Art & Inspiration What I saved today! Was headed for scrap!

I saved these 2 Firestone signs today. The red plastics from one set were all busted up. The other set isn't too bad but is fragile. Other than the "F" I have the rest of the letters with the neon tubes and ballasts. The letters are aluminum. From the 60s I believe.

I'm going to keep one set and probably sell/trade the other.

Anyone else finding anything? Later,Bill

 

GOOD SAVE!

I just score a bunch of 30's ford parts. Some semi desirable stuff....Pictures here

 

Very cool indeed......gotta be worth a bit too!

 

nice save!!!

 

Nice score!!!!!! Joker jason.

 

awsome...

 

sweet score love old signs.

 

Me too, just no room for them. Not sure where this is going to go yet.

Later,Bill

 

Wow! Great find. Glad you were able to save them!

Jim

 

Wow super great find and a great save

 

that's great. I tried to save / buy a Pontiac sign they were taking down from a dealer. they wouldn't let it go, saying it had to be destroyed!

 

one mans junk is another mans treasure !! great find .........

 

great save Garage art ,Id hang it in the house If you can get away with it

 

In Nampa idaho there is a coffe shop that used to be a firestone store and they kept the sign up in side but changed the order to read Finestore.

BTW, what size tires do you have on your 57 truck?

 

what great luck!

 

American Pickers would be envious..so am I

 

Fucking A man!! I have been looking for a set of those firestone letters after seeing Dreddy Bears. I am obsessed with them!!! let me know if I have anything I can trade for those. they are awesome. Who scraps this shit?

 

Great find. Look good in the snow!

 

Good score

 

I am also a big fan of old signs. I always hate to see them thrown away. Some of them are too large to display ,as I have run out of display area. If I come across larger signs I have a few people that have the room and are more than happy to take them off my hands.Sometimes they will trade you other smaller signs or car parts etc.

 

Just to let you know, I work in a sign shop here in Michigan and we can replace those faces for you. We do that kind of work quite often. Just letting you know.

 

Screw those guys!! I hear Jay Leno can make ya rich!!

 

Nice score. I don't see why people have to scrap them when so many others out there would take them .

 

Nice score, for sure!! Lets see, what else can be spelled with those letters-Doesn't have to say F-I-R-E-S-T-O-N-E, does it? Hummm STONER? STRIFE? RESTO? NOS? ONE TIRE? TIRES? FIRE ONE? SNOT? FIRST ONE?

Hell, with 2 signs, should be lots of good ones...

Sorry...It's been one of those days...

EW

 

But did you get the transformer pack for the neon bulbs? Thats the part that costs some dough. You may want to find that scrapper, he is most likely going to scrap that $2000.00 transformer pack for the 6 bucks worth of copper in it. See if he has the links too.

 

If they're aluminum I can pretty much guarantee you that they are not from the 60s. They probably arent any older than 20 years or so. Those transformers aren't that old either, but that obviously could have changed with service and retrofitting over the years.

I build custom and one-off signs for a living so if you have any questions about them, feel free to PM me.

 

great save .

 

$2000!? where do you get that number from? Those little white boxes in each letter ARE the transformers and they cost nowhere near 2k.

Our scrappers pay 35 cents per lb. for transformers. Those things weigh around 25lbs depending on the size of them. theyre full of mostly tar

 

White Way Sign, I did a full color flashing sign in neon on one of my previous business ventures. The sign was 25,000 and the transformer kit was 2,000, the permit was 4,000. It was pretty though. Like times square.

 

If it was completely neon then, yes, you can have 2k in transformers easily, however thats for multiple transformers. They can be a few hundred bucks each, depending on the size and brand. And thats cost. 25k in a sign is a good bit of work. It takes a lot to power neon. And being that youre in Chicago, you probably had 60ma transformers (more power,better for cold weather) which are much more expensive.