Repairing Metal Self Tapping Screw Hole in a Lionel 3444?

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

Hello All:

In trying to bring back to life a Lionel 3444 Hobo-Police animated car I ran into the flat head short metal screw that holds the plastic body onto the metal frame has a hole in the frame that is stripped, or too large at least… Since the operation of the car depends on this screw being flat and flush with the hole, I was wondering if anyone out there had experience with this problem? I suppose I could J-B weld a nut on the bottom of the hole in the metal frame and buy a regular threaded screw but i was hoping someone had an easier fix on either doctoring up the hole somehow or cutting down a larger screw with a dremel??? How about gluing a new piece of metal below the hole in the frame and drilling a new smaller hole in he new metal. Any easy solutions out there?? Thanks for your ideas!

Mickey Demian

2

Try putting a heavy piece of metal (like a hammer head) on one side of the hole and hammering the other side of the hole, perhaps with a punch substantially larger than the hole. The idea is to spread the metal somewhat into the hole to make it smaller again. In any case, this will flatten the metal, perhaps sufficiently for the screw to hold even without any spreading.

3

Bob got it right - you want to distress the metal into the hole just a little bit.

A tiny swab of gel type CA/Super Glue around the hole may give enough grab to produce results w/o working the metal.

Rob