How to restore a 1960 MOBO Police car

A friend, Colin, is an authority in restoring old toys. He was so kind to unveal the way he restores for example this Mobo Police car.  Colin, thank you very much !!!

This is 1960's Mobo police car, it is as bought condition and restoration is about to start, the first thing was to carefully uncover the police decals on the side, the dash board decals, the number plates and rear lights, these were then photographed so they could be restored

(Available through this web site)

The car is missing parts but replacement parts will be covered as the restoration goes along, no reproduction parts are available so missing parts will be replaced with suitable parts that can be found.

In the case of this car the outer shell will be stripped back to bare metal so the rust can be dealt with, for this i will use Nitro mors paint stripper, this will easily lift modern paints but the original enamel will not lift so easily, the easiest way to strip the old paint and rust is to have the car media blasted by a professional but i am doing it this way for those who cannot find one, the other way is to use a stiff wire brush cup in a angle grinder but this can cause distortion to the car due to rapid head build up if it is not moved fast enough. The front and rear panel will be left in place until the outside is stripped to hold it's shape when the old paint is being scrapped off.

Please carefully follow the instructions on how to use the paint stripped, it will do metal no damage but it will to other materials as it is very corrosive.!

The car has now had the paint stripped off been treated with Genolite rust remover, it was then thoroughly sanded to get really clean metal.

The rivets holding the front and rear panels on have been drilled out and the axles and pedals and rods etc removed and put to one side to work on later.

The dent and greases have been knocked out as flat as possible to reduce filling.

The car was a lot worse underneath than first thought so a the rusty areas have been cleaned back with a power file/sander and treated with Genolite, the rest of the paint underneath is sound and will be sanded and primed.

The car will now be given a coat of Etch primer and left for a week to dry off thoroughly and work it's way in to the metal surface.

The etch primer has now had time to harden off on the shell, i can now see how much more panel beating will be needed before any filling is done and the next coats of primer applied.

The front and back panel have been stripped of there paint on the outside and treated with rust eater, the inside has been treated with rust eater and will be sanded and given a coat of primer, i have matched the blue paint Mobo used on the car with a paint called Ford Electric Monza Blue which is available off the shelf at the local car spares shop, the outside of the front and rear panels have been etch primered and will then be panel beaten/filled then re-primed and painted blue.

The wheels are not original to the car and were found last year at The Beaulieu Autojumble in England, these have had the tyres removed, sanded down and treated with the rust remover, They have been etch primed and left to dry off for a week, then primered and given a guide coat of blue, this will be left to dry, wet flatted then a top layer applied and the tyres replaced.

The wheels and front and rear panels were given a coat of primer after the etch primer had hardened,it was then wet flatted down ready for painting, the parts were then given a guide coat of blue paint and left to dry then wet flatted back again then a final top coat applied, these were then left to harden for a week.

The tyres have been put back on to complete the job on the wheels, the decals have only been laid on at the moment to make sure they all fit well (which they do, fantastic job Joop) so they are not damaged when the car is put back together, the decals application will be the last job of the restoration. I managed to find some large washers that i had chrome plated to use as hubcaps as no available hubcaps would fit the wheels, the paint i found to be a excellent match for the original Mobo blue is Ford Electric Monza blue and was bought from a local car parts shop off the shelf