Question for you finishing experts.

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P. Roehling - 28 Aug 2007 07:21 GMT

Just got a Walthers S.P. C-30-1 wood caboose and plan to re-letter it for
the Sud Pacifico De Mexico, S.P.'s Mexican road that used a bunch of
cast-off and/or borrowed S.P. and T.&N.O. equipment. Problem is that it
comes pre-finished and lettered for the S.P.

Anyone out there got a sure-fire way to get the factory lettering off the
sides without wrecking the finish beneath it as well? Or, alternatively,
would it be easier to just strip the sucker and start out from the ground
up? (You'd think that after fifty-odd years in the hobby I'd have learned
all of the tricks, but I've never done anything that requires removing
factory lettering from a plastic car without ruining the finish at the same
time.)

Thanx,

Pete

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David Starr - 28 Aug 2007 16:10 GMT

> Just got a Walthers S.P. C-30-1 wood caboose and plan to re-letter it for
> the Sud Pacifico De Mexico, S.P.'s Mexican road that used a bunch of
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Pete

Best luck I've had was with an electric eraser, the kind that
draftsmen used back before Autocad. It had a choice of eraser rubber,
from soft and pink up thru harder and gritty. A drop of Solvaset, let
it soften the marking, followed by some careful erasing with the gritty
rubber. Even so, the method wasn't foolproof, a couple of times I
erased too far, going thru the paint down to raw plastic. However some
touchup paint followed by decals came out alright.
The real problem is the factory letting is usually paint, stamped or
silkscreened onto, the base paint coat. If there is some magic
chemical that softens the lettering paint without also attacking the
finish paint, I am unaware of it. Nor do I expect such a thing to be
invented anytime soon.

David Starr

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P. Roehling - 30 Aug 2007 07:50 GMT

> Best luck I've had was with an electric eraser, the kind that draftsmen
> used back before Autocad. It had a choice of eraser rubber, from soft and
> pink up thru harder and gritty. A drop of Solvaset, let it soften the
> marking, followed by some careful erasing with the gritty rubber.

I used an old-fashioned manual eraser, but it worked just fine in
combination with the Solvaset: problem solved!

Thanks for the solution! (Pun intended.)

Pete

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Model Forum / General / Railroads / August 2007

Question for you finishing experts.