I have a Lionel 437 switch tower with pretty well beat up paint that I want to strip & repaint, whats the best method to remove it?
Oven cleaner or go to Lowes and buy metal stripper in a spray can. Both work very well for metals.
Roger
Any particular name brand that's better than another?
I think the brand of stripper in the can I use is called "Jasco". As for oven cleaner, the one that has the skull and cross bones on it and smells bad is the best. I' m serious.
I use Easy Off. Works great, but make sure you use gloves with lots of air...
I use Klean-Strip Stripper. Works well, doesn't smell.
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
What's the process? Spray it on, let it set up, the what, wire brush?
When I strip (pun intended ) I just spray it on and wait the amount of time the can says. Klean-Strip foams as you spray so it's easy to tell where you've put it. When the time's up, I put on gloves that are rated for chemical handling (Stanley has them in their product line) and usually 85% of the old paint will simply wipe away with a paper towel. I wipe off as much as I can then I take the piece to a sink and wash it with dish detergent, hand soap or whatever's around to remove any remaining stripper residue. Dry with paper towels and then reapply the stripper to the remaining 15% which is usually in corners and around details. If needed, I'll use a toothbrush, then a scotchbrite pad and lastly a soft brass bristled brush if neccessary but nothing more abrasive than those. If the second application doesn't remove the rest, I use a wire wheel brush in my Dremel tool at a low rpm to finish the job. It will strip away the paint and polish the metal at the same time. I also use the Dremel to clean up any rust or corrosion at the same time.
That's how I strip!
Well, I went with Zip Strip. It worked ok, but the paint turned up to be 4 layers thick since someone shot a resto job on it years ago so I had to do a lot more applications & scrubbing than I thought, but it turned out all right. I'll prime it & paint it tomorrow. Thanks for the help.
At this point I have stripped both prewar and post war engines and cars. I've tried many different products and have found that Easy Off oven cleaner works the best. Spray it on - wait a spell - scrub it off with a tooth brush(use and old one). The only draw back is that your finger prints disappear for a few days.
Does Easy off get right down to the metal right away or do you have to spray, wait, scrub, repeat 10 times? The Zip Strip worked, but it went on gooey & stringy, & it was a pain to work with. It would raise spotty parts of the first layer, then it would seem to stop working & any paint that was party removed would dry right back up as you were working it. Then I had to reapply the zip strip & scrub a lot to get down through the other layers of paint. It was a pain & it took a long time. Like I said, the product worked, but I thought I could apply it & then watch the pain fall off. I didn't think it would take such a process to remove, unless that was just because somebody had already painted over the original paint job & I just had too many layers to remove.
Easy off is much less work. Give it a try.
Looks like you did a nice restoration job. Someone makes a paint stripper that brushes on. It is made for removing the paint off of intricate vertical surfaces. It will remove many layers of paint at a time. You brush it on and let it dry (about a day) and then peel it off in one piece. It should be available in Home Depot or Lowes.
I have tried paint removers for doing metal and although they work, they are to much of a mess to use and you have to be very careful for safety reasons. If you are going to be doing a lot of metal restoration you might want to invest in a small sandblast cabinet. About $125 for the unit and you will need a compressor and a small vacuum. I have been using this system for many years and it is far superior to chemical strippers. Hope this helps.
Thanks. I was waiting for someone to say; "What the heck are you doing? You ruined the collector value, you stripped the original paint, you painted it the wrong colors! "
Won't get that from me! #1 you painted it in my favorite colors, #2 I do it all the time myself and #3 it's yours and you can do what you want with it! And #3 is the one that matters most!
Well, my main factor was the new one that Lionel/MTH has in their catalog for $275 or whatever crazy price they're getting for those. I got a junker on Ebay for less than a hundo & I figured since it was pretty well hammered anyway, I might as well make mine look like the new one because even though I love the way it looks in the catalog, there's no way I'm paying that price for an acessory that really doesn't do all that much but light up inside. Kinda cheap on my part but like the Kinks used to say; I'm on a low budget .
Done & done.
Simply gorgeous!
Thanks! I was happy with it. Not too bad for a first try at restoring a pile of rusty tin plate. When I bought it, I didn't realize the floor between the two levels was missing, so I had to fabricate a new one. It came out ok, but it doesn't have the same look as the more detailed original one would have had. It wasn't a real restoration anyway as much as it was a custom rebuild so I don't care. I think it will catch the eye when it's put on the layout.
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