Rebuilding an old license plate to run on a classic car
I just finished up rebuilding an old plate to run on my 1950 Champion. It took me a while to track down a 1950 Oklahoma plate that wasn't a complete disaster, but I finally found one that wasn't in too bad of shape. It had a little rust, but overall was relatively solid. I thought I would add this on here in case anyone else wanted to take on the same. I have done one before, but did it with a brush. With my shaky hands, this was was MUCH better in the end.
Here's what I found and was able to start with:
It wasn't bad. No bad holes or folds in it. Dents were minimal. I had found one other, but it was roached out pretty bad and the price was pretty sticky.
At first, my plan was to give it a rust bath in Metal Rescue to remove the rust and then clear coat it for protection. I didn't want to use sand, pecan, or any other media to blast it since these were so thin and only meant to last a year anyway.
I learned a valuable mistake by using the new bath treatment though.
This is Metal Rescue: http://www.metalrescue.com/home.aspx
I've used this to remove rust on everything from toys, scales, inside engines (to free them up), just about anything really.... I will stand by this stuff always. I made a mistake though and didn't want to make the drive to where it was sold here in Oklahoma since I was out.
Instead, I went to a local auto parts store and bought Evapo-Rust. (I won't be using it again though)
While this stuff DID clean the rust, it was also (even though it said it wasn't) corrosive (chemically) enough to strip the old paint as well.
So when I placed the plate in the bath and checked on it in the morning, I was left with this:
I couldn't do anything now but rinse it off and use some '0000' steel wool to prep it for primer. It wanted to start oxidizing fast, so I had to clean it well and then hit it with an etching primer to seal it quickly.
Now I could start painting. I decided to use an enamel paint so that I could bake it in the oven and heat treat it in hopes of making it more durable. The police generally don't bother since most of them weren't alive back then and it 'looks' authentic enough.
I started with an antique white since it was originally white with black lettering. I ended up hitting it with about 4-6 coats of white letting it dry about 20 minutes in between.
Once that dried, I let it sit all day in the sun to really give it a nice set before using any tape on it.
Now that the plate had a good base on it, I decided to mask it off with painting mask (blue tape). My hand is a little shaky and I didn't like the look of uneven lines on plates I had seen done with a brush. The old way the plates were painted was with a roller machine that rolled over the high areas and colored the tops of the plate numbers/lettering. I thought about building something to do this, but figured I could just cut out the mask while I watched the news or something.
Here was the mask once I got it all covered and pressed around the letters and numbers:
I started with an exacto knife, but found it much easier to just use a regular blade to trim out the letters and numbers. I cut the mask just over the edge so I had a small lip to paint past the top surface.
Now that this was done, I repeated the same process as the white, only with the black instead.
Once the black sat over night, I picked all of the tape off and removed the entire mask so I could hit it with a few coats of clear enamel. I didn't worry about that drying completely since I was baking it in the oven to set it. I propped the plate on four screws as risers and baked it on a cookie sheet in the oven on about 220 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Once I took it out and let it cool, it cured nicely.
Overall I am pretty happy with the outcome. My dad has a 1944 Oklahoma plate, which is pretty rare due to the war. It was yellow with black. I am redoing it next. He is just displaying his, so this method should be fine. Only time will tell how the enamel holds up to daily use.
Maybe this will help someone else. Who knows. I enjoyed the process though and am now on my way to the OTC to register this plate for my 1950 Studebaker Champion!
Here's what I found and was able to start with:
It wasn't bad. No bad holes or folds in it. Dents were minimal. I had found one other, but it was roached out pretty bad and the price was pretty sticky.
At first, my plan was to give it a rust bath in Metal Rescue to remove the rust and then clear coat it for protection. I didn't want to use sand, pecan, or any other media to blast it since these were so thin and only meant to last a year anyway.
I learned a valuable mistake by using the new bath treatment though.
This is Metal Rescue: http://www.metalrescue.com/home.aspx
I've used this to remove rust on everything from toys, scales, inside engines (to free them up), just about anything really.... I will stand by this stuff always. I made a mistake though and didn't want to make the drive to where it was sold here in Oklahoma since I was out.
Instead, I went to a local auto parts store and bought Evapo-Rust. (I won't be using it again though)
While this stuff DID clean the rust, it was also (even though it said it wasn't) corrosive (chemically) enough to strip the old paint as well.
So when I placed the plate in the bath and checked on it in the morning, I was left with this:
I couldn't do anything now but rinse it off and use some '0000' steel wool to prep it for primer. It wanted to start oxidizing fast, so I had to clean it well and then hit it with an etching primer to seal it quickly.
Now I could start painting. I decided to use an enamel paint so that I could bake it in the oven and heat treat it in hopes of making it more durable. The police generally don't bother since most of them weren't alive back then and it 'looks' authentic enough.
I started with an antique white since it was originally white with black lettering. I ended up hitting it with about 4-6 coats of white letting it dry about 20 minutes in between.
Once that dried, I let it sit all day in the sun to really give it a nice set before using any tape on it.
Now that the plate had a good base on it, I decided to mask it off with painting mask (blue tape). My hand is a little shaky and I didn't like the look of uneven lines on plates I had seen done with a brush. The old way the plates were painted was with a roller machine that rolled over the high areas and colored the tops of the plate numbers/lettering. I thought about building something to do this, but figured I could just cut out the mask while I watched the news or something.
Here was the mask once I got it all covered and pressed around the letters and numbers:
I started with an exacto knife, but found it much easier to just use a regular blade to trim out the letters and numbers. I cut the mask just over the edge so I had a small lip to paint past the top surface.
Now that this was done, I repeated the same process as the white, only with the black instead.
Once the black sat over night, I picked all of the tape off and removed the entire mask so I could hit it with a few coats of clear enamel. I didn't worry about that drying completely since I was baking it in the oven to set it. I propped the plate on four screws as risers and baked it on a cookie sheet in the oven on about 220 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Once I took it out and let it cool, it cured nicely.
Overall I am pretty happy with the outcome. My dad has a 1944 Oklahoma plate, which is pretty rare due to the war. It was yellow with black. I am redoing it next. He is just displaying his, so this method should be fine. Only time will tell how the enamel holds up to daily use.
Maybe this will help someone else. Who knows. I enjoyed the process though and am now on my way to the OTC to register this plate for my 1950 Studebaker Champion!
101st Airborne Div. 326 Engineers Ft Campbell Ky.
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