A couple of months ago, I bought an old Walthers “meat reefer” kit at a train show. This week when I took the box out to assemble the kit, I found one coupler box cover was missing. The first thing I thought of was call Walthers customer service, but the copyright on the kit directions is 1995, so I think the likelyhood of getting a replacement part is low. Also, I was in a 4 year old mood (I whanit NOW!! [swg]), so I decided to make a replacement.
The coupler box cover is held on with a flat head screw; the kit did have both screws. I started by tracing the existing cover on to 0.030 a piece of styrene, which is the same thickness as the original cover. The machinists angle block from MicroMark is a handy tool for holding things steady.
I cut the styrene with a razor saw, filed the rough edges, and checked the size of the styrene against the original cover. I noticed that the original cover has a recess around the edge to keep it from turning around the screw. I marked the width of this on the styrene, and glued Evergreen scale 1x4 to the inside of my marks. (The original cover is the black one.)
I traced the location of the screw hole from the original cover to the styrene, and measured the diameter of the hole by trying different size drill bits in the hole of the original cover. I drilled a #47 hole in the styrene
This cover uses a flat head screw, but I do not have a countersink. I used a 1/4 wood bit, carefully rotating it with my fingers, to make a countersink hole. (This is not necessary for a flat head or round head screw.)
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