As a tinplate restoration I wasn't sure if this belongs in the restoration forum or the tinplate forum but here goes...
The diecast wheels with red roof, cream and red upper deck and all red lower deck identify this bus as ( I believe) a Version II post-war (late 1940's?) 60M.
As you'll see with the restoration, I made quite a big job out of it but the final result is pretty good! It took perhaps 30 hours to do it, spread over several weeks.
Ridiculous for one little bus, I know but I'm completely inexperienced with tinplate restoration.
Below is a link to the video of the process, but first some stills.
Small pieces of sheet metal can be very difficult to straighten. Get one part right and it warps somewhere else down the line. The process of stamping the original parts places all sorts of stress points and kinetic energy into the stuff. Trying to use fillers and putty to improve the look in some spots is just as difficult as the energy required to sand the areas can place enough force to deform other areas. Some might think the time you put into this is an exaggeration, but anyone who takes on such a task will soon realize it's not. You've done a fantastic job and the bus came out looking great! From the body work to the paint work, all are very well done - a stellar job, you should be very proud of that restoration!
Thank you for your encouragement guys!
Ah you spotted the "droopy" headlight... It's superfine Milliput, and actually very hard, but brittle, so it should hold up well if not touched or knocked, otherwise a further rebuild will be required. And that's right about dealing with tinplate; because it's very thin I wrongly assumed it would be easy to manipulate but the more I messed with it the more difficult it was to get right. I read somewhere, maybe here, that the tabs can take 2 bends but no more, and that's exactly what happened. You can bend the tab to release a piece then bend it back to secure it again, but it it doesn't go right and you have to bend it again it immediately snaps.
Iain P wrote:My mantra was "Get it done perfectly" but by the end it was just "Get it done."
Oh, the number of times I've been 3/4 of the way through some resto and taken it back apart, removed all the paint and started over again. By the time the thing is done one has hours and hours invested in it. No one, except another person who likes to do restorations and customs, can ever fathom the amount of effort that goes into such projects.
I recently started another K-8 restoration. It was another one with white rust and had some pretty deep pitting on the left side. I used filler putty on the left front fender and on the left rear side board. The front fender's putty bubbled and swelled in odd shapes. The rear sideboards putty swelled and raised the level enough to visually obscure some of the high lines and bubbled on top of that. Back into the stripper and starting all over again (sigh). Getting the putty work right was 90% of the prep for painting, that time is now wasted. I'm not sure what happened but I am going under the assumption that I painted too soon and the putty was still out-gassing and that's what caused the reaction. I'm switched back to an older favorite with regards to the putty and waiting a week from putty work to painting.
Tinman wrote:Oh, the number of times I've been 3/4 of the way through some resto and taken it back apart, removed all the paint and started over again. By the time the thing is done one has hours and hours invested in it. No one, except another person who likes to do restorations and customs, can ever fathom the amount of effort that goes into such projects.
Oh so true.I dont think I have ever made back my time scale worth on a restoration...But we love it hey?
I had a customer, who purchased one item, ask if I could do a custom to their request/specifications and sell it to them directly cheaper than the item they had just purchased from me on ebay.
Here's what I told them:
The item you purchased was $35 USD. Ebay has to be paid, paypal has to be paid and the Postal Service has to get paid. Out of that $35, I will see $26 USD. Now, out of the $26 USD comes the following costs:
The cost of a box (I buy 4" x 6" x 6" new boxes to ship my models) and packing material. I buy bubble wrap and/or foam wrap. I have to buy 2" wide packing tape.
The cost of the beater or play worn model (if I get lucky, it's a model I only paid postage to receive or one that some generous forum member sent to me, still I have to average in the cost of beaters and their postage across the spectrum).
The cost of any spare parts like windows, tires/wheels, decals, etc. that I can not make myself.
The cost of making my own decals: Printer ink, decal paper, clear fixative spray.
The cost of epoxy and other glues or fillers. Polishing compound.
Paint: Model paint is not cheap nor is any other type of decent paint for that matter.
Sundries: Paint thinner, paint stripper, Future floor polish, Sand paper in various grits, rags, containers for paint and mixing - all those little things that you use to do the job.
Tools: Most last a long time but it all adds up to a bunch of small specialty tools as well as some common tools.
Last but not least - the time that goes into even a simple straight forward restoration.
Not even factoring the labor, that $26 USD can quickly be worn down to $12 or $13 USD (sometimes even less). Factor in the labor and you'll soon realize that prisoners get paid more per hour than someone restoring a model! I sent him the same basic response as above with a NO answer to doing it cheaper. But, I directed them to the Restoration Handbook page so they might be able to do the job themselves. Do you know what they responded back? "I don't want spend the money to invest in all the tools, paint, etc. and mostly I do not have the time!" I doubt if I will hear from that person in the future because of what I wrote back concerning his statement/comment.
There are only a few people I will do a model for (like restore one of their old childhood models or some other custom). That's because of too many bad experiences after spending hours on someone else's custom or restoration. One guy from the old MCCH days bugged me (more like harassed me relentlessly) until I would do a restoration of a M9 Cooper Jarret road train with gray trailers and standard wheels. He sent me the beater models (and they were rough too), new rear doors for the trailers by Steve Flowers and a set of decals.
When it was all said and done, two of the 4 doors doors were unusable, the air horns were too damaged to salvage and some of the wheels and axles had to be replaced using my own supplies of spares. He came over (unannounced) to my place to pick up the model in person and was livid that the model had no air horns, and one trailer had no doors. Never once did I get a "thank you" for all the work I put into the model (which did look great) and he was further very displeased that he had to order another set of doors and an air horn. That order would take a month and then he would have to bring the model back to have me paint the doors and install them. "That's unacceptable" he barked (actually he said that's B. S.). No good deed goes unpunished!
I found out later that he had a buyer lined up for the model and he was pissed off that the buyer bailed and (wouldn't wait for the required parts to finish it up). I was doing the restoration because I thought he wanted it for his personal collection (he really liked M9s and had several of them already). To first be hounded into doing the restoration (to his specs), then using my own paint and supplies along with providing free labor only to find out he was selling the model for a tidy profit on his end ... and to be treated so poorly for doing a nice job (at zero cost to him), was all too much.
So where is this story going? That guy who recently asked for a specific model to be made to a specific color with specific decal requirements ... turns out the guy is reselling the stuff (under another name) on ebay. He resold the one item he did buy from me at over twice the price he paid me. Looked like he had to sit on it for a while but he did turn a profit. Yes, we restore and make customs as a hobby and for the joy of doing so. For the joy of taking another's trash and making a treasure. That's the only reason we put so much time and energy into these projects ... sure isn't for the money! Unless your some ebay seller like BeatlesBob who cranks out poor quality stuff on an assembly line basis and asks high prices for every hunk of junk they churn out. Or, the guy I recently encountered who resells everything they buy at a 100% mark-up.
