colors they use. I've found mismatches on Santa Fe Blue and Yellow, and CNW Green and yellow (didn't help that CNW used two different yellows, but the model manufacturers missed both).

You'd be surprised where some of the paint comes from.  S-Helper Service said they would submit color samples to the builder and the paint then came from Hyundai.

Rusty

BTW... don't mix acrylics and enamels, when wet... that's where I made a mistake.  So don't look at the orange peel on my cab, that was my fault.

I still might do it over again, before I dull coat and weather.

Rusty... cool!

Thanks,

- Mario