Decals and paint

[Anonymous]

I am in process of restoring a Lionel Locomotive 675 along with a 6020Wtender, Sunoco Sunx 2555 tank car and Caboose, could someone please advise me on what type of paint I should use on the engine and Caboose.

Also, where could I get some decals to replace the old ones with.  This train was purchased for me when I was a little fellow and my objective is to completely restore it.  Many thanks for any help you can offer.

[Jumijo]

Strip the old paint off of the 675 with lacquer thinner, rinse it well, then repaint it with Krylon semi-flat black paint. Olsen's Toy Train Parts sells rubber stamps that you can use to re-apply the cab number with. Do not use the lacquer thinner on any plastic items!

If the tender shell looks decent, leave it alone. If not, Olsen's sells reproduction shells. That's your best bet there.

Olsen's also sells new decals and parts for the tanker. 

Since you didn't mention which caboose you have, I can't advise you on how to restore that. 

Olsen's link 

 

Jim 

[Roger Bielen]

I've had very good success using break fluid to remove paint, especially from plastic car bodies.  Paint thinner may attack some plastics.

[brianel027]

Try doing a search on this forum for "repainting" or "custom painting." I have commented on this extensively in the past since I do a tremendous amount of repainting. I admit though, I seldom restore the cars to original roads (though I have done that a couple of times), but I tend to do them in current operating roads like Conrail, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Canadian Pacific Railway, etc. and some of my old hat favorites like CNJ, Reading, EL, PC, NH and Lehigh Valley.

I haven't tried with the older postwar cars, but have recently found 91% Isopropyl Alcohol works very well at taking paint off more recent production train cars.

[Jumijo]

I just took Brian's advice (again) and it paid off. I just removed some graphics from a freight car with some 91% isopropyl alchohol. Easy as pie.

You're not a bad guy, Brian. Thanks for the tip.

Jim