Two railroad applications of stainless steel in question, one is a Budd fluted-side passenger car, the other is Farr-Air vertical slit side grills as used on EMD F-units.

First, the Budd fluting. There is some graffiti on the car side, and the rest of the stainless steel is dirty and rather dull. I recall hearing about an "acid wash" of some sort being used to brighten the stainless steel fluting. I'd think the painted-on graffiti would have to be paint-stripped off before any cleaning of the over-all car fluting. Would like some suggestions/guidance from those with experience in this area.

Second, the Farr grills. These are generally dull, with some areas having caked-on road dirt and rusty steel/iron dust. Taking a rotary power tool to these would likely produce lots of swirl marks and would damage the original finish. Again, any suggestions from those with experience would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Howard P.

How IRM polished a Zephyr: http://www2.irm.org/blogs/archives/948-Polishing-up-on-the-polishing....html

Jeff

We have used a product called AlumaBrite (meant for polishing aluminum on boats) for the stainless vestibules in our cars with good results. I'm not sure how well it would work on the fluting / intakes though. It would be good to start with a small and inconspicuous place first and test. If you've got caked on dirt, you may still need to use scotch-brite pads / stainless wool to knock the surface dirt loose first.

We use this product on the entire car. It takes some scrubbing where the trim strips meet the flutes. We dilute it with water. DO NOT do this in bright sunshine and/or let it dry on the car or you will etch the stainless and the stains will be there forever and all of eternity. We've spent the entire weekend going over a car in detail but the results are pretty impressive.

This was the rouge used on the Zephyr: https://www.zephyrpro40.com/s2/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=479

Jeff

There is an acid wash many Amtrak inspectors recommend for cleaning up side sills for inspection. In a diluted form this will clean up the fluting with relative ease compared to polishing, however the car needs to be free of heavy grime and "street artistry". For the life of me I can't remember the product name or find the details in my files. Any Amtrak inspectors on here to help fill in my memory gap?

Thanks for the suggestions so far. That Nebraska Zephyr looks really nice, we will certainly look into the products used to produce that job.

Graffiti removal, should we simply use paste stripper and some fine Scotchbrite pads?

Howard P.

NOT Scotchbrite pads. They scratch. That is, they remove offensive material by abrasion, and when they get to the desired material, they just keep going. That removes the polished finish (which is actually the finish being very smooth) and leaves a sea of microscratches, which look more "flat". Well, you know if you have any shiny stainless pots and pans. Go after that burned on grease with the Scotchbrite and the area is duller.

Stainless is fairly chemical-resistant (not universally, you have to check chemical by chemical), and graffiti paint is cheap, so the situation lends itself to chemical strippers.

Even with chemical strippers you still need to mechanically remove the bad paint, but I'd let the chemicals do the heavy lifting and just use a nylon brush. I'd plan on several passes with the stripper, since it tends to apply spotty and takes several applications to penetrate thick areas (runs and drips).

Howard,

I wholeheartedly agree with the Aluminum Brite for general cleaning of the stainless. It will turn a brown one silver, but as Hayneshopcat says you need to handle it the right way. This was the product that Southern Railway used on its stainless from all 3 builders.

As far as paint removal goes, we had a local chemical company that would sell a Methylene Chloride paste that was the best thing we ever found. Good stuff and at a significantly higher concentration than what you'd get at Home Cheapo or the hardware store. Gotta be real careful with it -- IMHO its much nastier than the Aluminum Brite.

I'll see if i can find some before and after shots.

ETA

One other thought that we've toyed with is the high pressure water blasting for paint removal on the stainless, specifically pier panels and roof.

ETA

I agree with several of the other posts. I have used an aluminum brightener as an acid wash on stainless cars for years. There are any number of makes out there – which one you use is probably not critical. The finished result after using this stuff is unbelievable – like brand-new stainless steel (unfortunately though, it won't remove the dents). I use it full strength for the initial “20 year” cleaning. Anything less than that just isn't really strong enough to remove the heavy surface rust. And as others have correctly noted, this stuff is very strong, so you must not leave it on more than 5 or 6 minutes +/-. Also, use rubber gloves and eye protection. It will start to eat holes in your clothes a few weeks afterward, so don't wear your best T shirt and jeans. You will develop a feel for how long you can keep brushing it on before you need to hose it off. You can do a given area several times as-needed, but never leave it on too long during a given application or, as noted by others, it really will etch the stainless. And always rinse the area thoroughly, soaking it with lots of water after each application.

An acid wash will rarely remove paint, though it will discolor it. Sometimes I will do an initial acid wash first, to help me see where I need to paint strip. After paint stripping, I will go back with another pass or two of the aluminum brightener to finish the job.

Also as noted previously, most of these acids do not work well on a warm/hot day or in direct sunlight as the acid will dry much too quickly and then you are screwed. Best to apply early in the morning or on an overcast day.

I ordered some more acid recently and my brand comes in 5 gallon pails with a 15 gallon minimum order. Total cost delivered is under $300.00 dollars.

A diluted mix of the acid can be used after the big initial cleaning every few years or so to keep the car looking nice. This reduced mix might be on the order of 50/50 water to acid.

Acid washing your stainless steel can actually be a fun process because the end result can be seen fairly quickly and the cleaned stainless is so unbelievable compared to what you have when you start.

The pictures show an example of an acid wash in progress I did a few months ago. As can be seen, there is s pretty big difference in the before vs after.

As a final note, I would never polish a stainless car. In my opinion, this makes the car look way too shiny, and I don't think they ever looked like they had a mirror finish. Not to mention that polishing something that big is a ton of work. I think the “acid wash” look is exactly the correct amount of shine that these cars had when in operation back in the good ole days. One has to be careful about over-restoring, even when it comes to a stainless steel RR car.

Howard P. wrote:

"Graffiti removal, should we simply use paste stripper and some fine Scotchbrite pads?"


I also concur with a big thumbs down on the Scotchbrite pads for paint removal. As one who has spent hundreds of hours removing graffiti vandalism from stainless cars, I highly recommend using a small white plastic brush with stiff, red plastic bristles (the bristles are about 1/2" long) for the major removal of paint after the paint stripper has loosened things up. These brushes are resistant to the effects of the paint stripper, even though they are plastic.

After you've removed 90-95% of the paint using this type of brush, hose the area off, re-apply more stripper, and get in the nooks and crannies with good ole SOS pads. SOS works great for the final cleaning and won't put a scratch in your stainless fluting. Works like a charm every time.

Once again, we desperately need a "LIKE" button! Topfuel pretty well nailed it -- that was the picture I wanted to find and couldn't. It really is amazing what the acid bath can do and like so many things once you get it clean, its much easier to keep it that way.

ETA

Thanks for posting the photos, Topfuel!

That truly is a night and day difference!

By the way, which two Budd cars are featured in the two photos? Unless I'm entirely mistaken, the car in the background is painted in SP Daylight.

"By the way, which two Budd cars are featured in the two photos? Unless I'm entirely mistaken, the car in the background is painted in SP Daylight".


The car getting the acid wash is former D&RGW CZ/RGZ dome coach Silver Mustang. The Daylight painted car is former SP Sunset Limited 10-6 sleeper 9009, one of only 3 Budd 10-6's left in the country that are still in mostly original condition, and that never went to Amtrak. The Daylight paint is slowly being removed in order to return the car to it's proper "all-stainless with red letterboard" appearance.