marx 6" tin passenger car restoration

all depends on how bad the chips/scratches are. I leave them be myself, thinking of the joy some child had putting those marks there. Can you post some pics of your cars?

There are no standard Marx reds for repaints, especially given the various conditions of the cars due to exposure to sunlight etc. What I have done is to take them to an automotive paint store and have them scan the color to come up with an acceptable match. Most will have to be custom mixed, however, the paint techs know how to tint the formula to tweak the color match even further. The paint they produce could be used for full repaint or touch-up. As for the window treatments, stripes and logos, possibly you could photograph them and produce a decal from a color printer to reproduce the scheme.

they came in the mail today.  the paint is good but extremely dull.  they must have been in a basement for years.  should i wash with soap (dawn) and water or is there some sort of special cleaner i should use.

Dawn dishwashing liquid is fine, but instead of immersing the cars, I take just the foam up to rub on the car.  Facial tissues are gentle for that.  Also, I have used Nu Finish car polish to bring up the sheen.  If the washing alone doesn't do the trick, try a little of the Nu Finish in one area.  If that doesn't bring back enough shine, you may have to go to the finest grade auto rubbing compound.  Unless, of course, you don't mind sacrificing originality and just want to spray them with clear gloss.

For the nicks, I should think you could mix up a match using paints like Testor's or Tamaya.  For total repaint, I think Jim O'C has your solution.  Hope this helps.

i did the dawn and i'm going to have to move on to the wax.  i bought 9 in the lot.  i think 5 or 6 will clean up ok.  on 2 or 3 the paint is rough and i believe it's rust coming thru.  they may buff out.  i'm missing both couplers off of 1 (joy line couplers) and 1 of the plastic couplers is broke.  i got some bent axels too.  i'm going to be looking for "parts"...

The guys have given sound advice on preserving and renewing the original lithograph finish.  However, I thought I would include an option if you do happen to get a car that is too far gone for conservation.

I stripped the litho and rust off some cars and painted them red.  I then printed out my own graphics on decal paper and applied them to the cars.  The graphics were made using the simple "Paint" program that comes with Windows.  I know it's not for everyone, but it is an option for cars that are in very poor condition:

A painted car body with decal printed, trimmed and ready to apply:

The finished car:

What did you use to strip the paint?

Thanks,

Bob

James, that looks terrific!  I'd love to have a copy of your design.  A guy could even personalize the car and add your own kid's names!  I'll try to keep things as original as I can but there's 2 or 3 that may need repainted. 

This is the type of stuff that makes this forum so great!  Thanks to everyone!  jeff

Litho will come off with alcohol, but since these cars were rust buckets, I went old school and used an angle grinder with a wire brush cup wheel.  Overkill?  Yes.  Effective?  Oh yeah!  It takes a light touch, and always keep the brush rotating away from the edge of the metal, never toward the edge.

As a side note, one of the cars actually had a hole rusted in the side.  I soldered a tin patch on the back and used to Bondo to fill the remaining depression.  It was a good car to use for the project.

The complete train... sorry for the poor quality picture, taken a few years ago with an old camera.  The observation was originally a 6" tin caboose:

Jeff (and everyone else that is interested), I am attaching the basic passenger car graphic that I used.  I think anybody should be able to right click and select "Save As" to save it to their computer.  Now, the bad news:  The cars I used have smooth sides; they are actually rusted out tenders.  As such, I doubt that my graphics will line up with the embossed or punched windows on actual Marx 6" passenger cars.  However, it should be possible to make a graphic that will line up using "Paint".  The graphic I am posting doesn't have any lettering; you will need to add your own using Paint.  My cars are custom lettered using my last name at the top and local town names on the passenger cars.  If you use the graphic, no guarantees that it will print at the right size. You will need to do some test printing on plain paper and tweak the size using the percentage adjustment in the print options.  Also, it is a pain to apply that big of a decal, but if I can do it, anyone can.

Again, I realize this option isn't for everyone, but something to consider if you would like to customize a 6" tin passenger car.  If anyone decides to do a custom car, I would love to see the results!

Cool idea! Wonder if the graphic would fit on these?

http://www.littleglitterhouses...ingTinTrainCars.aspx

Howard's cars are based on Marx 6" tin so the graphics should fit just fine, using the same adjustment with the print percentage that I mentioned earlier. Give it a try...  

Here's a couple of PDF files by Wayne Beachey for some holiday cars.

Steve

Here are some JPGs for a fleet of NYC 6" coaches. These are from the old Faux Wraps line.

I have other stuff for those interested.

Steve

The joy line couplers are easily available. but, for originality, they would have had the steel wheels. Not that it matters on a repaint. Are the frames the early joy line-type with the white journals?

Steve, I would be interested in any other faux wrap pdfs you might have. the auto loader, hiawathas, circus cars, sp daylights? Was very sad to see the company go into permanent hiatus. They had some great stuff.

2 have the white highlights on the frame and cut out windows

Steve, those wraps look interesting. Talk to you about those on Sunday.

Bob

I will be bugging you to learn how to wrap. 

Bob

I'd love that Evans Autoloader. If anyone spots a similar file let us know.

I bought 9 passenger cars on an auction site on the bay for a little over 10.50 each.  there was 1 pic of the trains and it wasn't that good of a picture.  I went by the rep of the auction house and their grading of "very good" condition.  when they came, I had missing tabs, bent axels, poor paint, broke/missing couplers, and some dents.  most easily repairable but the poor paint.  yesterday, I sent them back.  so, if you see the auction out there again in the next month or so, bid accordingly, it's a pretty rough lot.

anytime some one has bare minimum pics, I always ask for more. sometimes it seems like the seller doesn't take a pic on purpose. Sometime when I get additional pics my fears are verified, sometimes not.and a few times I get an excuse to why they can't take additional pics, and I take a pass.

and I've had this happen with cars as well. When I lost my road runner to a fire, I was looking on the bay. Found one for a good price within driving distance. Seller had a lot of pics, but none of known areas for rust. I e mailed for more pics, and sure enough swiss cheese.

why can't people just be straight forward? In china's case, I like projects, and if the seller had shown the bad areas, for that price, he probably would have had a happy customer(me) instead of a return.

I've bought things from this place before and always had good luck.  when I brought up the issue initially, they suggested a partial refund.  I thought, if they knock some off, I'll take a chance.  No response, no response, and then eventually an email on how to print the return label.  as I was packing them up last night, I knew I was making the correct decision.