My “cheap” repainted gondola I ordered finally showed up - turns out it was not a very good paint job and you can still read the original labels through the black pain. It’s like they are a slightly different texture? Any advice on how to fix this? I was thinking if I could just strip everything down to the original plastic, I could repaint it again? Or will a couple more coats of black paint do it???
Here’s my crazy idea !! I have one my son put all kinds of scrap in & you can even put a white line through that area, which, like on the real RRs, it means the car is on its way to get scrapped ! You can also put more paint on that area & weather it with rust, etc. to look real beat up as some are on the real RRs ! A car like that can be a real fun project if you don’t have a lot in it ! Oh, I remember getting cars like that at train shows years ago for only 4 & 5 dollars, but they get much more today.
Thanks, John
JIM,
I repainted tankers and used Krylon, Fusion paint made exclusively for plastics. You might want to scratch up the paint job for better adhesion.
laz57
Thanks guys - the original owner used flat black spray paint on it already. I’ll grab some black Krylon and see what happens. Char is into crapbooking and has some weird tools that can make stick on letters and some other shapes like moons and cats. She can turn the paper into stickers somehow. I’ll get some bright orange paper and let the kids decorate with BOO Lines or something similar, then make the vats of blood and slime etc with the colored gluesticks I bought. I’ll post some pics when done - thanks for the info!
Is that a typo or was it intentional?
Jim, At the last train show I went to, I picked up a $3 MPC era gondola (Republic Steel) so my daughter could repaint and decorate it. I noticed that even if we repainted it, the heat-stamped lettering would still show through. My daughter didn’t seem to mind. Jim
Uh, yeah, I meant to type scrapbooking [;)][}:)][:o)]
Good point Jim!
I don’t believe Lionel MPC used heat stamping in production. I think graphics were silk screened. If you do not want old letter to show through on a repaint job, you need to strip the paint. On most early production MPC era cars, you’ll be left with the car color, since MPC used colored plastic. Original formula PineSol or automotive brake fluid will work for stripping paint.
The silk screened lettering on most MPC era cars is thick enough that it will show through as raised color on repaints unless you strip it off first. Heat stamping is another story. Not only do you have the color of the heat stamped letter, but you have some embossment of the plastic with the lettering. With heat stamped cars, you’ll probably want to do some very car light sanding and even using some plastic fill.
Boy, it must have been a cob-job if old color is showing through on a repaint that is black. My suggestion (being an expert at this) is that when you set about to repaint a car, after you have stripped old lettering/paint and cleaned the car in a mild dish detergent, is to paint the car with primer first. Paint all sides, inside out if you want the car to be opaque. And you need to use a dark primer: either black, gray or rust oxide. Don’t use white primer for a first coating. If you intend to paint the car a lighter color such as yellow, after you do the darker color primer, then give a quick couple coats of white primer on the outside areas, so that the final yellow paint will shlow better.
Lighter colors such as beige, yellow, white, orange, light red, pale blue etc. will requre more coatings to go over the black, gray or rust colored primer. And yellow in particular will not completely cover a black primer coating. Seems like an extra step, but the dark primer will insure an opague car. The next coating of white primer will help your final color look its best.
Thanks for the info guys, I’m printing this out - too much to remember.
All this talk of repainting gondolas inspired me. I have a MPC Republic Steel gondola in blue, and I didn’t like that color. I have always wanted a PW Green 6462 gondola, so I primed the Republic Steel gondola, and am in the process of painting it with 145 Accessory Green Train Enamel. However, after giving it the chance to dry overnight, the paint is still slightly tacky. Is this normal? As always, any info is appreciated.
Jim
Jim, it all depends on the particular bands of paint that you used. As a general rule, I have noticed some brands of primer need a bit longer to dry. If you painted over the primer before it had a chance to completely dry, this could contribute to the tackiness of your final color coat. Of course, it could also be that the brand of green you used just takes longer to dry. Consider that air humidity can also affect drying time. Long and short, depending on the brand you used, yes it is normal.
One of the main reasons I like the Spray-N-Go is that it really dries in 10 minutes. Spray-N-Go was discontinued and became Perfect Brands and then Touch-N-Tone. I also use a paint booth I made from an old hevy cardboard box with a clamp light at the top with a ceramic fixture. Don’t use a higher wattage bulb than a 60 or 75 watt for this set up. I also put a couple of higher wattage clamp lights sideways in front of the paint booth box. I use one of those Tupperware spinning organizers (kind of like a Lazy Susan) to place the train item on to paint - so that I can easily spin it around to paint it without touching it.
The Krylon Short Cuts also dries very fast. more so than regular Krylon, but it seems the Short Cuts have been discontinued in favor of the new Fusion. The Short Cuts Ocean Blue is a dead ringer for Conrail Blue. I actually went to the trouble to compare a paint sample to the real thing.
Thanks for the tip on the MPC era cars, Brian. I’ll remember that one. I wonder if Castrol Super Clean will remove the silk screened letters as well. My daughter has been asking me to buy her a girl’s train after seeing them advertised by Williams. I can’t bring myself to spend close to $400 on a pink train. Still, I’ve been telling her that in a few years, if she still wants one, I’ll buy her one. Then an idea struck me - why not pick up a cheap loco, tender, and a few cars at the next train show and repaint them all? I proposed that idea to my daughter and she loved it, so we’re all happy. Jim
Jaabat, a friend of mine did exactly what you are thinking… got a deal on a used steame engine and did it it pink. If you wanted to get clever, you could make a paint mask and two-tone the steamer with the body in gray or black and the cab section in pink.
I don’t know how old your daughter is, but here’s another suggestion. You get some of those 9700 series box cars that have no rivet detailing on the sides. Repaint it in some bright color she would like, and then use some of the commercially available Hallmark types of stickers available like for Dora the Explorer, Barbie, Sponge Bob and others. I’ve done this even with the box cars that do have the rivet detail, though you have to work the stickers into the rivets, it can be done.
You could even go to the extra work of putting number, capacity and markers on the car. Take your daugher’s birthday and use that for the car number. If she likes Dora, the markings could be “DTEX” for Dora the Explorer and then the “X” meaning private ownership as on real trains. You might even be able to work her name into the imaginary rail line. My own line is the CSNY for Crosby Stills Nash and Young, but if anyone asks, it’s the Central Southern New York line.
I’ve made my own Warner Brothers and Sponge Bob cars this way at a fraction of the cost. A couple years ago out of supermarket gum machines you could find Sponge Bob, Dora and Bugs Bunny figures that were utterly perfect for Lionel trains and at 50 cents a pop… I got a load of those as you couldn’t beat the price. The figures looked as good as any on a Lionel licensed car at a fraction of the cost.
By the way Jaabat, your signature layout photo looks very nice. I’m still not sold on FasTrack for myself… don’t like the large roadbed and the lack of tighter curves, but you’ve done a nice job with it!!! I didn’t think the product would
Great tips on personalizing my daughter’s train, Brian. If you ever wander on over the border to Massachusetts, be sure to stop by and see our humble little layout. Jim
Jim, Whenever we go to Target I always make a point of checking the isle endcaps in the toy dept against the wall. Normally that is where they will put the stuff that has already been on sale and this is the leftovers that are really DEEPLY discounted. I’ve picked up some pretty good buys ranging from Sponge Bob to John Deere. Oh don’t forget Big-Lots. [:D]
Brianel, thanks for clear explanation. I learned a lot from you again!
Lots of great info guys, thanks! I’ll have to think about that pink train idea for my daughter!