# How do you protect die-cast cars outdoors?



## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

I find myself (and I didn't even know I was lost) with two very nice die-cast cars: one is a Kinsmart, the other a Burango - pretty sure that's a "B". So it seems that I'll be settling a little community near the CCRR tracks this summer. Or at least build "the road to nowhere"**.

So how do I protect them from the ravages of Mom N.? We'll probably see a few days over 90 (yecchhh) and the windshields, etc., are obviously plastic and the paint will likely fade unless I do something about it. Then there's the shiny "chrome" wheels.

Glossy Krylon? Wouldn't that melt the windshields and taillights?

Your suggestions would be appreciated.

JackM

** Only Pittsburghers will appreciate that.


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## Bob in Kalamazoo (Apr 2, 2009)

I leave my Die-cast cars out from early April until usually late December. (this year I took them in early because we were gone for two weeks over Christmas). Only one of them has shown any evidence of fading in the past 3 or 4 years. I haven't done anything to protect them. I'm interested in what other people do because I would just as soon they last for many more years.
Bob
in Kalamazoo Michigan


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

Auto wax polish.............


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## DennisB (Jan 2, 2008)

I have cars(about 20) that have been outdoors for 8 years. Pull them in for the winter. Only 2 have sun faded in their first year.. Cars that have little metal hinges rust in a few years. I try to place them in the shade of a building. Car wax does a good job of protecting them as Rod mentioned. The biggest problem is UV damage. I have a motorcycle shop with a large collection of 1/24 Maisto Harleys and had them since '03. The UV is damaging the rubber tires and are showing signs of breaking apart. Car tires are larger and last considerably longer. Small parts, like mirrors, are the first things that break off due to UV. 
Hope this helps, Regards, Dennis.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Jack; 

So far I have only put my diecast vehicles out at club shows or (back in the days when I had the layout) during club meetings or open houses. Rod's suggestion seems good. Perhaps a very light application ArmorAll on the plastic parts, but try it on some of the out-of-sight plastic first. 

"** Only Pittsburghers will appreciate that." 

Actually there was another of those roads in Reading, PA about 36 years ago. (Could still be there; I've just never gone back since we moved to VA.) It was four lane divided highway up to the Berkshire Mall, then fizzled to nothing in less than two blocks. 

Yours, 
David Meashey


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

My biggest problem is from the midget mafia... "Can I have that?" No. "Why not?" Because it's mine....... then it magically evaporates the first time you go to bed early.... The parents get huffy if you ask if their little darling "found" a toy car. So I started "protecting" them by putting the little pad from the packaging back on the car, and using that 1" x 2" pad to glue them to the concrete pavers with construction adhesive. (Don't glue them by the wheels!)... this summer I only lost a motorcycle, and this fall they all popped off with a (not so) gentle twist. 

(Thread highjack) Dave, Armor was always FUN - put it on leather seats, then when your GF got in the car on a summer day it sounded like bacon frying as she yelped and tried to stand up in the seatbelt (the actual fun part was helping apply aloe to her... um, nevermind)---- or watching after the idiot neighbor put it on a motorcycle seat.... no need to go to the ballet to see The Nutcracker that year! (Come to think of it, I'm not sure he found that gas cap, either!)


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Main problem is the windshields getting opaque. I've tried a clear UV spray, seems to slow it down some. I just keep buying new ones as I find them someplace cheap and replace the old messed up ones. Some I have re-painted and replaced the windshields on older stuff that has flat windows. We have real hard water here and the sprinkler system runs a couple of times a week and that leaves deposits. The chrome disappears also, and that may be a UV problem.


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## eheading (Jan 5, 2008)

I have some mostly plastic cars that have been out for several years here in Florida, and they've held up very well. I do have one diecast car with no windows, and it has held up beautifully. And when you look at it on the layout you don't even notice that there aren't any windows. The just look nice and clear!!! I have to admit though that I just got a diecast Metro delivery van. After much deep thought, that one is NOT going out on the layout to sit outdoors!!! 

Ed


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

I bought a number of diecast vehicles for my railroad, but they are so nice I keep them in a dust proof cabinet on display in the house and rarely put them out. So I finally found some cheap ones for sale and bought them to put out. So far they have survived, but the paint is peeling on one and the plastic windows fade and cloud up. the spare tire fell off one and the windscreen on another. I just take them and hose them down occassionally to clean them up. When they are totally trashed I will just replace them. One note, I found at one of the Garden Ry conventions, this nice tin truck made in China. It has totally rusted away and now is just scrap.


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

We only put our for a train Group train run & BBQ or an open house show only.. Out here in Ca. the sun would mess them up in time. Only thing we do do is spray some WD-40 the the under side due to maybe setting out over night and the morning dew may start some rusting on the axles or ? Also we do a lot of watering around the layout and we have a lot of Silica and alkali in the water that really dose a job on the paint. 
Guess so we alway put them back in the cart when not showing them off.. After while you end up with quite a bit of money in to them. Just our 6 bits worth.


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

This one only comes out to "play." That is, when I am going to run it. It is well over ten years old now. There are prototyps for VWs in this type of MOW service, although mostly in Europe. There were probably a few of these prototype "kitbashes" in North America, but they may have been done by the more obscure shortlines.










Since it resides in a storage carton most of the time, I have not had to apply any protective waxes or solvents to the VW.

Have fun,
David Meashey


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

I only have one car on the layout so far, a cheap diecast pickup truck. It's been there for over 4 years. The original paint hasn't faded but the Floquil weathering is nearly gone (nowadays I use Apple Barrel acrylics which hold up much better). However, the plastic windows have turned yellow and foggy.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

We use well over 3 dozen. One that has at out for the last ~10 years in an unwatered area and doesn't come in because the headlights and taillights are wired into the outdoor lighting shows its age (no longer has windows, much paint, or bumpers). The others all come in at the end of an open house weekend. They are simply placed in the lids from boxes of rheams of paper by area and stored on a shelf in the garage.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

IMO, just buy a few cheap ones, wax, then glue down - figures too. Unless you actually like that "after the apocalypse" ghost town look. The more crap you have to carry in and out = less time (and too often inclination) to run trains. Then you can preserve the fancy spendy ones for special occasions. When the 'sacrificial' cars get too ratty for your taste, repaint or replace.

If you're not super fussy, then there is usually used diecast stuff available at flea markets from 50c to $10


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

I am thinking about making a vacuform device like Yogi uses to replicate different things, with thin sheets of plastic. Don't see why it wouldn't work! 

Just need to get around to doing it. 

If you guys know who Yogi is you might want to e-mail him as his device seems simple enough to replicate.

Bubba


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## catherine yronwode (Oct 9, 2013)

I am sacrificing my diecast cars to Mother Nature. I also have an art car (CA license plate MojoCar) with stuff glued all over and just watch it weather, break, and age in a delightfully entropic way. 

I like the idea of using the little plastic stands they come with to glue them to the layout -- but most of mine have been acquired via eBay as used pieces, with no boxes or display stands. I have had some damage from children and i wish to minimize theft, of course, but i just have not yet been able to adjust myself to gluing them down. Maybe i will in the future. 

I too have found that "no windows" looks fine (buying thrashed ones off of eBay taught me that) -- the windows are just considered to be "rolled down" and that is what it looks like.

My biggest issue is repair on a clean break. I am not breaking them, but to save bucks, i am buying broken ones on eBay with the broken-off parts included in the package -- mostly mirrors and bumpers and headlights. If the parts are gone, i don't care -- but if they are included, i want some reliable way to re-affix them. 

What glue do you folks use to repair the plastic parts on diecast cars -- and do you use any special tricky cradles or jigs or clamps to hold them, or are you using a fast-setting glue that can be hand-held in place?


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

We don't leave them out. We have ~3 dozen that only get put out for the day or weekend of an open house. If out for the weekend, we don't water that evening.

I have one that sits out and has for a dozen years because the headlights, tail lights, and dome light are wired into the lighting system. But it looks pretty bad with no windows, bad bumpers, and little paint left. And, it is in a permanently dry area.


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

I spray mine with flat or satin Krylon acrylic. It helps a lot but over time,a few years, they will still fade. I just don't spend too much on them to start with.


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

Gee I was hoping I would find a "cure", for the windshield fading, which I have NOT been able to stop...I put a car out and it may last 1-2 years, if I bring them in in the winter, as I have started doing with my expensive structures.....mother nature is VERY hard on dicast with plastic windshields....I try to put out cheap cars I find ANYWHERE.....the bulk of my cars and trucks are just out 1-2 times a year for special events......then placed back in containers, seperated by cardboard to keep from rubs.....
Yogi had a homemade vacuform machine he had made...I have not had time to build it, cause I took pics, but maybe taking the windshields out vacuforming them to replace the yellowed ones would be a viable option.....time is what I need......one day tho.......
Untill then I will keep bringing them out...putting them away, cause if you have a lot of them, ther get expensive, not to mention hard to find dups......

Bubba


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Micro-mark has a small vacuform machine they have in their catalog now, not a real bad price.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Yellow windshields; Have you tried the head lamp restorer? Apply and buff and yellow cloudy plastic head lamps are clear again. Must be the very outer layer that goes bad.

I don't have one to try it on, I do know the product works.
John


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

Jerry Barnes said:


> Micro-mark has a small vacuform machine they have in their catalog now, not a real bad price.


 
I saw that, but it is a little small for most jobs except small items.

Bubba


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Totalwrecker said:


> Yellow windshields; Have you tried the head lamp restorer? Apply and buff and yellow cloudy plastic head lamps are clear again. Must be the very outer layer that goes bad.
> 
> I don't have one to try it on, I do know the product works.
> John


 
Too brittle to buff and break out of their frames too easily after sitting out. If left out in the sun, they will disintegrate at the touch.

The bodies are actually pot metal and fair OK, but the paint peals off. The axles rust up, and the plastic "chrome" on the bumpers, wheel covers, and detail parts looses its "chrome" becoming translucent, then more brittle before disintegrating.


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## Gary Woolard (Jan 2, 2008)

Some of you old-timers may remember Howard Sheldon, a.k.a. "GURU388", who used to have a layout here in bright & sunny Southern California. Howard liked to model a very 'contemporary' neighborhood, complete with gas stations, grocery stores with large parking lots, and yes, a freeway that ran around the layout. Of course you can't have all of that without having a LOT of cars -- Howard even had the O.J. Simpson slow-speed chase going on.

So we're talking dozens, maybe more than a hundred, cars and trucks. And I learned that Howard had two each of all of them. The 'every day' cars sat out in the sun and were allowed to fade and yellow in the sun. But each one of them had a 'good twin' that stayed boxed up in the garage, UNTIL a scheduled open house. Howard would spend the entire day before his open house swapping each and every 'sun-burned' car for its pristine, raised in the shade alternate. And of course, after the open house, each pristine car would go back in its box and the faded version would come back out.

So that's one way to handle the problem -- just buy two of everything!


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't find many around here anymore. Walmart used to have a lot and so did the farm stores, but find little to buy. So, just sitting out the old ones until I can have some extras to swap when they go bad. Mail order/ebay is too expensive, when you have to pay shipping. Maybe Amazon has some.


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

I have my good cars in storage, only out once a year for my 4th of July party, then they never see light again...I am truly going to try the vacuform thing as its gotta work, just need to get out the pics and get on it......Maybe try the dollar stores, I have found some cars there, and Menard's at the end of Christmas and such has cars a little cheaper the on Ebay.......A great source was K-B Toys at the closeout mall, but they are Loooong gone! Darn! And a big dissappointment is Wal-Mart not carring the choices they had previously..........


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