This is about the 86’ auto parts cars. Some floors come kinda warped, and I think I worsened some of them using goo. So, I could cut a 1/4" off at 45 degrees at each corner, or laminate sheet brass on the last inch or two; use a different glue, or forget about it. Ideas?
Mike
Those floors often are somewhat warped to start with, and using Goo can make them even worse to be sure. Sometimes you can flatten them with careful use of heat and weights, or by gluing on rigid backing material. It may also be possible to use your fingers to bend them mostly flat before gluing anything on to help them stay that way. Flexible adhesive like Micro Bond or Poly Zap can help create stronger bonds to metal or other dissimilar material and won’t re-warp the plastic like Goo can…
I have reinforced those weak or warped floors by placing sectioned Athearn weights or equivalent. If Goo or other solvent contact cement is placed thinly and allowed to dry the plastic shouldn’t be affected. Too much or too wet a glue “trapped” between weight and plastic can cause troubles. Pliobomd rubber cement is another favorite of mine.
It may not be the floor. Set the weight on a flat surface and see if it is flat. Usually Athearn weights for all cars are bowed or twisted because the are sheared and are soft so they twist. Pressing with your thumbs on the flat surface will straighten it and vastly improve coupler height and operation.
I’m not familiar with those cars, but if the floor is in rough shape, I’d make a new floor from .060" sheet styrene. If there’s a separate underframe and it’s not too badly warped, simply use solvent-type cement to attach it permanently to the new floor.
To keep the new floor from warping, it’s easy to use more .060" as stiffeners - cut full car-length strips as deep as you think necessary (they can be the full interior height of the car if you wish), then use solvent cement to affix them to the top of the floor.
While the car shown below is only a 36’-er, the monofilament truss rods used with such a relatively thin floor required considerable stiffening, as the one-piece line is pulled tight flat on the floor, then stretched to put in place on the queen posts. The picture shows floors from the top, bottom and side:
…and here’s one of the finished cars, complete with new “wood” ends and radial roof - they were originally Tyco 40’ cars:
Wayne
In addition to the good advice already given, I glue styrene blocks to the inside of the shell at the ends and middle of the cars, then use 2-56 (or similar screws) to screw the bottom onto the body. I noticed the ribs of the underframe stick down below the body (so it’s just visible when looking at it from a low viewing angle) because of the way the two parts fit together and require some filing so the floors fit right (I’m a little picky…and am using older BB models I find at train shows).
The coupler draw bars often need to be filed smooth so they move smoothly too. After lightly filing, I rub a pencil on the surfaces to lubricate them (cheapest source for graphite I’ve found). I’ve only worked a couple of my cars this way and will eventually do all of them once the layout is ‘done’.
To address the drooping couplers, I will super glue a thin thread across the end of the body to support the coupler box. I haven’t done this yet, so I might super glue the thread to the bottom of the car instead of the body so I can still remove the body (even if I never will, I like being able to get them apart in case the need ever arises).
Newer cars or cars from another manufacturer might have different problems/solutions. I have my eye on some of the Walthers cars, but am holding off buying any more cars until I’m done with the in-progress kits I have (I have a bad habit of buying things quicker than I can finish them).
I’ve got a bunch of these for the Ford FAST train. As I recall, it wasn’t common for these longer cars to have warped or bowed floors.
Part of my standard steps for building these kits is to first take the metal weight and true it up so it is perfectly flat. That means sighting down the weight and if it is bowed or warped, just gently bend it or twist it until it is straight and true. You can put the weight on a nice flat surface of a table to check it. Then you can glue the weight to the floor. Also, when the floor is seated properly into the bottom of the box car, it will also square things up. This shouldn’t be difficult to deal with.