I was wondering if anyone knew how to remove Bev-Bel lettering from their heavyweight passenger cars without screwing up the paint job??
I understand they aren’t decaled, but stamped. No one I’ve talked to seems to know what they are stamped with, ink or paint…
Now that Bev-Bel is history there is no way to ask the company…
Thanks for any advice!
First, Bevbel is not history-they just do not have a supply of bodies. Second the cars are not stamped ala Lionel, but pad printed with ink that is pretty much like paint. It depends on when the cars were done and what the paint is. Do a search for lettering removal and experiment with the methods you will find. What works for one - well, your results may vary.
Whoa! Wait one…Before doing anything to those cars I gotta tell you some are worth a very handsome collector’s or “gotta have” price.
Now,With that said and with a clear conscious I will tell you decal set on a Q-tip will remove the lettering.
I’ve been told that the factory is empty and has been sold. I bought MANY passenger cars (other stuff too! at giveaway pricing from a lot of cars that came from the Bev-Bel inventory sellout.
I had posted the link to the dealer that was selling off the Bev-Bel stuff. He asked me to remove it because it’s almost all gone.
Holy Blowout Prices Batman!!![wow][:O]
To second Larry/Brakie’s point, I have seen Bev Bel stuff selling at good prices – good prices, not premium prices like Lionel or brass or Maerklin – at swap meets where factory fresh stuff was selling very cheaply. Me, I believe that trains are meant to be used and run and weathered but nonetheless I guess it is worth thinking about. And frankly compared to a new standard list price Walthers or P2K car or ready to roll Athearn, the prices for Bev Bel are still on the cheap side so decide accordingly.
I remember when Bev-Bel and an outfit you might not have heard of, Kar Line, first started their runs of special paint jobs on, mostly, Athearn bodies. I guess we run-of-the-mill modelers weren’t so much into counting panels and rivets and end corrugations and darts back then. Or rather there were fewer magazines and authorities pointing out these things to us. Since then i think the guys who are ultra fussy about accurate paint, lettering and numbers have also gotten fussy about the car itself which might explain Bev Bel’s fate. As for Kar Line I have not seen their stuff for a long time. Curiously the magazines which did so much to bring information about accurate prototype freight car details seem to be the same ones that are struggling or even failing, but that is another story.
Dave Nelson
Bev-Bel’s demise might also because Horizon Hobbies now owns Ahearn and Roundhouse and may not be interested in selling bulk quantities of undecorated models to others. Do they even offer undec boxcars and such these days?
If you can find 'em.
Dave,The older cars seems to be the most desired…I been offered $50.00 for this car.Why I have no idea.I have a lot of Bev-Bel cars in my collection but,that one seems to be a very rare road name…
As far as collecting…There are many operating collectors that collect certain types of cars and use 'em.I collect IPD short line boxcars and I use 'em…
That that is a nice looking car.
Collectors can be hard to figure out sometimes, or rather, we are ALL collectors … it’s the people who collect stuff that we don’t collect who are hard to figure out. [(-D]
I once went on a layout tour to an O scale layout and the owner apologized that most of his vehicles were out-of-scale “Dinky Toys.” On the bus ride back one guy said “did you see those Dinky Toys? Some of them are worth $1000!” I had no idea …
Dave Nelson