removing paint

[Anonymous]

I repainted one of my engines when I was 12. Needlesstosay it was a poor job. I suspect they were oil based. It was an o-gauge gp-7 #2023 pennsylvania. Is there a way to remove the paint job to exposed the original?

[andregg1]

Hi
I try few times but was terrible.
I thing that you need to remove all old paint and repaint again.
Andre.

[Anonymous]

I want remove the old paint but I am not sure how or what to use. Is there a solvent that would not affect the original underlying finish?

[Tom1947]

I have a nephew that uses brake fluid to strip old engines. He learned this from a man that paints brass for a living. I had him repaint several engines that were in need of something to cover the scares of time. That is what he used on them.

[brianel027]

Bursk, to say that I do an extensive amount of repainting is an understatement.

As Tom mentioned, automotive brake fluid will safely work as will original formula PineSol. Well, these should work depending on how you repainted that shell.

Find yourself a Tupperware container or something similar that is big enough to hold the entire locomotive shell. Fill the container with either brake fluid or PineSol and immerse the shell into this and let it soak for a day or two. Sometimes a day is all it takes. As a side note, I find since Lionel has moved to China, the paint jobs done in China while improved do come off very easily, within a day.

You'll want a couple of tooth brushes or various stiffness. You can also use a workbench still plastic brush. For some of the indents of the shell you might want to use a fine metal brush - but use the metal brush sparingly... this can and will probably cause some scratching to the shell. But minimal scratching will easily be concealed when you use primer to repaint the shell.

After the fluid soak, under the sink with warm water scrub the shell with the tooth brushes to remove as much paint as you can. Don't be discouraged if there is still old paint on the shell. You may need to soak it longer. So repeat the process giving the shell another day or two to soak. Another footnote, that after the fluid soak and the scrub water rinse, if you let the shell sit and dry, some more of the old paint when dry, may flake off when scrubbed with a brush. Before repainting you will also want to wa***he shell completely in warm dishwashing soap and rinse good.

When the shell is stripped, the common thought is that you need an airbrush. While the air brush is nice, spray paint has improved greatly over the years. The trick is to use a plastic safe primer first. I've used the new improved Krylon as well as Perfect Paint, Spray-N-Go (which is now called Touch 'n Tone) and the Krylon Short Cuts. There is also a new Krylon paint specifically for plastic. Once the shell is completely covered in plastic safe primer you can then use something like Rustoleum which isn't as plastic friendly. Rustoleum makes a color that is very close to Penn Central green which is how I know this. There are many commercial spray paint colors that are very close to railroad colors, plus there was variation on the real thing too... look at all the variations of "Cornell Red" on the Lehigh Valley. I find the Krylon Shortcuts "Ocean Blue" is just about spot on for Conrail blue ... looks closer that some of the blues used by the model train makers.

Primer is flat paint and very forgiving. The details on many of the less-than-scale detailed trains are exaggerated, so using spray paint will not obscure any of them. Start with a gray primer to make sure the shell is lightproof. If you plan on painting the shell a light color like yellow, then follow the gray primer with white primer before you do the final yellow coats... you will get much better results.

Always use a glossy paint for the final color, or you will need to gloss coat the shell before you do the decaling. MicroScale currently makes just about the best selection of decals, which also after years of experience, I can wholeheartedly say are the best ones out there. Much nicer and easier to use than the Walther's decals. You can mix scales of the decals to get what you need. For example, Microscale has a nice set of HO scale Penn Central hearlds, that are easily used for rolling stock on the "traditionally" sized Lionel trains.

Well there's a lot of info here, and I can help you more as you go along. But first you need to strip that shell clean. Good luck and don't be discouraged. My paint jobs when I was a kid are a far far cry from what they are today. I do good work and many folks assume I use an airbrush because my work is that good. I'm not honking my horn... I've just been told this many many times over the years at train shows.

[Sturgeon-Phish]

I've used castrol super clean and it does a great job. I poured it in a liter pop bottle with the top cut off let it soak for a day the hosed it off. Took all the paint but did not distort the plastic. I was shocked when it came out of the bath! I didn't even have to touch it up.