Keith,
To add to Charlie's comments, as built, the E% definitely were all stainless steel except for paint and emblems. I have a photo that my dad shot on June17, 1940 when the units were brand new. It shows an A-B consist. At that time, the pilot appears to be stainless steel. The side skirts really aren't visible. As built, the E%s had unique truck skirts that covered the upper portion of each truck and hid any sign of a carbody skirt. In Dad's photo, the truck skirt is missing over the rear truck of the B unit. The train the units are pulling was a Kiwanis special operating between Chicago and the Twin Cities for a Kiwanis convention. At the time, it was supposedly the first complete train of non articulated streamlined equipment to operate on the Q.
Here is a link to the photo
Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:35 am (PDT) . Posted by:
Keith-
The units came from the factory with only the striping and lettering in
paint. Everything else was Stainless Steel. There was some variation in
the level of polish but I would just go ahead and paint everything in Alclad
Stainless unless you want to research all the photos available and try to
develop an area by area diagram of varying Stainless Steel finishes.
The upcoming Kato unit will first be offered in the As-Delivered scheme.
Black stripes. The unit at IRM has a replacement pilot (there were three
different styles of Pilots on the E5s as delivered) and the IRM version is
one style of the replacement regular steel pilots which were painted
silver(some had what look like E7 pilots applied which do not follow the
contours of the originals).
Check photos for the unit you are doing..you may want to match the "phase"
of the unit as well. the Valerio shell, being based on the LifeLike E6, is
closest to a Phase II (the Kato will be a PhaseI which is like an E3 with
the parallel to the rails roof radiators vs. the perpendicular style of the
E6).
Charlie Vlk