Restoration Estimate Inquiry

Too many variables to answer your question.  First off it may be 8 hours of work, but it will be many days, because there needs to be time between the restoration steps.  The next thing I would need to know is what will be the finished product?  Is he just cleaning and removing the rust?  Or is he repainting everything to make it look brand new?  I would imagine the gold trimmed boxed on the passenger cars them selves would take a long time by itself.  Any finally, I'd need to know who is doing the work and what there reputation is... there is a big difference between the $99 Earl Shrive paint special and a paint job from a seasoned artist.  

At the end of the day, it really depends on what its worth to you. 

Thanks for the reply Bossman. It's a removing rust-job. No repaint. I'd assume he's a seasoned artist, has his own restoration shop and he sells some of his restorations.

To me.. it's not worth USD$1,000 (if you count the purchase of the original.. for parts)

BTW... who's this infamous "Earl Shrive"?!! Ha!

Ariel

If its just rust removal than I would say yest it seems to by high.

"Earl Shrive" was a guy out here on the east coast that used to have auto body shops and and would paint your entire care for $99.00  It was the true epitome of "you get what you pay for"

Good like with your project

Elgaucho posted:

I'm not even sure of this train is worth that price "new"!

 

I have a couple of this small BING's; this set in like new condition had a price (sold by a BING collector, so he knew) of about $100:

And this one was just a few tens:

Regards

Fred

sncf231e posted:

Elgaucho posted:

I'm not even sure of this train is worth that price "new"!

 

I have a couple of this small BING's; this set in like new condition had a price (sold by a BING collector, so he knew) of about $100:

And this one was just a few tens:

Regards

Fred

Wow Fred! Beauties!! Do you know of any up for sale? I love these toy-like windups.

Spell it correctly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Scheib

@Bossman284 posted:

"Earl Shrive" was a guy out here on the east coast that used to have auto body shops and and would paint your entire care for $99.00  It was the true epitome of "you get what you pay for"

Actually, it's Earl Scheib Body & Paint.  I actually had them do one many years ago.  It was a quickie paint job, but it was an old beater that I just drove into Phila for work, and I wanted it to look a bit better.  I'd never let them loose on a real car.

For the $100 paint job, you get everything painted. Car body, tires and wheels, chrome, Head and tail lights, and some glass. If you leave a window open, the interior.

And if a bug happened to fly by the paint booth at an inopportune time, you'd have a painted bug hood ornament.  A friend wound up with a painted candy wrapper on the trunk lid of his 1963 Valiant.

Were you given any kind of breakdown as far as what the costs were for?….you say rust removal??….that seems kind of vague, given that some of your stuff ain’t nothing but rust, ….so what exactly transpires once the rust is removed?……BUT, as far as what an item is worth, and what a shop is going to charge to restore an item has nothing in common…..it ain’t the shop’s fault your item’s value is 10 times or even 100 times less than labor/materials to restore it,….I go through the exact same stuff 4-5 times a week,….and the famous last words are “ it isn’t even worth that much” ……and my reply always is “ I didn’t tell you to buy it “ ….bottom line is, that man charges X amount of dollars per hour to do his deed,….don’t matter if it’s 1/2 million dollar gem, or 2 dollar tyrd,….tis’ the same price …..😉

Pat

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Actually, it's Earl Scheib Body & Paint.  I actually had them do one many years ago.  It was a quickie paint job, but it was an old beater that I just drove into Phila for work, and I wanted it to look a bit better.  I'd never let them loose on a real car.

What Gunrunner said.  I got a $39.95 paint job in the late 70's and I was happy enough with it.  They advised me to wash it really good before I left it with them.

So getting back to the original thread is there any member on the forum who can take a new MTH hopper in black & paint it in the two tone Comet Blue?- if yes please email me -I wanted to create a Baby Blue Comet 263E freight set- I already have a box car & refer so I wanted to add a gondola/hopper/& coal car in the blue comet colors like below- anyone interested please email me at  dtrummer324@yahoo.com  Thank you.-Sal

@Sal V posted:

Can anyone repaint new tinplate for a decent price?

Is there any member on the forum who can take a new MTH hopper in black & paint it in the two tone Comet Blue?- if yes please email me -I wanted to create a Baby Blue Comet 263E freight set- I already have a box car & refer so I wanted to add a gondola/hopper/& coal car in the blue comet colors like below- anyone interested please email me at  dtrummer324@yahoo.com  Thank you.-Sal

@Sal V posted:

Is there any member on the forum who can take a new MTH hopper in black & paint it in the two tone Comet Blue?l

Unclear what parts would be which tone on a hopper, but this really should be a pretty straightforward DIY project.

I am a newbie to this hobby & fell in love with the look of tinplate & wondered if there is anyone on Long Island Northport area willing to help me with this project...

Someone please help this chap with his hoppers!

Maybe the hopper guy should start his own thread.

@Sal V posted:

So getting back to the original thread is there any member on the forum who can take a new MTH hopper in black & paint it in the two tone Comet Blue?- if yes please email me -I wanted to create a Baby Blue Comet 263E freight set- I already have a box car & refer so I wanted to add a gondola/hopper/& coal car in the blue comet colors like below- anyone interested please email me at  dtrummer324@yahoo.com  Thank you.-Sal

Sal

Actually, the "original thread" is about an old(er) Bing wind-up train; you might have more luck with your project if you start your own thread, as was suggested. Or you can do it yourself; it can't be that difficult, right?

Mark in Oregon

It really depends on what they are doing. Restoration can mean a lot of things, the price mentioned seems high if all they are doing is removing rust. On the other hand, if they are literally restoring it, making it mint, with paint, etc, a price like that might be in range of very fine work.

Harry Henning III does restoration of tinplate, and I can assure you a complete restoration isn't cheap, it also takes a lot of time!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Harry Henning III does restoration of tinplate, and I can assure you a complete restoration isn't cheap, it also takes a lot of time!

We need Earl Scheib *lol*.  This reminds me of people watching car auction shows and seeing the prices of the cars and they are shocked when I tell them how much it likely cost to bring the car to the shape it is in and even at the elevated price they likely have more in it than it is worth at the auction. I had an italian sports car that was in pretty rough shape, about 30 years ago I asked a restoration shop how much it would cost to restore it to decent shape (I wasn't looking for concours shape), a rough estimate based on photos, and then they said it would be like 40k...the car def wasn't worth a fraction of that in terms of resale (and I didn't have the money either).

Elgaucho

Back to your question.  You have a lot of questions you must ask.

You need to know what that train is worth now in the present condition.  EBay completed auctions may help

You need to know how much it will be worth in refurnished condition (many antiques are worth less when fixed up or modified)

You need to know what it means to you, say does it have sentimental value to you

What train could you buy with the money to fix up this old train?

Charlie

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Elgaucho

Back to your question.  You have a lot of questions you must ask.

Charlie

You do realize Elgaucho last posted to this thread back in 2018?

@Sal V posted:

Is there any member on the forum who can take a new MTH hopper in black & paint it in the two tone Comet Blue?- if yes please email me -I wanted to create a Baby Blue Comet 263E freight set- I already have a box car & refer so I wanted to add a gondola/hopper/& coal car in the blue comet colors like below- anyone interested please email me at  dtrummer324@yahoo.com  Thank you.-Sal

It's pretty easy to paint this stuff, why not give it a try yourself? Here are a couple of locomotives I did recently.

Also, I'm not sure how you would paint a hopper 2 tone blue, it would probably look best as all light blue since there is no roof.

like posted above, there are too many variables when it comes to restoration. I have noticed the term "restoration" thrown around recklessly when it comes to toy trains (and cars too..., LOL.) . To do that "BING" right, it would cost more than 20 of those trains. You cant expect a legit restoration shop to work for free. No restoration shop is a full service facility. They usually have to farm things out. The first thing that comes to mind on the OP's train set is fixing all that horrible pitting which is very hard to do and sometimes not salvageable. Then paint matching, then finding a place to reproduce the lithograph or dry transfer detail work (not sure what process BING used back then). the artwork alone that would have to be made would cost $$, the transfer itself would not be much. Very tedious. We have not even gotten into if new parts have to be made and replating of original parts and lets not forget if you have to find used original stuff to replace things as well. In the end you have to ask yourself not how much $$$$ you want to spend (you only live once) but how much is your sanity worth. LOL. In my opinion, that is what makes a restoration.

Good Luck to all on your projects.

Half the "fun" of model railroading is learning a new skill.

My younger brother offered to teach me welding, so I could help him on "his" art projects.

I passed because I don't see welding a skill I need to know yet for model railroading.

I learned electronics to wire and control model trains, that lead to running a computer store & repair shop for 20 years.

I build train layouts, first and later remodeled rental homes and apartments for my slumlord business.

I have painted model trains, scenery, and countless rooms and buildings, both models and full size.

I have repaired & installed roofing, house wiring, pluming pipes, floors and sheet-rock.

I done minor car repairs and saved hundreds in shop fees.

Four years of college & university taught me how to learn a new skill without formal training.

Google & youtube have been a great help.