Lionel 218 project

I like the blue. Unless you are a serious collector, I would suggest leaving it, or at least on the dump body.

I am going to use the same or similar blue.  This won't be something for a collector of originals.  Greenberg's book makes no mention of blue, but I like the color.  I will post more pictures when I receive it, but from what I could see, the paint was poorly applied.  It is all over parts that shouldn't be painted, and it is flaking badly in places.  I am planning to tear it down and remove all the paint, prep and prime the tin, and apply a nice new coat.

Then, when I get it back together, I am going to run it on my pike!

George

Sounds good.

I like it!

I received the car and here are the pics...

The frame isn't too bad, except for a few rust spots and a couple of blue paint splotches from when the body was painted.  I  am going to see if this needs to be painted or whether it will polish up, assuming I can clean the blue paint off and clean the rust. The trucks are heavily rusted on one side.  They are painted gray.  Does anyone know if Lionel produced gray trucks?  I also found a missing journal. The body may clean up, but the side supports need to be repainted, and I don't think I will be able to match the paint.  

I made one mistake already; I bent the brass part that holds the gear on the body.  I distorted the hole where the screw is inserted to hold the gear.  I need to see if I can repair this.  This will be a hard part to replace.

George

Disaster averted.  This is the part I bent.

I heated it with a flame, dipped it in water, and was able to force the steel screw back in, which removed the bend just enough that it will work again.  Here is the after picture.

The paint on the frame looks original.  I started polishing it with TC-3.  I can see the streak marks from where it was dipped, and the paint is hard enough for me to use Goof Off to remove the blue paint without damaging the original paint.  Here is a pic of the partially polished frame.  I will still touch up the rust spots, but I don't really like to remove original paint if it is in good condition.

George

Made good progress on disassembling the 218.

Looks like the original color was Mohave. 

I was able to remove the blue overpaint from the frame.  See my progress in the corner of this picture. 

I have now removed all of the overpaint with Goof Off and the original black paint buffed out nicely with TC-3.  I used some Evapo-Rust on one end of the frame, and it didn't damage the paint.  I am just spraying on a little gloss black enamel (from Olsten's) to cover the bare metal.  I need to do the other end as well.  I stripped the paint off the body ends pictured above.  I used a Goof Off spray-on stripper and the paint came right off.  I will post pictures later of the clean parts.  

I found Rustoleum Safety Blue Enamel.  There were many fewer blue choices than I expected.  This may match the original color. Brass parts are cleaning up nicely.  Will post more pics later today or tomorrow.  This is going much faster than I expected.

George

not wasting any time George!

Here are some more pics of the progress: 

I have removed the rust and blue paint from the frame and sprayed some gloss black on any bare metal.  Here it is on some spare trucks I have.  The gray trucks are sitting in a bath of Evapo-Rust.

Here are some of the parts I have cleaned up.

The body ends are now getting primed and painted.  Here they are under a heat lamp in my garage.

I should be using my oven, but my wife doesn't appreciate that.

yeah women are funny like that.....lookin good!

Well, the Safety Blue was too light and bright.  There goes 6 bucks...  Need to strip and start over.  Luckily, I only painted the ends.  I found royal blue in a regular paint can. I will need to break out the air compressor.  I was going to use my big gun, but I remember I have a hobby air brush.  I will need to think about which one to use.

Now you can dip it.  Isn't that the way Lionel did it at the factory.

Dan65train posted:

Now you can dip it.  Isn't that the way Lionel did it at the factory.

I think they had large vats.  I have a quart. 

The royal blue paint is baking in the oven.

I made the oven from an old subwoofer that had blown.  I had a couple of ceramic light fixtures laying around and there were already holes for the air port and speaker, so it was easy.

I mounted the couplers on the frame.  It is resting on an extra set of wheels I had.

The old rusty trucks cleaned up nice.  Not sure I am going to use them, since I have the spare set.  The paint has come off these.  I did not repaint them yet.  I am researching the color.  Some are very shiny black, but some originals are very dull or flat black.  Some look like they are blackened, but Greenberg's book says they were painted black.  For now, I waxed them to keep them from rusting and I oiled the axles and polished the wheels.

I used my hobby sprayer,,,,,the paint gun was too strong and blew the parts all over,,,

Hey George your holding out on me! I'm looking for one of those too.  I've restored plenty of tinplate and it's a lot of work but the end result will be worth it.  Looking good! 

Chris Lonero posted:

Hey George your holding out on me! I'm looking for one of those too.  I've restored plenty of tinplate and it's a lot of work but the end result will be worth it.  Looking good! 

Chris,

You can't expect me to trade all my 'babies'?    I don't have a lot of spare rolling stock.  I am still building my empire.

George

terry hudon posted:

I used my hobby sprayer,,,,,the paint gun was too strong and blew the parts all over,,,

You are right.  I used my hobby airbrush.  It worked pretty good.  It doesn't give as even of a coat as the train paint spray cans, but it could be the operator.

George

This dump car is a little trickier than a gondola or box car.  I could not remove the brass stanchions, so I had to tape them.  The tabs were too strong.  Also, the brass standoffs on the body ends 'snap' into the tinplate. I don't see how I could do that after the paint is on.  I gave one coat, then assembled, then taped them off and gave a second coat. Baking again...

Baking finished.

Not a perfect finish and certainly not 'dipped', but I think it will do.  I am resisting the urge to assemble it.  I want to paint to be as hard as possible.

George

I couldn't wait any longer. I assembled it.

There were a few nicks from the assembly.  I had leftover diluted paint from airbrushing.  I just used an ordinary artist brush to touch it up.  Since it was the same paint and was just used, it blended right in.  I am still waiting on the gear I bought.  The pictures don't really do justice to how glossy the paint is.  I will try to take better ones later.  Also, the blues change color with the lighting.  Not easy to photograph this.  I am very pleased though and can't wait to get it on the pike!

George

Here are some more pics.  I am just waiting on the gear.

I am really amazed with the Evapo-Rust and the spray-on paint stripper.  With a little help of my Dremel tool, this turned out nice.

fantastic job!

mr cohen would be very pleased ,,,,,

Very impressive.  Seeing things like this makes me want to start doing restoration projects.