I just picked up a pair of old Texas plates that need a little bit of refinishing. I've already read the posts here on HOW to do it, but what I'd really like to know is how they did it back in the day? If I had to assume... i'd guess the plate was shot in it's base color and allowed to dry first. Then set face down lightly on a chamois cloth or very thin sponge soaked in paint, so only the raised letters and other decorative items would get paint. I figured the prison wasn't full of dudes with one shot, little rollers, or thousands of balls of masking tape laying around... Am I on the right track? Anyone done time and want to set me straight? -Chris
It looks like they were painted the background color then sent through some rollers with the top color.
yeah, theres a lady at the swap meet who makes custom license plates and then uses a roller with oil based paint. I have done them before and masked them off with tape and a brush, it came out good that way too.
Thanks for the info... I was thinking about clamping the plates upside down then running a roller over the characters lightly. I figure gravity would do it's thing and keep the paint from getting to the rest of the plate.
I would imagine that a flat license plate on a magnetic surface, would stay in place fairly well, then it could be painted by whatever means were available (roller, stamp or whatever).
think i saw that in a videop or something about them rollin down a line basecoated and a roller did the numbers,trim,etc...........dave
hmmmm I like your magnetic idea a lot better than my clamping one. If I can find a successful and easy way of restoring license plates I think i'm going to do a tech article on it.
Judging from the runs I've seen the base was applied with them hanging from a wire and once dry the letters and numbers were coated using a roller.
Using the existing holes in the plate, I would just screw the plate to a heavy piece of wood to keep it from moving while you rolled some paint over the letters with one of those cheap foam rollers you can find at a craft/hobby store.
HAMB vendor in the DFW area does license plates. Good guy. He can prob tell you how the inmates did them.
The inmates had a lot of time, they were probably supplied painted plates; and then they painted the background, with a small brush.
Some great ideas! Thanks a lot. I wonder if anyone would have a picture of the dies they used to stamp those suckers out. I guess they just used a basic alpha numeric system to figure out which numbers and letters to bang out too. In way of using a roller, I guess if it was firm it would be just fine... I just wouldn't want to go too soft and touch the background. That would suck. I wonder if a really wide roller that did the whole plate at once would leave a more even finish... or if I should use a tiny roller to follow the shapes of the characters individually. I'm sure either would work, I just want to hear what ya'll's opinions were.
I heard that they painted the plate both colors solid THEN a really good sandblast guy took off everything except the numbers and letters. I also heard that if you drink Lonestar beer it steadys your hand good enough to get fine lines.
LOL Eddie! I don't know what prison you were locked up in but it sounds like a good time... as to the whereabouts of a good sandblaster... all I know is there isn't anyone for miles and miles. Now back to my Lonestar... hahaha
My guess for a roller would not be a paint roller like you'd use to paint the kitchen walls. They would make it almost impossible to control the amount of paint being applied to just the shallow relief areas of a license plate. Head to a craft or art supply store and get a brayer. They're made of different materials, but I'd look for a slightly soft rubber one. Use a piece of glass or something similar as a palette to load your paint evenly onto the brayer. If you get one that's wide enough you could probably catch the whole plate in one pass. As with most of these kinds of projects it might take a bit of practice with thinning the paint a bit, loading the brayer and applying the paint till you get a feel for it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brayer
Years ago, I spent a few years working in the flexographic printing industry. I would bet the numbers are painted with a rubber roller and guillotine blade to regulate the amount of paint applied. We always sandblasted the rollers and then hard-chromed them. Of coarse this was for ink, but I think paint would behave very similar.................
Don't make it too nice...see pics. I don't have a 6" wide brayer, so I'd probably try to use an old typewriter platen (I have a bunch of old typewriters). We used to use a brayer to roll ink onto the linoleum blocks we cut to print our christmas cards way back when.... (this is a never mounted Arizona 1969 plate I found in an old car)
just ink up your old wringer washer and let er rip .. you know whatt they are don't ya .. don't get yer tit caugh in ther tho paint the raised lettersand the back all at the same time our new plates are flat here now and with a bar code coming soon good luck gettin the paint off before wash day .... tuesday
Tapped mine off and free handed the letters. All that work called the dmv and the plate was in use on a RV. I just picked up another plate and called ahead and the new plate is clear.
HA! My parents used to run the Georgetown Typewriter Service many years ago. We have hundreds of IBM Selectrics in various stages of disassembly sitting on the shelves. I'm going to try using the platen before anything else. I figure if I have the plate bolted to a piece of hardwood like Denise said and hold it upside down when I roll it, it should turn out pretty good. I'll take pics and let you guys know. Squirrell - I'm running a set of NOS '62 plates on my Willys pickup and they don't look any better than yours. Really... i'm just trying to get rid of the little bit of surface rust that are on these plates. I'm too cheap to spend over a hundred bucks on a NOS set again. These 20 dollar plates should do.
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