Hello all. I have an Intermountain BN PS 5277 boxcar. A photo can be obtained here. I want to remove the herald and “BURLINGTON NORTHERN” lettering from the panels, without removing any underlying green paint. Is this possible? Can anyone provide any tips or info?
Thanks,
Matt
Matt,
I can’t answer for the Intermountain paint jobs but I have used a mechanical pencil eraser on an Accurail hopper to remove the built date and it worked just fine. My only advice would be to NOT be over exuberant when you use the eraser. Take it slow and easy and the lettering should begin to start fading after a few passes or so.
Tom
Use a hair dryer set on warm - hot, warm up the decal throughly, this will soften the adhesive, then you can pull the decal without ripping up the paint. Carefully rub the decal along the length of the artwork, try to avoid anything sharp or hard that might damage the car. Once you have the decal started, pull it back, parallel with the decal, like you would peeling a banana, this lets the label come off with much less chance of picking or peeling the existing paint on the car.
When you have the lable removed, you can shut off the dryer, and try something like Goofoff or Goo Gone to remove any remaining adhesive left on the car.
Mineral spirits or turpentine may do as well, I would try whatever you are goin to use on an inconspicious spot or area to make sure that there will be no adverse effect to the existing finish.
I use “Detail and Decal Remover” from joes model trains. It’s pricey, but does the job on InterMountain pad printed artwork with little or no paint removal. it’s easy to apply and works in a few minutes. I removed all the “CONRAIL” and the “CR” reporting marks from an 18 ribbed hopper in about a half hour.
Fontgeek:Whatever you are talking about does not apply to model trains. It sounds like you are talking about some kind of “stickers” which are not used on model trains. Decals will not come off the way you suggest and model trains are pad printed anyway.
