Enhancing Amax Coaches (or Newqida)

[3Valve]

I had a thread on the old GSM but about repainting the Amex/Newqida coahces but lost all the original piccies etc due to problems with my laptop. Now that these appear to be bak in the UK again I thought that it might be a good idea to do a new repaint thread.

So here goes.

First thing you need of course is an Amex/Newqida coach.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Once you have your coach, start stripping down into its raw components ready to prep for repainting.

First thing to do it pop off the roof. Now there have been concerns about getting the rooves of these in the past as they can take quite bit of force. The best way I have found to do it is the slide your finger in through the end doors on the narrow (single seat) side. Push the bodywork out slightly (it's pretty flexible) and the roof should then pop out OK.

Repeat the process on the opposite end. Once you have the whole roof off, the end slding doors will literally fall out.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

With the roof off you can now remove the body from the chassis. It should be secure with 8 screws. Two beneath each bogie and two behind each bogie. I've photographed one end and circled the screws in red.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

With the body off, you can then take out the seating and glazing. Again the seating should be held in place with 4 screws.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

With the screws removed pop out the glazing and seating. The glazing will take a wee bit of brute force but again the bodywork and glazing units have got plenty of "give" so they should come out without any problems.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Now the only tricky bit that I've found on these is the black grab handles on the end panels. If you;re lucky they wont be glued in too well and a quick sharp tug will release them. If you're un lucky (as I was) you'll have to trim them off with a craft knife then redrill the mounting holes when you put it all back together.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

So that's it, you've got the body off, seating and glazing out and sliding doors off. The glazing should just pop out of the sliding doors. Put the screws and small parts away safe

Then get yerself a brew before moving to phase two.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

So phase two. First step is to remove those "TB" transfers and lettering. Needs a bit of elbow grease this bit. Get yerself some T-Cut and a cloth, then basically rub it in hard and watch that lettering disappear.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Finally we start to get some paint on. Make sure that you've got all the T-Cut off, then rough the surface up slightly with fine emery cloth, sandpaper or even a scotchbrite pad

You're then ready to get to work with your primer.

 

[ntpntpntp]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

"American Express? That will do nicely sir!"
Thought these were Amax rather than Amex?

Still hoping they'll bring out some US outline stuff so I can have an excuse to buy some of these cheapies too!

Oops yep they are Amax, thread title amended - cheers. Gareth

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Now if you intend to put lighting in your coaches, it's well worth priming and painting the insides too.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

So that's where I am so far, although I did do a quick trial fit to see how it all looked. Not too bad in primer. Tomorrow I'll move on to masking up and spraying the insides and seating.

 

[hagen]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Good and detailed step by step instruction.
Didn't even forget the most important thing, the brew

I will be painting mine during the winter, so this thread will be saved for future reference

In fact, you could send it to Tag Gorton and make an article of it.

 

[Gizzy]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Great thread mate.

I'm nearly at the painting stage with my own NQD chop, and I'll be posting my efforts on my 'Bish-Bash-Bosh' thread when I do....

 

[whatlep]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Excellent thread Gareth. I think a little grey suits you....

 

[yb281]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Great stuff mate.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Just raided my local Halfords and cleaned them out of Rover Damask Red ready to start the next phase when I get home from work.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

OK ready for the next phase now.

I've done my other coaches in a two-tone maroon and cream and this one will follow the same pattern. So first thing to do is mask off the areas that you want unpainted. In my case the bottom half of the side panels and the full end panels, these will be maroon (or Rover Damask Red).

Now on my coach the colour change from cream to maroon will occur just below the windows (marked in red in the picture), but you'll see that I've masked off a lot lower. If you mask off exactly where you want the "join" there's a chance that the darker colour will bleed into the lighter colour when you apply it. Overspraying slightly with the lighter colour does prevent this bleeding when you later mask it off at the correct height. (Trust me it works).

Also the inside hasn't been masked as I want this the same colour as the cream panels.

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Next get the rattle cans out. When doing a two-tone respray I usually apply the lighter colour first, so on goes the Lada (yes "Lada") cream.

Forgot to mention, use a low adhesion masking tape when masking off. There are some cheap n cheerful masking tapes out there but they stick so well they'll take half your paintwork away when you remove them (ask me how I know).

 

[3Valve]

Re:Enhancing Amex Coaches (or Newqida)

Outside done, move onto the interior.