Does anyone have any suggestions for removing old nose decals without harming the paint? I tried scotch tape, pressing then tearing the tape off, as I hear this will remove brittle decals. No luck.
The problem is that part of the nose decal is missing, and the half that remains is stubborn to stay put… any thoughts?
Becareful! I used mircroscale to remove decals on a PW American flyer box car 922 to be specific and it took the paint off too! If you don’t care about the decal start with palmolive dish soap and an artist brush, if this does not work than soak it in it overnight than start again. Work slowly, time is on your side here…
Another thing to consider is to make sure what you are trying to remove is really a decal. Lionel used some complex metal and/or silk screen paint masks for many of their products with decals only being used in places with complex compound curves. Even the Santa Fe warbonnet scheme is mostly paint (I think they used a 20 step masking process).
Many of the modern equipment also uses extensive use of paint masks for recording marks and other decorations. These need to be removed (very carefully) with solvents like PolyS Easy Liftoff. Stuff is great but you need to be carefull with it. It can (and does) strip paint if left on too long. I usually use it sparingly on a Q tip and immediately remove the residue. It works better to repeatedly apply sparingly than to saturate and hope for the best. Stuff is pretty noxious so only use in a well ventilated area and avoid prolonged skin contact.
WD40 or plain ole cooking oil, neither will hurt the paint but is very good at removing price stickers, that sort of thing.
It is a decal. I just took a look at my 2344.
Jim
The warm water soak with jus a couple of drops of dishwashing detergent works great. the key is, to take your time. those decals have had over fifty years to get nice and hard, so it may take more than 5 minutes. Its worth the effort. I hope you were able to locate original lionel waterslide decals.
Thanks to all for your great help and advice! Yeah, it took a while, but finally freed my decals using dishsoap and a soft toothbrush… the great news is that the paint remained totally intact.
Thanks again!
I have been creating my own decals using a printer and pappillo paper - to get a good start try laying the train in your scanner and scan the side of the train or whever the decal is. Then you use your photoshop or whatever to refine the picture and create a decal - its simple but it works great - I duplicated all the paint scheme and lettering on my texas specials with this method. (it takes alot of time but it cost next to nothing to do)