Armor ALL

[Anonymous]

Can Armor All be used to detail/shine postwar locos safely?
Thanks
Tom

[Anonymous]

Tom,

I used Armor All to bring back the original shine on my 736 without any problems. Just be sure to use a soft white cloth to buff the locomotive. It may may slick for a couple days, so be careful while handling it. I would be careful around letters or numbers.

Jim Trumpie

[brianel027]

I used to buy the Interior Armor All in bulk when I was a tad more prosperous and was doing a lot of repainting. I used the Interior style Armor All as the final step in my repaint process, after the Testor's DullCote had been applied and dried for a couple of days. Really gave my many many custom painted cars and engines a nice sheen and also I have found protects them a little more from dust and dirt.

I'd be real careful though using Armor All on trains, current or postwar, that were factory painted as there is the potential of removing paint and lettering. I know, I've had it happen. The only cars I wouldn't be concerned with are ones from MTH... they use some kind of paint that is even tough to get off with paint stripper. Gotta give MTH credit there for quality in the paint department.... I've had factory paint come off Lionel and K-Line cars with ease, but not MTH ones. Just for the record, the paint that came off the easiest was a China-produced Lionel car.... I couldn't believe how easily and quickly the paint came totally off that car. That one set the time record in my book.... even the K-Line cars take longer to strip.

As a better suggestion, I would use something like Lemon Pledge on your postwar train cars to give them some sheen. I've used it and I've read many others have too and I can't recall reading of ill-effects from Lemon Pledge... I certainly haven't had any. Of course, it's always a good idea to not buff lettering on postwar cars too much. Unless you know for sure what method the lettering was applied to your particular car in question. The same and even more so applies to postwar decals.

[andregg1]

Hi
I use STP son of a gun, but is not good for the names and numbers.
Andre.

[ChiefEagles]

Don't use it on rubber or vinyl. It will dry it out and make it crack. From years of fleet experience. We had to "outlaw" it in our state fleet of over 9,000 vehicles. Did a lot of damage before we realized what was going on. Unless used continously, will dry rot rubber and vinyl.

[Bob Keller]

A thousand years ago I was a transportation officer in a Tactical Air Command unit. The command had a program called "Top Wheels" where each organization would snd one vehicle to a beauty contest.

A lot of Armor All was used on paint (to make the flat tone, green vehicles look bright), and over time, it hurt the paint (or was that the desert heat?) and got them in the paint shop sooner than normal.

I don't think I'd put it on my trains, but if I was going to leave them to a nephew I didn't like ....

[mackb4]

In the past( oh in the 70's) I put lemon pledge spray on a Lionel N&W boxcar.It is still on there [:I],and I don't like the sheen it put on it [V].I have tried "tuff stuff"on a soft cloth,does good,but can take numbers off the side of post/prewar engines.I use a big brush,made of real "animal" hair to dust off my trains currently.I have also used wd40 on a rag,sprayed lightly to clean tin plate.Then rub with a soft cloth [^].Cheif ,I had a 1972 pontiac years ago(20+) that I used to keep as clean as a baby.I would spray Armor All on the wheels,GTO rallies and the da***he dash cracked within a year.May have been the sun baking the Armor All on the dash cause the car set outside.And the tires and wheels would collect dust,more than likely from the asbestos brake shoes.But Armor All will collect dust bad over a period of time.

[FJ and G]

I have a latex-based shiny substance I got from Sherwin-Williams that not only shines but protects from UV rays.

I'm not sure of the name as it was a special mixture.