[Reckers]

I recently acquired 4 aluminum car shells, all badly corroded with deep pitting and coats of paint that had been applied at some point---the corrosion had eaten under the paint, as well. It would be fair to describe these, when I received them, as oyster beds. The metal surface was rough and gray in the best places, and heavily encrusted with white, granular powder. The powder will brush off, but the lime-like encrustation would not. I'm going to post a series of pictures showing my progress in cleaning one of them, and describe the steps I'm taking.

I'd also like to credit T-Man, TKruger, Stationmaster, BCRail, and Big Ed for suggestions and advice---the best part of this site is that every difficult project becomes a group project.:thumbsup:

 

[Reckers]

Part 1: the arrival. 4 shells that are probably 50 years old arrive, covered in white corrosion.

Sorry about the poor quality---I'm not that great a photographer. However, any place on the car that is not actually shiny, in the pic, is covered with corrosion. What appears to be gray metal is the lime-scale-like substance covering the metal.

 

[Reckers]

Next...washing with water and scrubbing with a soft, plastic-mesh scrubber. No good.

Then, soaking the shells in vinegar, a mild acid. This was very helpful---it removed the powdery outer corrosion, leaving the heavy scale still attached and, of course, the paint.

Next step: it's Dremel-tool time. I started gently, using a felt buffing pad and jeweler's rouge. Rouge is a red buffing compound; it's not very abrasive and is a good polishing substance. No good----it doesn't faze the corrosion. I try a different buffing wheel made of sheets of cloth sewn together to make a wheel, but still no progress. I ended up having to go to a fine wire wheel to make any headway. The corrosion begins to crumble away, but the texture of the exposed metal is now like a lumpy, gray mass. At this point, I decide to use some very heavy paint remover to clear the paint off so I can work on just the metal.

 

[Reckers]

As you can see in the pic below, I now have the paint removed from the roof. The photo reflects three stages of work.

On the left, the majority of the roof has had the paint removed (after the vinegar bath), but that's it. You can see it looks sort of like an oyster shell's exterior.
Moving to the right, you see that I've hit it hard with the wire wheel on the Dremel. The scaling is mostly gone, as is the majority of the uneven surface of the aluminum. Deep pitting remains, and the wheel has textured the roof to a matte finish.
At the far right is the finished product. From the wire wheel, I went to a hard rubber cylinder impregnated with a coarse abrasive, then a rubber cylinder with a fine abrasive. From there, back to the Dremel felt pad. This time, I use tripoli, a rubbing compound coarser than rouge to take out most of the scratches from the wire wheel. This is followed by the felt pad with rouge, and then the wheel made from cloth sheets, which is finer and reaches deeper than the felt pad. Again, rouge is used and the end is a black, grimy surface. Wiped away with a paper towel, it exposes shiny aluminum with some nominal pitting. I decide to leave it like this: the pitting makes the metal look like that on a car with a few years of road-battering. Final treatment is with a jewelry-polishing cream called Maas, which leaves it with a beautiful, hammered-silver appearance. In the picture, you can see the reflection of the green latch on my toolbox in this area. Not bad, for a 50-year-old.

 

[shaygetz]

DUDE!!! Where'd you find those...diving for abalone on a coral reef?

They'll be great pieces, even if you don't get all the pits out, it'll give them that much more character.:thumbsup:

 

[Reckers]

DUDE!!! Where'd you find those...diving for abalone on a coral reef?

They'll be great pieces, even if you don't get all the pits out, it'll give them that much more character.:thumbsup:

They were an ebay acquisition---seller said he was going to auction them as is, and sell them as scrap aluminum if there were no takers. It's going to take a while, but the part I've completed really looks like burnished silver. The remaining pitting simply makes them look like the railroad has used them extensively, so that part's pretty cool. I already have powered-car frames and trucks to go under them. When I'm closer to completion, I'll go to Radio Shack and look for some LED's to mount in the car's ceiling and put some silhouettes in the windows. The original project was to build a passenger train for my girlfreind to sort of bring her into the hobby, so the final decor decisions are hers. She likes both the totally-silver idea and what she can see of the original paint (sort of tuscan red or a gray-green, depending on which car), so there's no telling how they'll end up.

 

[ALCOS4EVER]

Those look like "OK Streamliner" cars. They were made in Herkimer, NY. They are now made in Mohawk, NY. They could be as old as sixty years or they could much newer. They are still made and parts are available for them. Go to okengines.com for more information. I have a group of them I've had for years, I like them even though newer cars are more "advanced".

 

[tankist]

don't by leds from radioshack. you will pay crazy money for 3 leds.

http://cgi.ebay.com/100-x-3mm-Round...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b8083e91
lifetime supply of LEDs for you right there (not sure if its the color that you want though) i think the 50pc packages are around 5$.

or you can do what tman does - buy cheep toys to cannibalize leds and flashing circuits from. still better then radioshack

 

[Reckers]

great suggestions---thanks! I've never worked with led's before---if you don't mind, when I get to that point I'll email you for advice.

 

[Reckers]

Those look like "OK Streamliner" cars. They were made in Herkimer, NY. They are now made in Mohawk, NY. They could be as old as sixty years or they could much newer. They are still made and parts are available for them. Go to okengines.com for more information. I have a group of them I've had for years, I like them even though newer cars are more "advanced".

Alcos4ever,

I just now found your post---I managed to miss it, somehow, and I apologize for not responding sooner. Thanks for the information and the lead on the replacement parts! I was just posting on another site that I was looking for exactly that. According to the information sources I have, the extruded-aluminum version of the AF 660-series cars were only made in 1950-1951. Of course, lists are only as accurate as the person who creates them, so I'll definitely follow up on your parts source. If I'm super-lucky, I'll find the back 1/4 of the observation car; it's a separate piece. Thanks for all your help!

 

[Reckers]

Alcos4ever,

I checked their website and you're right, the cars are similar if not identical. However, the only products their 2-page catalog offers are HO scale, while my stuff is all S scale. On the chance they did make the cars and have parts around but don't catalog them, I sent an email asking if they can help. Thanks, again, on giving me a line on them.

 

[Reckers]

A progress update: I'll try to post another pic or two this weekend. Let me start with something I left out because I wear specs: IF YOU TRY DOING THIS, YOU NEED SAFETY GLASSES!!! Using the Dremel wire wheel has two drawbacks. The first is the lime comes apart as you work. The part clinging to the aluminum of the car is stubborn, but the additional coral-like growth on top of it comes off in tiny chunks that zoom across the room, spin up into your face, and so on. This is accompanied by a cloud of gray-white dust. On top of that, I've eaten up 4 wire wheels, so far, and I'm still on the first car. As the wire wheels come apart, the individual wires also take flight and my T-shirt looked like a pin cushion after each session. I won't tell you what my girlfriend had to say after crossing the kitchen barefoot and finding several wire fragments in her feet. To quote Steve Irwin, "Danger, danger, danger!!!"
Tomorrow, a long drive to retrieve my buffing/polishing wheel from storage. I'll work the current car over with it and then take and post pics.

 

[ALCOS4EVER]

Reckers -

Glad I could help. I know they produced these cars in HO scale and a few in O scale but I didn't know they did any in S scale. Mine are HO scale made in the sixties and seventies. I am going to have to do a little research and find out about the S scale versions.

ALCOS4EVER

 

[Reckers]

Thanks, I appreciate your help! I emailed them, but they never responded.

Since I've been getting some coaching from my friends here at MTF to improve my photography, I'm going to post a few more pics. The cars in the pics, at this stage, have been soaked briefly in vinegar, then rinsed in water and scrubbed with a plastic scouring pad. Incidentally, I took them all to my LHS to show them to their AF guy (he's retired and does the LHS one day a week for fun). He said he'd been doing AF for a long, long time, and had never seen cars in that bad a shape. *L* "Len, I'll be honest with you. I keep old parts in my junkyard for occasional repairs. My junk is in better shape than what you're trying to restore. " He thinks he might have the tail end of the observation car, though, and that's a real blessing.

 

[Big Ed]

Now that's what I call a real weathered look!

 

[T-Man]

A progress update: On top of that, I've eaten up 4 wire wheels, so far, and I'm still on the first car. As the wire wheels come apart, the individual wires also take flight and my T-shirt looked like a pin cushion after each session.

I found one of those wires bound up in my key ring. I wondered what was after my leg! You should make a little cardboard booth to control the flying.

 

[Reckers]

Now that's what I call a real weathered look!

Agreed. They look like they were running on Mars.

 

[Reckers]

I found one of those wires bound up in my key ring. I wondered what was after my leg! You should make a little cardboard booth to control the flying.

I'm hoping that I can successfully switch to the larger buffer and retire the Dremel wire wheels, but you're right about the wires. I found one in my foot at Target, Friday. It had gotten into my sock and slowly worked it's way in to stab me!

 

[Big Ed]

Agreed. They look like they were running on Mars.

Just put EAST COAST LINES on it and you don't even have to paint.

Then when you make your layout you could add a bit of track running along the coast over the ocean. (with background panels to match the sea scape. W/t seagulls too.




Add a little bird droppings to the cars?:laugh:

 

[Reckers]

*LOL*....do seagulls poop acid?