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I've bought streamlined passenger cars by Athearn. They are in the California Zephyr colors. Here's what the coach looks like: http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default....D=ATH79065
I'm re-lettering and renumbering them for a short Santa Fe train in the 1950's. Is there a way without repainting the whole cars? Partial repainting is fine with me. I also have decal papers for regular inkjet printers, but I don't think my printer can make a "silver" color since it is just an ordinary printer(or is it possible?).
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I don't know how this will work on an Athearn car, but I've used it on others. Use rubbing alcohol on a q-tip, scrub the lettering softly at first, to see if the paint is affected as well. If posible try on a hidden area first. If the paint is good, scrub harder on the lettering. Use a pencil erasure to scrub the lettering as well. I have managd to remove lettering with only a slight dulling of the paint finish. An application of gloss cote fixes that, you can then redecal, and apply final finish.
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If they are new Athearn's, they have changed the paint and lettering. The old Athearn used to strip paint and lettering easily with denatured alcohol or Pine Sol. I was at a friends house a Year ago to do some kit bashing with him, and we found that the new r-t-r stuff was impervious to anything except Scale Coat Wash Away. We did not have on hand or try some of the other products that have been mentioned here from time to time. The solvent in brake fluid is denatured alcohol mixed with a lubricant, so that probably won't work on the new Athearn paint. I'm n also not sure how easy it is to use Scale Coat to take off lettering without taking off the paint underneath as well. You may need to end up masking off the area where the lettering is located and doing a "patch" job on the silver before decalling for Santa Fe. You might also be able to lightly sand the lettering off with a 600 grit wet or dry sand paper glued to a stick that just fits between the windows and the roof. If you go through the silver in the process, mask off and repaint the area with silver, then decal for the Santa Fe.
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Off topic, but I didn't make the connection until just now. I've been reading about the flooding in Manila, and wondering how you are doing?
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Hi Russ.  Don't worry about me and my family. We're ok. We were fortunate to have a house in a place that is well thought of. The problems we had are minor (eg: small leaks in the roof, power outages, etc.). We had friends, however, that got into trouble. Water went very high on some places, sinking cars and driving people to their roofs. I actually worry for the next generation because of climate change. How am I going to explain to the very young that my generation left them climate change? 
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Don't worry about that, Michael. By then it will be known climate change wasn't caused by man. Remember, it was only about 15000 years ago the area I live in was covered with glaciers, and we didn't cause their melting either.
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You could try some Easy-Lift-Off, from PollyScale, but some of the newer lettering jobs seem to be impervious to most chemicals. If you use fine sandpaper (wet/dry of 800 grit or finer)to remove the lettering, repaint the entire letterboard area. On those Athearn models, the flat lettering areas are distinct from the fluted panels, so the patch job will be less noticeable than if you re-paint only the previously-lettered area.
Another, albeit more involved, option can be seen HERE. In particular, check-out the second post, which includes a photo - in my opinion, the best representation of stainless steel that I've seen on a model.
Wayne
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Graet link Wayne, I'll add to my favs so I can come back to it when I need it.
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I just had a thought: if I paint my decal paper with silver acrylic paint, and then print on them using an inkjet printer, will that work? If this silly idea won't work, then I'll settle for masking the area and then painting it silver.
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michael_balcos Wrote:I just had a thought: if I paint my decal paper with silver acrylic paint, and then print on them using an inkjet printer, will that work? If this silly idea won't work, then I'll settle for masking the area and then painting it silver.
It wouldn't hurt to give it a try. Just don't forget to use something as a sealer after you print it. The ink in an inkjet printer is water soluable.
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Painting the paper silver will block the coating on the paper. The coating is designed to allow the printed medium from being transfered to the to the covering coat. Also the ink might not stick to the paint. Alls you're going to get is a blob of silver mess(this is from experience), when wet. Or a nice sheet of silver paper, with a bunch of passener cars names printed on them.
One thing you can do, is print as close as possible to the color silver on the sheet, with the names printed over the top of that.
Torrington, Ct.
NARA Member #87
I went to my Happy Place, but it was closed for renovations.
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Thanks, everyone. I guess I'll do with one of the following:
1) masking the area, painting it silver, and then apply the decal lettering(using transparent decal paper)
2) painting a thin paper silver, gluing it on, and then apply the decal lettering(using transparent decal paper)
3) printing a near silver color on decal paper+lettering, and then apply the decal
Choices, choices, choices. 
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Don't give up on the idea of successfully removing the lettering. While I am sure the posters who state the newer runs use ink that is harder to remove know what they are talking about, it doesn't seem too far fetched the cars you have are older. They've been made for a long time!
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For decal/lettering removal, I've had good results, so far, with Joe's Model Trains, paint and decal remover. http://www.joesmodeltrains.com
I haven't tried it on anything "new" from Athearn, but everything else I've used it on has come out well.
We always learn far more from our own mistakes, than we will ever learn from another's advice.
The greatest place to live life, is on the sharp leading edge of a learning curve.
Lead me not into temptation.....I can find it myself!
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My local hobby shop carries a decal paper design for you to make your own decals on a printer. The company that makes the paper also sells a spray can of fixative that you shoot over the film after you print the lettering or graphics on it. You may need to spray the fixative after you paint it silver and then after putting on the lettering decals, spray the fixative again. I would try to remove the lettering with some of the methods mentioned here first. If the chemical stripper you use takes off the paint, just spray paint the area silver, and let it dry and then add your decal lettering. If the chemical stripper does not remove the lettering, it is not that difficult to glue a piece of 600-800 "wet or dry" sand paper to a popsicle stick or a piece of bass wood the correct width to fit the lettering board above the windows and then add the decals. One other method is that Microscale offers lettering sets in various colors including silver in all of the popular railroad fonts. You could cut out individual letters to cover the existing letters with silver, and then decal your Santa Fe lettering over the top. It would be a tedious process, but it would work.
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