I had been searching for some time for an MTH Amtrak Superliner Transition Sleeper car with the idea that I will couple it behind my other superliners and attach a "special" private car to be towed at the end of the train like I often see on the Coast Starlight here on the Central Coast of CA.
On the LCCA interchange, one such car was listed and I contacted the seller and mailed my check.
Even before my check arrived, the seller had already shipped the car to me.
Unfortunately, when the package arrived, the car had been badly damaged:
I sadly notified the seller who filed a claim with USPS and returned my check. In a few days, he let me know that the USPS paid his claim (limited to $ 50) for the $ 55 sale price. He told me he did not want the car back and I should do with it as I wish.
I then proceeded to take a more careful look at the car and found much worse damage as all four plastic "bosses" were broken off from the body of the car:
Now it was a real challenge! At the hardware store I found both a plastic welder (epoxy) glue as well as JB Weld Plastic Weld. After a lot of planning I was able to position the bosses correctly and using the plastic welder glue re-attached them to the car body. I decided to use smaller screws so as not to stress the bosses when the body gets re-attached. Repairing the end of car cracks took a careful application of super glue to re-unite the cracked parts, followed by using the JB Weld as body filler. I needed to build up some spots that were totally broken off which took some creative molding of the products around a small piece of wood to re-form the end door opening. I bought some silver paint and was able to touch up the repair, but the cracks were still just too messy looking:
Thinking that it may be an opportunity for a bit of graffiti to cover the worst damage, I changed my mind when I looked up on my office shelf and spotted a very small flag. Since the car is a Phase Three paint scheme, covering the damaged areas with more red white and blue seemed natural. I glued the stars and stripes onto a piece of clear transparency sheet and then carefully cut the pieces to glue and fit over the damaged end of the car.
I am satisfied with the end result of this project – see below:
I guess I could have waited to find another car to buy, but I really hated to see this car be sent to the trash.
LOL it may have cost less to buy another car!
great job !!
