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Restoration of an online auction clunker


The son of Triangman

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi

SoT missed this thread first time. Love to see the restored condition picture.

Does make you think what people think good condition is, What I love is when people say New boxed in mint condition  to Wrenn ,Triang, Triang Hornby, Lima, Mainline, Airfix/GMR when we know when production stopped for most of these companies 15 plus years ago. so none of it can be new

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You also have to take into account that the seller may have no idea what they are selling so any poor description may not be intentional. You need to look at what else they are selling and what they have sold in the past to gauge how knowledgeable a seller might be about the items they are selling.

If you are not happy then why don't you just return it to the seller?

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Normally the item would have been returned to the seller but this time it's a rarer version of the model so it's a restoration job. There are some major issues with the model, the side board has to be fixed back on, and the labels re-applied, the whole thing cleaned, the box mended and a lot more.

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Cut the new poly window to size, and fix in place using a suitable adhesive. I use a finger to spread the glue onto the cardboard before fixing the poly window into place, if you use a peelable glue like the one I have used you can remove it from the poly should you be unlucky to get some glue on the poly window that will be seen./media/tinymce_upload/19602d73a8a93082838640181222df91.JPG

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The split in the box can be made to look like a crease, with application of some printers ink of the right pantone colour. usually a flame red 302, a small printers will usually sell you some if you take a container. Several coats on the cut are needed and it takes ages to dry. Avoid getting any on the yellow line./media/tinymce_upload/99b1e937898a683e803832e657fba691.JPG

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Restoration of the wagon has started, a good clean with a beeswax polish is needed, use surgical spirit on any areas where old glue has been to remove it and then use a beeswax polish on these areas. Warning, avoid tampo printed letters etc as surgical spirit can remove them./media/tinymce_upload/8422c7edfab5ae5491e485534ef145bd.JPG

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The metal weight is machine polished at slow speed by either a slow speed bench polisher or a mini drill with polishing wheel, it is brought back to brand new and made as rust free as possible. The weight is then polished using a liquid metal polish and then given a beeswax polish, followed by a light oil coating and then wiped off on a soft cloth to leave a tray of oil to stop rusting.

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The couplings are straightened and the chassis is given a bath in surgical spirit, cotton buds are a must form fine cleaning here, then a beeswax polish is applied and removed to give that as new shine. Clean the brass eyelets with a cotton bud and liquid metal polish, any polish traces can be removed using beeswax polish.

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The wheelsets are dismantled, great care is needed here as they can crack with age, it is wise to dunk them in hot water to heat the plastic before dismantling. The axles are machine polished by hand and then polished using a liquid metal polish and a beeswax polish applied. The wheels are then given a thorough clean with a cotton bud and surgical spirit, followed by a clean with liquid beeswax polish and any surplus is removed. Attention is paid to wheel centre axle holes to make sure no rust is left. A light coat of oil which is wiped off will help protect the axles from further rusting.

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The wheelsets are reassembled, they should be 14.5mm apart back to back, a wheel gauge or steel engineering rule is helpful here. Next job is to reglue the stickers onto the boards on the sides of the wagon. The lipstick style glue used for paper is very good for this job, sometimes the edges peel up and I use the same peelable glue applied with a tooth pick to the back of the sticker to stop the edges peeling up, a tiny amount of peelable glue is needed. Next job is to put it all back together. Oil the couplings lightly, it will stop rusting and aid functionality, oil the coupling at the pivot point where the rivet holds the hook. Any white edges on the stickers can be lightly touched in with a fine brush or felt tip pen of correct shade.

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 Thank you SOT  the information on the cleaning and restoration will I hope inspire many to do as I am going to do that is clean and repair some of my playworn rolling stock.

Question would you use new retro lables if the originals were not there or salvageable?

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