Dennis Holler posted:I haven't put in any real inquiries but some of the on line stuff for custom tin litho runs for signs is requiring 2-5,000 min in qty. On a sheet the size of the sign, I can get 5 single car sides and ends. So if I had five different cars on the sheet, two sheets gets me 5 unique cars. 2000 sheets would mean 1000 cars of each design logo. I can't imaging selling that many of each car. I could probably find someone willing to do a smaller run, but still, the numbers look ugly pretty quickly. And that does not even discuss getting permission to print the various logos.... Still it is an interesting thought. Need to print directly to the sheet and laser cut the sides from the sheet...
I have a set of James Bond 007 beer cans. They are fakes. The set of originals would cost $14k to $30k if you could find them, and one that I have was never made. They are labels that were cut and glued to straight steel cans. Unless you were holding them, you would have a hard time knowing they weren't real.
For litho cars, the same method should work fine. The problem is that only the Lionel 1719 is a great candidate due to the smooth sides. I hate to destroy good ones, and I don't see a lot of bad ones. The American Flyer 3208 could work, but the sides are not smooth. I see a beat up one available. You could possibly pound out the ribbing. The 3208 is smaller than the 1719 by about an inch.
George
