Painting Truck Sideframes

[NH Mike]

Over the years I've tried all different ways of keeping paint out of the axles sockets. Tiny pieces of masking tape or little balls of something that can be removed after painting. While they will do the job there had to be a better and easier way. Today I found it. Yesterday I painted up a set of passenger car trucks without masking off the axle sockets. This morning I used a fine micro brush dipped in alcohol to clean the paint out. Quick, neat. and simple. The micro brush tip is almost the same size as the axle socket. Pour a bit of alcohol into the bottle cap and dip a fine micro brush into it. Shake off the excess and poke the brush into the axle socket and spin it around a few times. Wipe the brush tip off on a paper towel and reinsert it into the socket to finish cleaning it. Ended up with a perfectly clean axle hole and no paint removed from the frame itself. I would think best results happen before the paint is fully cured. On these frames the Floquil solvent paint had been applied with an airbrush about 18 hours earlier. Total time to clean all 8 sockets was less than 2 minutes.

 

[trailrider]

What really gets to be a problem is painting the sideframes of Proto2000 diesel locomotives, which has sliding journals in which the axles ride. Getting paint on the sliding surfaces and keeping them operating can be a real problem. Hence, I had to avoid painting the sideframes on my Burlington E5 (kitbashed from an E6)!

 

[Cjcrescent]

What really gets to be a problem is painting the sideframes of Proto2000 diesel locomotives, which has sliding journals in which the axles ride. Getting paint on the sliding surfaces and keeping them operating can be a real problem. Hence, I had to avoid painting the sideframes on my Burlington E5 (kitbashed from an E6)!

Take a toothpick and place a micro-drop of oil down into the journals where they slide in the frame. Paint the sideframes now as you won't have any paint sticking to any area that got "oiled". To make it look more like a prototype diesel with silver sideframes, also move those journal boxes up and down some to spread the oil some onto the slides themselves. Just look at a prototype photo of an ATSF loco that has silver sideframes. You'll see grease stains where the journals move up and down in the frames. By oiling the journal slides and then painting, you'll get this effect. Plus the paint won't interfere with the journal's action because the oil won't let it stick to anything to cause the problems you're worried about.

 

[trucker1]

Hello, an alternative to painting the sideframes I have tried is to have them bead blasted at a local generator shop. Glynn.