1. Messages
  2. etched roof walks on plastic cars

Re: etched roof walks on plastic cars

Andy Harman
 

While setting out some of my Wabash box cars at Marion, when I picked up one car it snagged the edge of the other car's roofwalk and it just came undone all at once.  Which was a good thing because it didn't cause any kinks, so it should be easily repaired.

I have been using Barge cement (yellow label) the past several years for any kind of long etched part, thinned with MEK.  It works well and I have no issues with thermal expansion/contraction but as I just found out, the bond seems to get brittle over time and is easily broken.

I might even be able to brush some MEK onto the supports and there may be enough cement there to soften up and hold it.  I should do that while it's on my mind, otherwise I'll be unpacking it at Cocoa Beach still broken.

I also bought a lifetime supply of Barge yellow label on line for about the price of Tony's SP freight car book.  Did the same with methyline chloride (aka Tenax) when the supply chain went dry a couple years ago.

Sent from my overpriced graham cracker

On May 1, 2015, at 6:23 PM, "Tony Thompson tony@... [STMFC]" <STMFC@...> wrote:

ed_mines wrote:

 
I've noticed roof walks "humping up" on higher priced RTR house cars being sold on e bay. Has anyone had this happen at home?

I bought a 3M contact adhesive between 2 sheets of release paper. You would peel off one paper, burnish the adhesive onto one of the items being glued and then peel away the second paper. This was ideal for etched roof walks but the adhesive smelled so irritating that I tossed all I had. Is there something similar without the smell?


    As always, I emphasize that the adhesive MUST be flexible, or eventually thermal expansion and contraction will break the joint. That's why I use canopy glue for this kind of job, have done for over 25 years, and have NEVER had any failure with a running board (Ed, note term) or diesel grille. If you're interested, here's a commentary on this glue:


Tony Thompson             Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705         www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, tony@...
Publishers of books on railroad history
Join main@RealSTMFC.groups.io to automatically receive all group messages.