I just purchased a Walthers Pullman Standard 10-5 sleeper in Canadian Pacific colors. It comes with a little bag of bright stainless steel grabirons and instructions to drill out holes in in the carbody, and secure the grabs with ACC. "Grabirons may be left bright to simulate stainless steel or painted to match the car" Question. Is leaving the grab irons shiny stainless prototypical? Painting them after installation and getting the paint to stick might be hard. I believe a coat of yellow chromate primer is needed to get a top coat to stick at all. Then matching the car color, and brush painting the grabs without slopping paint on the carbody is going to be a tad tricky. Or, perhaps I paint the grabs before installing them to keep the car body nice? Pickle them in vinegar, and give them a coat of red auto primer ? Gluing the grabs with ACC sounds like I want to disassemble the car so as to be able to apply the ACC from the back side. Then we have decals. The car lacks a name and a number as shipped, a sheet of decals is provided. The decal sheet hints that this style of car had only a name (Brookdale, Riverdale, and Armadale) and no number. I usually Dull cote over decals to make them blend in. Presumably I take the car apart, remove the window glass, and dull cote just the sides? Any hints, suggestions, or prior experience is welcome.
David Starr