Over my Christmas vacation, I took four days to carefully sand and scrub my way through at least two coats of seriously nasty black paint to get to the tan underneath. Due to corrosion, I had to polish all the brass and trim, but that's all the same stuff this loco was born with. I took the motor apart, cleaned the armature, field, and the housing, and managed to save the original pickup and brush wiring (and original brushes!). I buffed the original wheels, gave the cast iron frame a light dusting of black spray paint (but left some of the old rust for "character") and bolted it all back together. Whoever the rotten kid was that painted this thing black got a lot of blessing out! My Dremel tool and I, however, became even closer friends! And, someone had installed a goofy postwar reverse switch that didn't work and cut a hole in one of the ventilators for a switch to control it, so, I removed that as well (didn't work anyway). Now, pleased to say, the loco runs VERY well and growls like a good Ives should. There is video of it running test laps on my youtube channel, just look for "nachtjager77" and you'll find it, or type in "Ives 3242" - I think it's the only ones on there!
Anyway, just thought I'd show you guys the pics - it's not MTH Tinplate, but I wouldn't trade this old warhorse for a new Brute. Take care!
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