Tinplate Patina?

In my experience, patina is only valuable if it looks good. If these cars don't look good to you, they probably won't look good to others, too. I don't think you should be concerned about cleaning the cars, dirt isn't patina, it's just dirt.

I always clean my tinplate trains - as noted above - dirt is just dirt.

Clean tinplate is the way to go. You want to be able to enjoy those bright glossy tinplate colors. If you want dirt and grime you should be looking at O scale items that are weathered. Just my opinion.

Great info!

Thanks to all.

Mannyrock

It all comes down to personal preference Manny ... but in older tinplate items of value , cleaning should be done minimally and in such ways that you don't adversely affect the original finish .. Of course that all comes with the proviso of ...are you buying for your own enjoyment? , or collecting hoping to make a profit later on ?... Each path will take you in seperate directions regarding cleaning , or god forbid ( lol ) restoring

Something is only ever original once and if you personally love shiny shiny and plan to reduce the value of what you have , then by all means repaint or "restore" ... of course thisis all relative to the value of a piece .

No one is gonna go apeshyte if you clean and steel wool a Marx caboose , but do that to a 1910 Georges Carette loco will be a different story lol ( as you flush $100 bills down the toilet with each wipe of a silicone waxed rag lol )

Once you buy something , its yours to do with as you please , but yeah the same Gun example DOES apply to the older rarer stuff ...

I'll add that you should probably test your cleaning method on an out of the way spot of the car before you move on to the whole thing, just to be sure that you don't damage the original finish.

Thanks Guys,

I'll make sure I don't buy any rare valuable cars.  I think I'll limit my cleaning to warm soap and water, and then an overnight dip in rust remover.  But, I guess I had better experiment with a really beat up worthless car, to make sure the rust remover doesn't remove the paint!   

Mannyrock

Speaking of rust remover, I see HD has quite a few products under a search for "rust remover". I am guessing there work somewhat differently. Is their a commonly available product that people have used with success? I am thinking mostly of prewar couplers and trucks, not necessarily a total restoration.

@Will posted:

Speaking of rust remover, I see HD has quite a few products under a search for "rust remover". I am guessing there work somewhat differently. Is their a commonly available product that people have used with success? I am thinking mostly of prewar couplers and trucks, not necessarily a total restoration.

All I can do is pass along my own experience - I am new to the painting/refinishing portion of this hobby. Evaporust works great for me, but generally takes overnight - on some REALLY BAD cases it took 3 days, but the stuff I was cleaning was so badly destroyed by rust (giant pits on wheels, part of the flanges missing), I ended up tossing them anyway!!!

I will say this - be very careful of putting chemically blackened stuff (like diesel side frames) in Evaporust - the blackening got removed right along with the rust on mine!

George

Evaporust works great.  Just have to lift your product out of the bucket every 24 hours, and check it in bright light, to see what the status of the cleaning is.

What I really like about Evaporust is that once you have finished with your project, you just put a funnel in the container bottle and dump the Evaporust right back into it.   It's a little brown, but still potent.   The instructions say to do this.

I think I saw an ad once that said one gallon can remove a half pound of rust.

Mannyrock

Mannyrock, actually there have been several occasions when I purchased a rare and valuable car for much, much less than one would expect because it was filthy and I knew I could clean it up with no problems.  The Bing car below was one of those items - I wish I had taken a picture of the car before I cleaned it - the roof was a dirty gray/brown, and the sides were just plain dirty. 

  If you look closely at the doors you can see what looks like damage to the litho wood side treatment - it's not - it is some kind of partial litho print failure - the doors on the other side have the same pattern.

@GeoPeg posted:

I will say this - be very careful of putting chemically blackened stuff (like diesel side frames) in Evaporust - the blackening got removed right along with the rust on mine!

This is actually because the blackened finish is very similar to rust. In fact, one method to blue metal is called "rust bluing", where the item is rusted in a controlled manner and then the rust is converted to that blue finish.

FATMAN summed it up well! 

RSB: VERY NICE (textbook?) cleaning of that Bing reefer to its original "patina". BRAVO, Sir!  :-)

@Will posted:

Speaking of rust remover, I see HD has quite a few products under a search for "rust remover". I am guessing there work somewhat differently. Is their a commonly available product that people have used with success? I am thinking mostly of prewar couplers and trucks, not necessarily a total restoration.

I've found the most effective rust remover for unpainted parts to be white vinegar.  I leave the parts in it for at least several hours, overnight is most effective, and the rust brushes right off.

But use it carefully.  It's also an effective paint remover.

I get some prewar items that are so abused cosmetically that they can't be sold for any real money.  Those are my restoration candidates.  To remove old paint, I soak them in white vinegar and leave them overnight. 

Malcolm Laughlin

Robert, that Old Dutch car was an incredible find!

Mannyrock

Don't forget, the old-timers and I believe Lionel back in the day, would use light oil such as 3 in 1 or sewing machine oil. I still use it in certain cases and doesn't hurt the paint/litho. Be sure to use cotton swabs and clean off all the excess when done. Agree Robert got a good find, it takes an educated eye to see under the dirt!

"it takes an educated eye to see under the dirt!"....and the talent to safely remove it! (wink)