Can lithographed cars be restored?

[More to restore]

Does anybody have experience with restoring lithographed pre-war Lionel cars?

I have a 1679 Baby ruth box car with the bar and it is in poor condition. It is relatively easy to redo (sand and repaint) the roof, frames and trucks. However, the lithographed box car panel is more of a challenge. The colours have faded and honestly this chocolate bar does not look attractive after 60 years. There are a few rust spots and a small dent. So, if there was no picture on the side of the car I would have restored it already years ago, but this picture makes it much more complicated. I have thought about making exact digital photo's, readjusting the colours with photo-software and printing the pictures on decal paper. But I am unsure if that will work decently.
So, I could let the car wait for a few extra years until I finally get a good idea on how to do it.
Or perhaps any of you have dealt with this problem before and can help me out.[?]

[Anonymous]

There's a company that makes wraps to restore old Marx lithographed cars and engines:

http://fauxtoys.com/pages/100-train.html

While these wraps would not fit your Lionel car, you might get some good ideas from the site on how to make your own wraps.

[Dave Farquhar]

Making decals of good car sides, either by photographing a car in good condition or photographing yours and manipulating it, is probably your best option. I know some people touch up cars with minor problems with paint markers if they can find a reasonable match (which can be a big if) but your 1679 sounds like it's beyond that.

I would be inclined to print decals with a color laser printer rather than an inkjet, since the longevity of inkjet inks is still in question, especially when printing on decal paper. It would stink to have to do it again in three years.

I have a 1679 that could use the same treatment, but it's missing some parts on top of the lithography problem, so it's sitting there until I find a cheap donor car. It'll happen eventually...

[1688torpedo]

Hello Dave- What Parts do you need? Olsen's Toy Train Parts has Couplers,Trucks,Doors & Door guides for the 1600 series freight cars. Just go to their website & they should be able to help you out. Take Care.

[dwiemer]

More,
I have one of those Baby Ruth cars, sounds like mine is in better condition. I will try to photograph it and email it to you. We will see if it will work.
Dennis

[More to restore]

Guys, all your remarks are highly appreciated.

I never thought about the quality of ink-jet printed decals. I will have to laser print them!
Dennis, I will appreciate these photo's, especially when the chocolate bar still has some brown colour left... Thanks in advance!

By the way, I do agree with 1688torpedo that it is very easy to order missing parts at George Tebolt, Olsen TTP, Hollash, etc. It just takes a few minutes to figure out exactly which parts you need and to order them.

[dwiemer]

I am at home and have the 1679 in front of me. I notice that the brown on the candy bar is a bit darker than the doors and rail slides for the doors. I will try sometime tomorrow to take the photos as I will need to make sure the lighting is good for this. I don't want to send you distorted pictures if you end up using them to make the decals.
Dennis.
PS, do you want me to just try emailing through the forum? If not, my email is on my post and I will get back to you.

[ben10ben]

You might also try scanning them. This will ensure that you get a perfectly square, even scan that will generally print and reproduce more easily.

Many scanners also have a color restore program bundled with their software that, in my experience, generally works extremely well.

[dwiemer]

Ben,
I did both, tried scan and photographing it. The scan does not work as the roof and frame hold the car away from the scanner at a less than 90 angle. The scanned photo comes out distorted. I was able to send a few photos to More's email and I hope that he can do what he needs with them. If it comes down to it, I got my prewar set on Ebay for less than $40. and it is in good condition, I am sure he could get a single car for a good price.
Dennis

[More to restore]

Thanks Dennis,

The pictures are sharp and I am sure that together with PaintShopPro it will work out nice.

I know that the 1679 is a relatively cheap car and bought several "wrecks" already on Ebay. I like to bring them back to former grace. I just like restoring, I guess. And it might be fully uneconomical, but this typical for this hobby. I never dared to restore a lithographed car before and this will be an experiment. I will let you know the result. But that can take a few months ( I need some better weather for spray coating)
Thanks all!

[Anonymous]

I have several of these lithographed cars also and think
that decals for heralds and advertisements are the way
to go. However, what are you going to do about the other
lotho'd details like the boxcar ends and rivet details?

[More to restore]

Well ChesBchRy,
I have no experience with this, but my plan was to make 2 large decals for the sides and 2 smaller decals for the front-ends. So, then I looks like the FAUX wrap, but build up from 4 individual pieces. I will make some overlap near the corners and have to find a good way of dealing with the overlap. This allows will make sure that all rivets, emblems, colours and details are taken care off.