Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Really, it depends entirely on what you have and what you want. Some go the nuclear restoration route and try to make an engine look brand new, while others are minimalist and simple restore good operation, leaving the original patina as intact as possible as it is a record of the engine's history. There are many who work in the zone that falls between those two opposite approaches.

If you have a truly rare engine, heavy restoration can definitely destroy much of its originality, and thus its value. However, done properly, a good restoration can enhance value and desirability. It can be a fine line that is not always very obvious where you pass from light into shadow.

If your engines are pretty much run of the mill, vin ordinaire, then simply do what you want to make them the way you want them to be.

Everybody has different tastes, but at the end of the day, they are your engines, so only you can know what you want of them!

I have done a number of restorations and I fully agree with the responses already made.  I would however add that given condition of the piece as received sometimes a full bare metal job is almost unavoidable and often new parts have to be made.  Preserving and restoring patina is rather more difficult than polishing and repainting to 'as new'

Dave

I agree with the guys that have posted already.  I have only "restored" two engines where I stripped & repainted them but only because they where in such horrid shape when I got them (I figured I couldn't make it worse).  One came out pretty good but from what I learned on that one, the next one paint came out better.  So other than those two, my rule is try to do no harm and try to get the engines complete and operational.  I am OCD on getting my engines complete with original parts or with near perfect reproduction parts.

Its a fine line and everyone's line is different.  In the end, the item you are working on is yours and the decision is yours.

Good thread and good replies. I have not completely restored any of my engines. I try to clean preserve whatever I can and touch up the rest. "Do no harm" is the operative way forward for me.

Jim K-E