I'd like to share with everyone a technique for repairing catastrophic body damage using a $2 tube of epoxy putty. I'm fairly certain I'm not so genius as to be the first person to have done this, but here it is for your consideration.
The victim: a #3562 Operating Barrel Car, part of a set that has been in the family for 55 years and 3 generations. Sure, I could buy another example of the same car, but why not try to see what magic I could work on a nearly lost soul. This particular car had been trashed before the trains were handed down to me, and it took until last year for me to get online and learn all about them.
One end of the car was completely separated, held on to the chassis by the single screw that normally secures the entire body. The frame was a rusty mess, with brittle wires and a loose solenoid dangling away from where it should be attached. The body shell was split along one side, with the split leading to a thumb sized hole in the top and side. There was no fragment left to fill the hole. If it was only the top side of the car, flat sheet stock of plastic cut to fit would be no problem. But the hole also extended down the side, carrying away 1/4” of seemingly hard to replicate riveted steel stiffener.
The solution I found was to backwards mold using epoxy putty, a favorite material for me when building model airplanes as a teen. The first step in repairing the hole involved removing some plastic from the hole, in order to give me a nice clean, square area to fill. This was easily accomplished with the trusty Dremel. I took special pains to not remove too much of the molded in detail on the side surface.
After testing the backwards mold impression on an old work caboose, I started on the barrel car by taking a chunk of putty and capturing a mold of the opposite side of the car. To keep the highly sticky putty from carrying any paint or possibly becoming a permanent part of the car, I brushed Johnson floor wax onto both the car’s surface and the flattened piece of putty. Using a scrap of balsa to evenly distribute pressure, I applied the putty to the intended location and waited for it to harden. Pleasantly, the epoxy captured a very passable amount of detail, right down to the rivet heads. I made sure to get more than the full panel’s width from the mold. By getting that second row of rivets, I ensured that the mold would register on the other side, by locking into the relief of the car’s surface.
Filling in the hole on the opposite side was as easy as clamping down the putty mold, and reverse molding the mold (or something like that). I applied wax once more, and tamped in fresh putty into the hole from the inside of the body shell, and left it to cure. With grand ceremony, I removed the mold to reveal a fairly plausible recreation of the missing body!
The top surface required a slightly different approach. Instead of taking a mold, I simply rolled out a flat thickness of putty, and cut it to fit the opening. I did mold the gussets, and finishing the bodywork was only a matter of careful sanding and shaping.
Painting is always scary to me, but I just took a deep breath (smells like solvent) and carefully mixed some Testors flat model paints to try and match. It took a little flat black, about 5 more parts of flat white, just a touch of olive and a slight dose of thinner to match the tone of the original finish on the second try. In fact, I liked the match so much, I used the rest of the paint to repaint the steel barrel ramp and touch up the other glue joints.
All healed up from the plastic surgery, the shell was good to go. Since the solenoid checked out fine, I replaced both wires to the truck pickups, installed a new blue barrel pusher guy and now the #3562 is fully mission capable!
Nice work! Your acid test will be to see if your home-molded piece stays in place after the vibrating ramp runs for a few minutes. If it does, you're good to go. Fine job.
Thanks! Actually did this job several months ago, and just now took the time to put the post together. Indeed, the repair has proven rock-solid, even against the ramp operation and the handling of some junior engineers and the car is in regular operation on my layout.
Looks great! Thank you for sharing your repair.
Looks complicated. LOL.
What kind of putty is it?
There's so many brands of it, but basically its a 2-part epoxy putty that you usually can find in the glue aisle at wal-mart or lowe's. The kind I used is dark blue on the outside and white on this inside and you mix it by mushing up with your fingers and it cures to a very light gray color.
Describing the process makes it sound complicated, and it takes a little modelmaking skill. But a little trial and error ends up with decent results. On the plus side, the putty isn't messy or expensive.
John,
That is amazing. I picked up a gray 3562 a few years back just like yours that has chunks broken out of the body along the bottom edge and the portion underneath the screwhole is gone. I'll have to try fixing this since you have shown that it is possible.
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