scoobydo
Member
So I have a Pere Marquette that I have been wanting to re-letter. (Bachmann)
The lettering is paint and slightly raised.
I heard about the denatured alcohol trick, but wondered how I would get it to stay put while it soaked-in without getting everywhere and also drying-up on me.
Well at work we have a ton of "sternos".
We call them sternos, but they are "canned heat", "chaffing fuel" or "camp stove fuel". Basically it is a JELLIED form of denatured alcohol.
(They also have a liquid form of fuel, stay away from that. You want the jellied stuff. Shake the can, if it slushes around like water, don't get it.)
Well that sounded just what I needed, so I decided to give it a try.
I took a glue applicator I had lying around and filled it with the fuel.
I carefully covered the lettering with plenty of jelly and let it soak in.
I applied enough to cover the letters and also raised above the letters about 1/8 of an inch.
I gave it 7 minutes.
WOW! All I can say is that I was done removing the paint from the tender on both sides in 20 minutes!!
After the jelly soaked in I took my X-acto knife and carefully lifted on one corner of each letter. While trying to keep the letter intact, I would get as many edges as I carefully could on the individual letter and then lift up.
In most cases, the letter would come off in one piece!
Because the letters are encased in the jelly, they stay intact.
I wish I would have taken pictures during the process, but I was trying to hurry as I was not sure if it would ruin the plastic.
Some slight discoloration, but nothing Engine Black Paint cant handle.
You have to hold it to the light at certain angles in order to see what was done.
This was my first custom job and I'm pretty happy with the results.
The Jelly is really easy to work with and stays put. No rubbing required and very minimal effort.
The lettering is paint and slightly raised.
I heard about the denatured alcohol trick, but wondered how I would get it to stay put while it soaked-in without getting everywhere and also drying-up on me.
Well at work we have a ton of "sternos".
We call them sternos, but they are "canned heat", "chaffing fuel" or "camp stove fuel". Basically it is a JELLIED form of denatured alcohol.
(They also have a liquid form of fuel, stay away from that. You want the jellied stuff. Shake the can, if it slushes around like water, don't get it.)
Well that sounded just what I needed, so I decided to give it a try.
I took a glue applicator I had lying around and filled it with the fuel.
I carefully covered the lettering with plenty of jelly and let it soak in.
I applied enough to cover the letters and also raised above the letters about 1/8 of an inch.
I gave it 7 minutes.
WOW! All I can say is that I was done removing the paint from the tender on both sides in 20 minutes!!
After the jelly soaked in I took my X-acto knife and carefully lifted on one corner of each letter. While trying to keep the letter intact, I would get as many edges as I carefully could on the individual letter and then lift up.
In most cases, the letter would come off in one piece!
Because the letters are encased in the jelly, they stay intact.
I wish I would have taken pictures during the process, but I was trying to hurry as I was not sure if it would ruin the plastic.
Some slight discoloration, but nothing Engine Black Paint cant handle.
You have to hold it to the light at certain angles in order to see what was done.
This was my first custom job and I'm pretty happy with the results.
The Jelly is really easy to work with and stays put. No rubbing required and very minimal effort.
