TECH:? Making your own "Garage/Den Art

Not sure of how "TECH this is but I am a car guy and I've got some Garage art. I, like alot of you have quite a collection of car items and wanted to try and make some art of my own for the Garage. My idea was to make some type of retro light decoration so my idea was to make a lit sign that would look cool in the garage. My thought was to make a "Starlite diner" light.

I went to the computer and came up with this. My goal was to make this about 40 inches wide.

I now had something to shoot for.

I first sketched out roughly on a peice of plywood what I wanted.


The next step was to cut it out. Use a fine narrow blade and take your time. I had lots of tight turns to make. So go slow with this. For the parts inside the letters drill a starter hole to get your blade in.
I know none of you are idiots so I don't mean to insult anyone with the instructions.

Heres what I had when all was cut out for the first part. You all have done some bodywork I'm sure so get those fingers sanding all of the edges.


Once the sanding is done, is does not have to be perfect I coated it with ordinary exterior house paint. The house paint is thick and will cover many of the small imperfections in your sanding or in the wood.


To be continued if anyone is interested.
BR

 

I find it interesting, and would like to see how it turns out!!!

 

Yea, continue this, I'm liking it.

 

You've got me interested...............

 

OK I'll continue.
I built this small box area on to the back of the light. This is where the light will go. Then one more coat of house paint and allow to dry. Next is to sand out the major imperfections which is easy to do.

Realize that this can be applied to so many shape possibilities.

Heres the back and how the boxing looks.


Time for a coat of color now and this part is almost done.


I wanted to have things look good in the light also so I did a bit of striping to the lettering to make things stand out better. Sorry I'm not a very good striper yet.

Here's a detail shot.


We can call this front section done.
By the way I did the cutting with a jig saw. I wish I had a scroll saw. It would have been so much easier and most likely, neater.

BR

 

Now this shit I like! This is kinda low tech and GREAT Looking!... Can I have permission to use your pattern for the Strange Days Garage? Carry on.. I'm waiting...

 

Wow, cheap, easy, and pretty cool. Just like me

 

I was building the front and back sections at the same time using the same method as the front. You will notice that the section that is to be down in the box area is left white. This is to get the maximum lighting from the light that I was going to be using. Changing the color of this area gives a whole different feel to the lighting. Also different color bulbs can be used such as small Christmas lights.
There are many options for the lighting. Just keep in mind the room needed in the box area for the type of lighting used.


Here you can see how the two go together. The front panel with the box area is made to be one piece and are permenently together. The back section is made to be unscrewed if need be to get better access to the lights inside.
You can see here how the two fit together. Again the front was progressing at the same time as the back using the same method of construction as the front.


Chaz, use whatever you like.

BR

 

Cool project man ! Can't wait to see what this looks like all finished up !

Todd

 

Nice tech post man......please continue.

 

Here's the final wrap up.

This is another early mock up shot as I went along. It was at this point that I felt it needed something more to it. It was at this point that I decided on the pinstriping for the lettering.



I made a major mistake at this point in the documentation of the project. Here is what I did. I used a common night light that is used most likely in your home. Many of the small nightlights use the same bulbs that are used for Christmas decorations as stated earlier. This is what I chose to use. I even found one that you can pick the color and it uses an lighting system so it produces pretty much NO heat. Avoiding any fire hazards. I may change over to this. Attaching to the bottom I used a small metal strap to hold the light in place.
Here it is all together with the light installed.



I also felt the back needed some jazzing up also.

It was really hard to get a good picture of it lit up and this picture does it no justice. It shows up MUCH better in person, but I think you get some kind of idea.



I suppose I am still not done with the final small letters, but the same method is used.

Not too far off from what was planned.


Here is another sign that I used the same "Tech"nique.


Hope you got something good and fun out of this.

BR

 

Awesome!!! I love this kind of stuff! I was planning a "poor man's" neon sign a while back using similar construction techniques and I found some plastic rod-like material that could be heated and bent like neon tubing - you fix a light to one end and it glows - I'll see if I can find the place that used to sell it and let you all know.

Steve

 

SWEET! might have to try that one of these days...

 

Very cool!! And a nice decoration for your garage!

Hey, a cool way to make panels that look like they're sort of glowing is to make them out of plexiglass (or colored plexiglass) and then rough up the back side with sandpaper and put lights behind it. The roughness catches the light from behind and it kind of glows. Or if you put the light on the edge of a piece of plexiglass, and sand a pattern into certain areas of the plexiglass, those areas will light while the smooth areas will stay darker.

 

Great work! Simple, effective, reflecting the times!
Good Christmas presents or for sale at swap meets!
Thanks.

 

Nice work man! I have some plywood lying around my house, so now I've got somthing to do while I wait for my brakes to come.

Jordan

 

That turned out great.

 

very nice. great idea.

 

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for that post, really enjoyed it. Looks great and can be done on a budget!

 

Very Cool! I'll Have To Try One For My Self.:d