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Some of ya'll will remember I happened upon a box of very rusty and derelict Ives standard gauge at a local hobby shop a couple of months back. Among the pieces was a brass plate Ives 3242 that had originally been tan but had been overpainted black ages ago. Everything was corroded pretty bad and I figured I would just totally restore this loco, but, after conferring with some Ives guys I realized I had to at least try to save as much of the original paint as I could. Well, it ain't beautiful, but here it is.

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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Thanks Jim, and I'm honored you posted my homely puppy on the standard gauge blog! Thanks! I'm going to have to restore the three cars that came with it and although they were originally Cadet Blue, I'm going to do them in tan to match the loco because there's nothing left of the original paint except underneath and inside the cars. Take care good sir! Smile
quote:
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.


Obviously a love of labor and Ives to bring this back to life. The way it turned out looks like it was well worth the time.

I watched the videos and did enjoy seeing it run, and run it did. WOW. I hope you don't mind that I posted the links to the Videos.

Robert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oqeYdGCXio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...iBCU&feature=related
Nachtjager, you have done a wonderfull job on that piece. It is more a preservation of an original piece than a restauration and i think it is really much better than a total repaint. In my humble opinion you totally respect the original piece and geave it another life.
You have many really nice pieces in your collection and your videos are pleasant to look at.
Greetings for that perfect work.

Daniel
Thanks to everyone for the compliments. With so few tan 3242's out there, once I realized the old paint was under there, there was no way I could bring myself to simply repaint it. Actually, I'm a little upset with myself for buffing the brass so much, but there was soooo much corrosion on some of the brass that it took major buffing to get rid of it on a couple of the plates and handrails. Once that was done, I had to polish all the brass to match because it just looked mismatched. It'll dull down soon enough I suppose. Regardless, thanks again.

And as for the bare metal, the loco's wearing a good coat of wax now and it's in a heated and cooled environment, so, it's not going to start rusting anytime soon! Take care! Thanks
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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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