I posted this car a while ago, wondering what it was. I found out that it was a plastic Mantua body which was designed to have metal sides. I decided to do something with it.
I got printed card sides from a guy who sells them on EBay. There were a couple of choices but I chose the “Bananas” sides because they struck my fancy. Of course the sides weren’t designed for the Mantua body and were about ¼ inch too long. I scanned the sides into my PC and used Paint Shop Pro to make them the right size for the Mantua shell. I printed them out on card with my ink jet printer. It took a couple of tries because it always seems the printed image isn’t exactly what the program says it will be.
Because it’s ink jet, I was worried about messing them up when I glued them to the car side. I gave both sides (front and back) a light coat of clear lacquer (Krylon from Wally World). I painted the shell brown because I thought it would look better with the yellow sides than the original black. I glued the sides on to the painted shell with contact cement.
I didn’t have a floor for the car, but a found an AHM floor (with trucks) in the scrap box. I was a little wide so I trimmed down the sides. I stuck the floor on with Elmer’s Glue. It will hold, but if some day I come up with an extra Mantua floor, it will pop right off.
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I like this kind of project. To take parts of a couple incomplete models and blend them into something whole is the same sort of enterprise the full-sized railroads showed when they would swap tenders and engines or rebuild boxcars into piggyback flats. Carpe Manana!
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Nice job . You brought a old reefer back to operating condition. Nice to see a good use for a old car. I think it is the old tyco mantua plastic reefer body that had its metal sides rust off. frank toptrain
" It's a Heck of a Day " !!!
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Cool project Rich. Nice work. I liked seeing/hearing how you did the sides. I've got a couple of the old Mantua Refrigerator car kits with the smooth metal sides that didn't come with the paper. Nice photos as well. Barry
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Posted - November 13 2013 : 8:33:14 PM
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