Removing Rolling Stock Lettering

Pine-Sol and a Q-Tip did most of the removal but you can see my piece of 400 grit wet sandpaper that did help the process along. In this photo I have just finished with the sandpaper and will continue with the Q-Tip.

 Pine-Sol on your equipment's lettering

This past week my friend Bob Hannah dropped off a load of magazines. The February 2012 issue of Model Railroader had an interesting article by Cody Grivno that mentioned using Pine-Sol for removing printed lettering off a  Proto 2000 locomotive. I've been having problems recently getting the lettering off projects I am working on and thought I would give it a try. A small bottle of Pine-Sol currently is on sale in Home Depot (Canada) for 69 cents and well worth the investment.

I normally have used VIM on a paper towel that would be scrubbed over the lettering surface till the lettering was gone. This in the past has worked on older printed rolling stock. On today's crisp and multi coloured printing the VIM just does not work. I had been working on a fleet of Roundhouse milk cars that I have tried many different methods with poor results.

I have a Walthers REA express car that I am converting into a B&M 50' steel milk car. I gave the Pine-Sol a try. The small numbering and lettering came off well but needed a lot of pressure with a Q-Tip soaked in Pine-Sol. I did have to re-apply the Pine-Sol a few times as the area needs to stay very wet. On the larger lettering and the multi coloured areas the Pine-Sol was not doing much. I decided to use some 400 grit wet sandpaper on the wet surface to speed up the process. I used light pressure making only a few passes. The lettering and larger printed area came clean quickly. I finished the areas with a Q-Tip. The Pine-Sol must be washed off as it leaves a slime that one would not want to paint over. The car body paint was not affected by the scrubbing and sanding although it does look a little shiny.

Another problem solved...George Dutka

This is how the lettering looked after a few minutes of scrubbing with a Q-Tip. The word refrigerator is almost off but the two colour area needs a lot more scrubbing. I did speed it up with a few passes of 400 grit wet sandpaper. I then finished the job with more scrubbing with the Q-Tip.