I bought a Dinky Toys Merryweather Marquis Fire Engine a number of months ago and thought it would be a quick and easy clean and restore.
Boy was I wrong when it arrived from ebay it looked fine. Problem number one the hose on the rear of the engine was badly perished and as soon as it touched it disintergrated there was no branch. Back to ebay to find a new hose and a branch for the model. Days later a package arrived with the hose but no branch. rang the supplier who apologised and refunded my £1.50 for the branch and stated that he could not supply the branch in question bue to the cost of postage and packing. Another search for a branc found one costing £1.50 including postage and packing. Great
Checked the ladder and removed it carefully only to find the ladder was warped. Ok easily fixed, not a chance when I checked the ladder more carefully the metal was cracking every second or third rung on both sides. I believe that the ladders had been cast in metal.
Cracking in the ladders and the bend in metal
Tried to mend the cracks by gently heating the metal on an old spare ladder to know avail made the problem worse. Need a set of new ladders.
Sent the whole thing to a friend to be repainted he stripped the whole machine down. Only to find the water tank was perished and the plastic cracking. and was leaking and we couldn't find a new tank or the siphon to pump the water through. to but one was impossible and pricey when I found one.. I thought about getting one printed but that caused another issue.
He removed all the ladder fittings and rear meal fitting and gave them a clean. Then cleaned the entire model for respraying and gave it 3 coats of paint.
Then creating a new set of ladders and my final request to print out some coiled hose to go into the hose locker.
Peter Collins
Boy was I wrong when it arrived from ebay it looked fine. Problem number one the hose on the rear of the engine was badly perished and as soon as it touched it disintergrated there was no branch. Back to ebay to find a new hose and a branch for the model. Days later a package arrived with the hose but no branch. rang the supplier who apologised and refunded my £1.50 for the branch and stated that he could not supply the branch in question bue to the cost of postage and packing. Another search for a branc found one costing £1.50 including postage and packing. Great
Checked the ladder and removed it carefully only to find the ladder was warped. Ok easily fixed, not a chance when I checked the ladder more carefully the metal was cracking every second or third rung on both sides. I believe that the ladders had been cast in metal.
Cracking in the ladders and the bend in metal
Tried to mend the cracks by gently heating the metal on an old spare ladder to know avail made the problem worse. Need a set of new ladders.
Sent the whole thing to a friend to be repainted he stripped the whole machine down. Only to find the water tank was perished and the plastic cracking. and was leaking and we couldn't find a new tank or the siphon to pump the water through. to but one was impossible and pricey when I found one.. I thought about getting one printed but that caused another issue.
He removed all the ladder fittings and rear meal fitting and gave them a clean. Then cleaned the entire model for respraying and gave it 3 coats of paint.
Then creating a new set of ladders and my final request to print out some coiled hose to go into the hose locker.
Peter Collins