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I got a tag from the year my truck was manuactured, straight of the
wall of a Joplin, MO resturant! It's in pretty good shape, but has
some rust. I was considering beadblasting it, fixing the one little
dent and the knick in the edge, and re painting it. Is this a
good/bad idea? anyone done it, and how do you paint the raised
letters?

matt

In a message dated 6/20/99 10:20:54 PM Central Daylight Time, morephi@...
writes:

<<
I got a tag from the year my truck was manuactured, straight of the
wall of a Joplin, MO resturant! It's in pretty good shape, but has
some rust. I was considering beadblasting it, fixing the one little
dent and the knick in the edge, and re painting it. Is this a
good/bad idea? anyone done it, and how do you paint the raised
letters?
>>

Matt,
I was giving other folks a chance to answer this one, but since nobody did
I'll give you my 2 cents worth to get the ball rolling. Since it's an older
license plate it is going to be thicker and stronger than a modern plate but
I still would use sand to blast it. I would use plastic beads to blast it (I
think that's what you were intending anyway). Use a good self etching primer
to seal it, spray a good thick coat of sandable primer over that. Sand is
smoth and then paint it the color you want.

Painting the numbers will be a little tricky but I did one for a friend of
mine years ago and here's how I did it. I measured the thickness of the
plate and cut two wooden strips to the same thickness to lay on each side.
Then I used a thin paint roller and gently rolled the numbers on. If you
push too hard the numbers will be smudged. It worked great the second time.
I messed it up the first time and had to redo it. I think I should have
practiced on the original plate first before I stripped it down.

Some people prefer to mask off the numbers and spray the accent coat on
instead. I'm not good enough with the tape to keep it from looking too sharp
on the edges.

I hope this helps.

Rick S (TX)

Matt,
I recently bought an HP book that covers this very subject: "Classic Car
Restorer's Handbook" by Jim Richardson. He recommends taking the plates to
an automotive paint store to match the color first with enamel, He then
suggests painting the letters in black lacquer and letting dry for 2 days.
You then apply the enamel directly over the lacquer, then take a lint -free
rag with enamel reducer on it to wipe off the paint covering the letters
(before the enamel dries)
This sounds a little too involved and messy to me. I think I would probably
paint the entire plate in the background color and letting it dry, then
sponge brush the black lettering in later. Have fun.
Brad49SW-NJ