seeking advice for repainting a standard gauge caboose

I have used oven cleaner to remove all kinds of paint from tinplate. I like to remove all the old paint and remove all the rust and corrosion. I also repair all the bad joints and knock out all the dents.

I repaint with a self etching automobile primer. Lightly buff the primer with oooo steel wool and use rust oleum shaker can or auto paint in the can. After three weeks of drying I lightly buff with Nufinsh auto wax.

I also re-nickel the couplers, handrails and wheels. But I get a lot of enjoyment out of polishing the brass. A lot of the nickel parts are brass.

Remember gloves and mask at all times.  

Here is what I do in Standard gauge repainting:

Standard Gauge "Junk" to a Observation Car Tribute (warrenvillerailroad.com)

Building a Standard Gauge Diner (warrenvillerailroad.com)

When I had a sandblaster, all my tinplate restorations were started with complete paint removal in the sandblaster. It is quick and easy. Paint stripper works, just takes more time and effort.

As far as painting is concerned, I do not prime my pieces. I spray them with regular spray paint in a can. I do bake my restorations in a homemade box "oven" to harden the paint.

Here are some photos from a 517 caboose restoration.

Here are some other pieces I have restored.

@NJCJOE posted:

...As far as painting is concerned, I do not prime my pieces. I spray them with regular spray paint in a can. I do bake my restorations in a homemade box "oven" to harden the paint...

What temperature does your "oven" reach?  I have a box that is used for drying chair rungs that were cut from green wood; it uses a light bulb and can be adjusted up to about 200 degrees.  Is that hot enough?

And that pile of 517 parts looks very familiar...

without primer any imperfection on the metal surface reflect. Primer gives me an even finish. A lot of my cars were in bad rusted condition. Some required body filler.

mixed results with baking. some times they crackle and develop hairline cracks. Yellow and Orange do not like baking for me.

I use two 60 watt light bulbs in my box oven, which is approximately 24" square. The box is lined with heavy duty aluminum foil. I usually bake for about an hour.

200 degrees should be sufficient.

How long do you guys let the final coat cure before applying decals?  Do you shoot a clear coat after the decals are applied?

I clear coat the brass and use car wax for the paint. I wait three weeks for all the paint to cure. I have used the oven 170 for 20 mins. However it only works good on dark colors like dark blue, dark green, dark brown and black. Bright colors like yellow, orange, lime (highlight), red, light blue and white need several coats and if i dry too quickly they then to crackle and develop tiny cracks. I believe its the amount of layers needed to give a good coverage. so just waiting for the paint to cure slowly works for me. I will post some more cars tonight. As i stated before i buy wrecks covered in rust and dents. I have no intention to decal my cars.

With the record amount of pickers (resellers not hobbyist)  and the extremely high prices for cars i am limited to the junk piles for my entertainment.

so some of my projects before and after

One more and the sand blaster what a disappointment that was. Even with walnut shells it was no match for oven cleaner. Plus oven cleaner doesn’t pit the soft metal and dull the finish. Good thing it was cheap.

I have enjoyed reading this thread because I recently acquired a pre-war Lionel 253 set (loco and three cars).  I want to refurbish the set.  The sheet metal is in very good condition except for the paint.  I have been looking for a way to strip the paint off the body and frame.  It appears that there are a lot of different opinions out there.  Posters have talked about using commercial paint strippers, sand/grit blasting, alcohol bath, Tide detergent in hot water, Draino, brake fluid, oven cleaner, and probably a few other approaches that I've forgotten.  I would prefer to stay away from the harsh chemicals.  I've been exposed to enough hazardous materials over the course of my career that I would like to stay away from anything that requires a respirator, face shield, and thick gloves.  My questions are "What method do you use to strip paint from pre-war Lionel trains?  And why do you use that method?"

John

Oven cleaner just try. Spray on wait 20 mins and wash with warm tap water with dish soap. I use a old toothbrush to remove the paint int the cracks and corners.  I do this in my basement deep sink. The can states it’s safe.

Couple cars repainted and drying. Passenger car had several coats of paint that I removed with oven cleaner. It appeared to be the original paint and two additional coats. Top coat was brushed on latex house trim. All washed off. The second observation car had a lot of rust and dents. I tapped as much I could.

For stripping, I used Purple Power. It's slower than some methods, but if you can let soak for a few days it works well and doesn't damage the fragile tin surface like some aggressive abrasive methods are apt to do. Original paint comes off fairly quickly. Modern paint takes longer. ZEP works just as well, but PP tends to be a little cheaper and I can get it right downtown at Walmart.

I was ready to drop big coin on a sand blast cabinet and compressor, but was convinced the chem strip method was the way to go for tinplate.

I usually have a few open projects. Let one shell sit in the soak tank while I work on something else for a few days.

Thank you Michael and CJ.  I appreciate your willingness to share your experience with me (and the rest of the forum)!  Since I have more than enough individual pieces to work with, maybe I'll try several different methods and see what works best for me.

John

I assembled the cars last night. I still have touch up to do, wax/buff and install the flicker free led lighting. I am showing here with my MTH 710 car. I didn’t want to match the paint on the 710. I just wanted them to complement each other.

So I striped off the thick flat paint off my 260E that I won on the Bay and look what I found underneath. It’s purple and copper patina I think I might be in love.

what do you all think do apply a clear coat and run her as is .

The worst thing I repainted was an old tinplate station I got from Cabin Fever for around $20.00.

The metal was damaged from the rust. I took it apart and soaked it in Zep's Driveway cleaner from Home Depot. That took it down to bare metal. I then used a sandable primer and kept sanding it until it smoothed out the bad sections.

Scott Smith

I did a repaint of some old 418 series cars last fall.

Removing them from the bucket of Zep.

Like everyone else, I've used several of the methods and really they all work pretty well.  I've also used electrolysis and used a crockpot with A&H detergent and those both work pretty good as well. I also use the Eastwood blackening solution, shown on the 249E motor, made that thing look new. Also using it on the formerly plated parts on the army train.

@scott.smith posted:

The worst thing I repainted was an old tinplate station I got from Cabin Fever for around $20.00.

The metal was damaged from the rust. I took it apart and soaked it in Zep's Driveway cleaner from Home Depot. That took it down to bare metal. I then used a sandable primer and kept sanding it until it smoothed out the bad sections.

Scott Smith

How much was the shipping

@Michael Roth posted:

How much was the shipping

$25.00

MTH hasn't made all the 500 series cabooses we want/need. They never made a 500 series purple or the Lionel Corporation to match the 500 series club cars. All 4 cabooses here are custom redo's of old Lionel #517's.

Scott Smith

@scott.smith posted:

$25.00

You got a deal I won 5 dollars worth of plastic trusses and they charged me 45.00 to ship. 15.00 for shipping and 30.00 for processing and handling. I won another 5 dollar small box of cardboard houses they wanted 28.00 to ship. So I told them to send back to restock. I can’t win for nothing on that site. I see stuff go for way pass train show prices. Funny thing though I do see a lot of stuff ends up on the Bay.

Just finished polishing the old wheels, next clean spokes and paint red

Mock-up of the 260e not ready for assembly need a week to dry. Next step full motor tear down, replate all nickel plating, polish all the brass and copper, clear coat all the metal work and install the custom modifications.

The finished product.  Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Hot dang now that’s what I’m talking about Great Job !

Very nice job!

BTW, what's everybody doing for lettering and decals on prewar? I liked to use J&A dry transfers, but they've pretty much closed up. I've never used stamps.