CLEANING BASE PLATES

[Rob]

Wouldn't hurt to try a small amount of vinegar on the baseplates as I have found vinegar to be a good cleaner for many things in the past, make sure you save enough for your fish n chips though

[SuperFast]

Hi fellow collectors,
I've used some different polishes to clean baseplates. The best results I got with "Metallin".
It Comes in a little can with the polish, some gloves and some cleaning pads.
I bought this in the Amazon Marketplace:

https://www.amazon.de/Metallin-Minipake ... s=metallin

metallin.jpg (305.73 KiB) Viewed 6179 times

SuperFast

[GHOSTHUNTER]

We await a picture please of a test base.

Ghosthunter.

[SuperFast]

We await a picture please of a test base.

Ghosthunter.

Please stay tuned Ghosty,
at the moment the picture from the metallic red Road Dragster baseplate (from look at what I just got) has to be enough.
Because I should take a picture from before and after the cleaning.
I will search a test model from my doubles.
SuperFast

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Thank's for the update, sounds like we are keeping you on your Toes...

Ghosty.

[SuperFast]

Thank's for the update, sounds like we are keeping you on your Toes...

Ghosty.

Oh yes, you are standing on my toes...
But here you are, today I cleaned a baseplate of a Saab Sonett.
Before (The base was like carpet)

SaabSonettBefore.jpg (208.89 KiB) Viewed 6145 times

and after (Yes, I did to much pressure as you can see the paint loss at the rear. If it were a rare Matchbox, I would be more careful.)

SaabSonettAfter1.jpg (333.8 KiB) Viewed 6145 times

SaabSonettAfter2.jpg (336.18 KiB) Viewed 6145 times

SaabSonettAfter3.jpg (210.62 KiB) Viewed 6145 times

The other polishing cremes I tried left the base in a very dark colour or left with residue.

SuperFast

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Looks to have been quite effective on the bare base, but too effective on the paint so practice with some careful application will be required to prevent any damage to collection models.

Ghosthunter.

[RussellJ]

I know this is an old thread, but I've only recently joined and it's all new to me. Since I reload brass rifle cartridges, I have a tumbler for cleaning the brass. This process returns the brass to like new (shiny) condition. If the vehicle is already disassembled would it be possible to "tumble" the base plate to restore the shine? It seems I read that somewhere but can't find it now. Thanks!

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I think this is a caseof try it and see. Source a cheap model with the same or similar base and 'Tumble' it. You will either be surprised and happy with the results or have a feeling of what a waiste of time that was!!

Due to the long production periods of our models the finish and treatment of model car bases will be found to be different as Lesney changed or improved their finishing prodedures and some methods of cleaning will be affective only on some of the models so it really is trial and error methods we have to use.

Whatever you end up with please do post pictures of the results, we are interested.

Ghosthunter.

[RussellJ]

Well, list the tumbler experiment in the "waste of time" column. I ran the tumbler for 5 hours with no appreciable change in the condition of the base plate so I didn't include any photos. Figured it was worth a try and was easy to do it if had worked.