List,

We will be restoring several cabooses and the roofs will need to be tended to. Past experience of roofing tar leads to cracking and eventual water penetration and eventual rusting. We were thinking of a different way to go about coating the roof. Seen a commercial for vinyl truck bed liners. Usualy this is sprayed in the bed of a truc and the results look to be impressive. Spotted in the commercial we seen this vinyl comes in gallon cans, possibly for user application and not a service you have to take your truck to. If this is the case and is able to be spread and rolled on a metal caboose roof, it sounds like this would be great stuff. Has anyone experienced sprayed on truck bed vinyl and how does it hold up over the years. The commercial says it would cost about $100.00 to do a pick up truck bed. A caboose roof is quite larger so probably 3-4 times the cost. Is this stuff durable? Is the texture too "rough" for a caboose roof? Any opinions is greatly appreciated. ....GM

Are you doing this as part of a restoration? If so then the paint PUR15 is the one to use. It is used in race cars. It will halt rust and inhibit any rust on the surface (not the big chunky kind of course). Pricey but you will only do it once!
If you are "putting it up for storage" there is a coating called "Snow Roof", I think that is the name. Made to go on the tops of mobile homes. It is thick and has to go on with a large nap roller. It is better than the truck bed liners I used once to coat a roof on a mobile home. It is white and will reflect heat.
If you just want to coat the metal for a short time (months not years) then buy Rustolem (sorry, I can not spell) in the spray cans and use it.
All depends on your requirements.

One of our membes suggested mobile home roof coating to protect the rood of some of our rolling stock until we can do a full restoration. My concern is: How hard is it to remove the mobile home coating later? Any experience?

Bill

Sorry, only put it on never had to worry about taking it off.

The POR 15 option has one draw back. UV. It's not UV resistant at all and breaks down kinda quick with allot of exposure. will work better with an overcoat of paint. There again more cost and more time and labor.

Have you considered gluing seamlelss rubber roof membrane on to the metal?

dave

Thanks for the replys so far. We are attempting to restore the cabins the best we can and will be used now and then on short excursions. We want to avoid any rubber based or tar roofing products. That stuff drys out, shrinks and cracks. That truck liner material is just a new product we were wondering about. I think the commercial was for the product called Hurculite (sp?). Our only other choice so far that we do have experience with is a product from PPG. It is the 2 part epoxy primer called Pitt-Guard. We used this on the underbody so far and it appears to be very very durable. It too is quite pricey but not as bad, I don't think anyway, as the por-15.....Thanks, GM

One consideration I did not see mentioned above is if these are wood or steel cars. Railroad cars flex and move as they do down the track and wooden cars more than steel cars.

My tendency would be NOT to use a material that would be rigid and that would cause a build-up on the roof more than the paint the railroad would have used. On a wooden roof you can apply felt roofing paper and then paint it with an appropriate coating.

Brian Norden

For a canvas roof car, 1907 80-ft Pullman Palace Car Boston & Maine diner 1090, for the past six years I have used a mobile home product KoolPatch from the local hardware store to stabilize and protect a deteriorated condition including cracks large and small and a sag where the roof supports had failed. The product apparently is a water-based thick butyl with fiberglass fibers to take some of the expansion and contraction. My experience is that under those conditions, with cracks first sealed and then the tar-over-canvas roof totally covered with KoolPatch, the coating would hold up for five years before drying out and needing a recoat. The company also produces a membrane product which I have not tried. With this dramatic bad condition, presently there are no leaks in the car until we can get the car inside a barn. For metal roofs, at IRM they usually sand blast the roof down to bare metal, repair holes and replace rusted and bad sections, then apply primer and top coats. That would be a good solution for metal roofs, with care to make sure all flashing is intact and doing its intended job. Next to this car last summer was a dynamometer car which had numerous leaks at all penetrations, a bad metal roof and ruined interior. The railroad had attempted a botched-up patch job shortly before IRM received the car and the results have been disastrous. The car currently is inside, fortunately, for the would-be volunteer intended to do another patch job. You might consider both alternatives but I would be inclined to go the long route unless you intend to patch then scrap, not the preferred route in a historic setting.
Sincerely, Ted Anderson, who is really inexperienced in this area!