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Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Sorry forgot to put my second name on the previous post

My bus number (if any): RML2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

I’ve found it’s handy to keep any plastic aerosol caps as when you put them upside down you can rest small items such as seat bosses and panel straps across them while painting to minimise contact and sticking to other surfaces while drying etc 👍

My bus number (if any): RML 2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Looking really good Neil. Well worth the effort.

Did you clean up the lower aluminium coving at the same time? If so what was your method. We have this task to come shortly.

Paul

My bus number (if any): RM2059

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Hi Paul

Yes, the coving panels were cleaned. No secret quick fix - just a lot of crawling around on the floor giving them a good scrub with hot water and hard surface cleaner applied with a basic green scouring pad of the type used for saucepans. When dry, the coving panels were rubbed with a mild wire wool to encourage a shine but it`s best to go horizontal or vertical (preferred) and not a mix of both. Try doing a little patch in both directions to see how haphazard it looks. After the wire wool, a quick wipe with a damp cloth will pick up the wire grains. The whole task is significantly easier when there are no seat frames in the way as with them in situ it`s difficult to progress fast and continuous without missing bits.

My bus number (if any): RM 1563

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Neil Goodrich
Hi Paul

Yes, the coving panels were cleaned. No secret quick fix - just a lot of crawling around on the floor giving them a good scrub with hot water and hard surface cleaner applied with a basic green scouring pad of the type used for saucepans. When dry, the coving panels were rubbed with a mild wire wool to encourage a shine but it`s best to go horizontal or vertical (preferred) and not a mix of both. Try doing a little patch in both directions to see how haphazard it looks. After the wire wool, a quick wipe with a damp cloth will pick up the wire grains. The whole task is significantly easier when there are no seat frames in the way as with them in situ it`s difficult to progress fast and continuous without missing bits.
Thanks Neil,

Similar to what we had planned then but hoping for a quicker solution. There usually isn't one!

My bus number (if any): RM2059

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

For the aluminium kick plates etc I use diluted Selalite catering aluminium cleaner and descaler in a spray bottle and a toothbrush to get into the embossing - After rinsing and drying I tried using metal polish but it made it worse as it got into all the scratches and made them show up more as you can’t polish it away leaving them as black lines. So the suggested fine wire wool approach is favourite to bring them back up a bit .

My bus number (if any): RML 2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Thanks for the info Graham. Always handy to have several methods to try.

My bus number (if any): RM2059

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Many years ago I worked at the model shop in York Way next to kings Cross station. that shop was probably the first to produce etched locomotive name plates.

One of my jobs was to spray them red or back or whatever the background colour was. This was usually a cellulose motor spray. but then the problem was the same as for the bus body plates. The answer was to to wait for the paint to dry and harden, the get a flat sheet of 1000 wet and dry the rub the nameplate on that to get the paint off the raised lettering. The do the same with brasso on a flat cloth to polish it up. What this won't do is restore any chrome plating that is on the body plate.

It ought to be possible to get new body plates chemically etched if someone can produce the artwork.

My bus number (if any): RML2532

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

For fixing leathercloth/rexine I use an alpha Adhesives spray-on stuff that comes in 5 lite cans. It needs to be applied from a proper spray gun at about 60psi and it's a great deal cheaper than small aerosol cans. It also has a long "tack" time so if you make a mistake it's fairly easy to correct. What is also has is a very high melting point. I found many years ago talking to a rep from Wardle Storey who used to make all sorts of leathercloth that temperatures inside motor vehicles can reach well over 150c at times!

A lot of the "can" aerosols can't achieve that sort of performance, so be warned! Good luck. Thsi week the weather has been excellent for rexine-ing as the material is more pliable and the adhesive I use sprays a lot easier. I've put some pice on the RT/RF owners group on FB of some of the bits for BEA MLL721 that I've done this week.

My bus number (if any): RML2532