Hey friends,
As I shared in the “What did you buy today” thread, I picked up these damaged Santa Fe 18” aluminum passenger coaches today for a song thinking they’d make for a nice project to restore. I knew full well that this line of passenger cars from Lionel suffer from zinc pest on the truck frames, couplers, underbody details, and roof vents.
I’m not unfamiliar with zinc past, as I’ve had to deal with it on a few other models (although ironically I have the full set of Lionel SP Lines daylight 18” aluminum coaches from 2005 and have never had any symptoms of zinc pest on those).
My question is, since the original trucks with couplers and roof vents are no longer available from Lionel, what have those of you who have had cars from this line done? Are there other sources for these parts, or other trucks that can be used?
Trying to decide if I want to go forward with the project while I’m still in a return window. Perhaps I made a mistake, but they were just so beautiful and so cheap...
