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Paint & Restoring old License plates


Reed Cary
 

One thing I neglected to mention about paints. Depending upon where you live and local
regulations, you may find it hard to be able to buy the paint you want. Here in CA, there are
tough newer regs., which make it almost impossible to get anything except water-based auto
paint...unless you happen to live way way away from populated areas. This residency has to be
documented when purchasing the paint. Ironically, by the same token, one can sometimes pick up
top-of-the-line guns cheap, f.ex., from professionals who are forced to use the newly mandated
HVLP equipment.

Reed (CA)

--- Bradley Ethington <bneltran@...> wrote:
From: "Bradley Ethington" <bneltran@...>

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
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Phillimore <morephi@...>
To: WillysTech@... <WillysTech@...>
Date: Sunday, June 20, 1999 11:23 PM
Subject: [WT] Restoring old License plates


From: "Matt Phillimore" <morephi@...>

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
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J.Lewis
 

I'm not sure about other states but here in Florida, if you want to register
the vehicle with the older plate, it must be original and unrestored. My
neighbor went to a lot of trouble to restore an older plate for his Model A
only to find out that he could not use the plate.

Jerry



--- Bradley Ethington <bneltran@...> wrote:
From: "Bradley Ethington" <bneltran@...>

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
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Phillimore <morephi@...>
To: WillysTech@... <WillysTech@...>
Date: Sunday, June 20, 1999 11:23 PM
Subject: [WT] Restoring old License plates


From: "Matt Phillimore" <morephi@...>

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
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Frank Sanborn
 

J.Lewis wrote:

From: "J.Lewis" <jumper@...>

I'm not sure about other states but here in Florida, if you want to register
the vehicle with the older plate, it must be original and unrestored. My
neighbor went to a lot of trouble to restore an older plate for his Model A
only to find out that he could not use the plate.

Jerry
In Michigan you can use any plate from the year of the (25 years or
older) vehicle as your "Historic Vehicle" plate, so restored ones are
just fine. I painted a 1954 plate for a friend's F-100 and I painted it
the same colors as the truck - not even close to the original colors of
the the plate - and he's had no problems.

I have a 1947 Michigan plate for my CJ-2A that I made from several old
plates bought at swap meets. Michigan plate numbers back then were
three sets of two characters, so I bought a few old plates to get the
characters I needed and welded myself up a new plate - so I now have a
1947 Michigan license plate that is number 47-CJ-2A. It looks totally
authentic and only those in the know get it!

I pretty much follow the same procedures outlined by others for
restoring old plates, except I hand paint the letters using lettering
quills (I'm a sign maker by trade).

Frank (MI)