First - thanks to all of you for your posts on this topic! Your help
makes it easy to go forward.

1) The trucks and wheels are fairly new plastic and plastic.
I'll be changing those out to something more appropriate.
Probably Kadees.
2) I hadn't tried to take anything apart yet - figured I'd ask a question
and get an answer from someone who had already owned one of
these cars - so the fact that the frame is held on with the coupler
screws is a -big- plus and will make doing the work a lot easier.
3) Since I have a mill I will probably use that for most of the work
on the frame - it should be a pretty easy 'kit bash' and I'll have a
nice model in no time. Won't be contest quality or anything to
take to the prototype modelers for show and tell ... but it should
run well and it looks good. The paint is all "very glossy factory
fresh" which makes no sense for my uses since I don't get to run
on layouts using a 30's theme ... but weathering is something I'm
very comfortable with ... *G*