Seeking guidance on repainting Lionel F3 die cast frames

Wow lots of questions ...

First for the cast chassis and trucks. I would blast them with baking soda. Then prime them. Look for imperfections and sand with a 500 or finer grit. Reprime them, bake on wife's cookie.tray at 200 for 15 minutes. Inspect for any defects. Repeat above if required. If things look good. And you survived the beatings, spray your color coat. Bake at 200 for 10 min. Let dry for an additional. 24 hrs.

Plastics. I would chemically etch it. I use isopropyl (sp) alcohol.wait 1min for flash off time. Then paint. I don't prime due to paint build up. Next I dull coat the entire lot after decals and weathering.

Hope this helps! And have fun!

If they're really bad, I just take a wire wheel to themand then shoot them with semi-gloss and let dry. Remember that they are black and low so no one really see any flaws in the trucks or bolsters.

Yes only a few of us do. Unless you take them down to the Auto body shop.
Careful with the strippers and fluids, not only are they toxic and tricky to dispose of. But they're not cleaned off of the part they can wick out later on and destroy plastics and your new paint job

Someone in the past talked about how to remove the white oxidation material from trucks - unfortunately I don't remember what the method was. Some sort of liquid, I believe, but hopefully someone will talk more about it. As far as paint, I have found Krylon Semi-Flat Black spray to be a good match for Lionel trucks and frames, although a few of the older Lionel trains from the MPC days had more of a straight flat finish. The semi-flat looks better, though, and I'd think about repainting with that finish. I've used it without primer with good results, as long as the surface is clean.

I found that using white vinegar and a brush will remove that white stuff with a little work. I mixed it 75/25 with water. Worked great for me. The inner truck frames that are stamped steele look great if you wire wheel them with a dremel and give them 2 coats of Burchwood Casey gun blue. The wipe on a little wd-40.

Rob

 

On metal I would use solvent paint stripper, then clean the residue off with lacquer thinner. Use a metal pan and pour whats left in can or glass bottle. Most towns now have days when you bring your waste chemicals for proper disposal. You can also use liquid laundry detergent and/or Simple Green which is OK pour on the ground or down the drain. But expect to soak the parts (plastic safe also) for a few days up to a week.

I rarely use primer. Lionel never did and look how long the paint lasted. PJ1 Satin Black is a reasonable match for frame black. Some sheet metal frames were painted gloss black. PJ1 is used on motorcycle frames and resists chipping better than most hardware store paint. Check your local motorcycle shop. If you can't find it locally you can get from Amazon.

 

BTW follow (Old)Rob's advice and you won't need to paint the truck sideframes.

 

Pete

The info. in post was very helpful to me.
I have some diecast Lionel trucks to paint.
After sitting in 91% isopropyl alcohol overnight, the paint came off easily.  Just needed a little help from a toothbrush and a toothpick, to get into small areas.

Thinking of repainting an original MTH Railking with Daylight paint to black and use it as a freight hauler with 027 cars. I never could find smaller passenger cars I was happy to run with this and I want to run it more since I put Electric RR cruise in it. 

 

Searched and found this about stripping paint from die cast. I'm assuming either a paint solvent and 91% alcohol would also work in my case for this loco and also does anyone have recommendation for dry transfers for Southern Pacific freight lettering.

If you have access to a small air compressor, Harbor Freight has the answer. It's called an "Air Eraser". It looks like a air brush except you can spray mild abrasives with it. I prefer walnut shells. Harbor sells all the mediums in small packages.

It works great on my 100+ year-old tinplate without making much of a mess. The "gun" cleans easily without soap or water. Mine was on sale at less than $50.00.

Thanks Pappy. Was going to stop by my local Harbor Freight this weekend any so I'll check this out too.