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I have some '70's vintage (mpc era?) traditional 13" passenger cars that I would like to upgrade.  The upgrades I would like to do are better lighting, dual center rail pickups, and possibly some type of noise improvement.

 

Question #1, How do I get the tops off without hurting anything?  Not that these cars are hard to find, but I'd rather not trash one just figuring out how to get them open.  I would like to upgrade to led lights but first I need to get inside!

 

Question #2, Does anyone know what the part number is, or where I can find it, for the third rail pickup that presumable just clips into this truck assembly?  obviously two pickups is better than one.

 

Question #3, Can anyone relate a way to make these cars a little quieter.  They are not the worst offenders but they are rather loud.  I was thinking of possibly laying some foam inside the lower portion of the car, below the window line.  That should help some, any other ideas certainly appreciated.

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Images (4)
  • P3032214: General car side view
  • P3032210: powered truck, underside
  • P3032211: non powered truck, underside
  • P3032212: truck assembly, side view
Last edited by jhz563
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To remove the roof, squeeze the windows and the roof lifts off.  You will see windows on each side that are thisker.  They stand out, you will see them.  The cars are loud because they are light.  A small bit of weight will give you what you want.

 

On the pickups, I think they might be the same as the caboose.  That is for the 4 wheel truck.  I would look for something that would get the job done.  The stock pickups like everything MPC made were junk.

Last edited by Marty Fitzhenry

If you hold the cars at an angle, and examine the windows, you will notice that the second window ( I think that is the correct one) from each end are flush with the car body. If you press on the thicker windows and push toward the roof, the roof and window should be released from the body. Repeat on the other end of the car and the roof should lift off. The roof and the windows are one piece, and pushing in on the proper window releases the assembly from the car body. This avoids any pry marks on the roof or body. 

I did an LED upgrade of a set of those once.  I used the strips and since it was before my lighting circuit, I hand-wired a few components to power them.

 

The biggest problem with those is getting the roof off, they assumed that you had at least three hands for the task!

 

Like Marty says, I think one thing that helps those cars is some weight.  I glued stacks of large washers on the floor to add weight, made a big difference.

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