I was looking at refurbishing a set of vintage license plates for our 1955 F100 to meet DMV approval for use. They are Virginia plates which are white with black letters for that year. I have cleaned the majority of rust (not all came off) except one plate where the white is worn off. What suggestions do you have on type of paint, matching color of white (black is fairly straight forward), procedures (spray white with black masked then brush black - brush both? primer needed?), other thoughts? Thanks for any input.

Bruce

 

I ended up spraying the plate orange/red(number/letter color). I then masked off the letters/numbers. I used an Exacto knife to trim masking tape along edges. I then sprayed on the background color (black). there was a raised border around the edge and smaller print that had to be addressed in orange/red with a brush. After the masking tape was pulled, there was still a bit of touch-up needed. I clear coated the entire plate to prevent rust where I might have cut through the paint with the knife. I think I had about 20 hours in on one plate before I was satisfied with the look.

 

As Carnut noted, license plates are a lot more work than they look to make nice. I've always done them just like any other bodywork; straighten, strip, filler, prime and paint. Automotive acrylic urethane or enamel works fine. Hand paint or mask and spray the characters. Match the colors as necessary.

 

Does sound like much more time than I expected. The numbers should be fairly straightforward, but the small scale 1955, Virginia, sounds like some real detail work. Did you guys match the background colors or numbers to an old plate or just try to come close? I think the off-white background may be a little difficult.

Bruce

 

About 10 hrs. in this plate . Am working on another . 4 hrs. in media blast , straightening , priming . paint . Painted the orange back ground then taped off the back ground around every thing else & shot the black .Very time consuming w/ patience .

 

There's stuff used in the arts called "liquid paint mask" that seems like the way to do it for painting scripts on tailgates and such. I haven't tried it yet, but will need it soon.


I believe there is a Youtube video of using it.

Hasn't anyone on here been in prison to learn how they print plates by the thousands??

 

Mine was supposed to have orange letters the shade of the Wisconsin plate pictured above. But, my truck is red, so I pushed shade into and orange-red category. I figure any cop who pulls me over was nothing more than a sparkle in his parents' eyes back in 1953, and thus will have no idea of the degree of orangeness.

 

I saw it on one of the "How It's Made" or some show. It's an ink roller type thing.

 

You did a beautiful job on that Virginia paint. Amazing attention to detail. The hours consumed were well worth it.

 

Yes they used a machine similar to this one:


I was thinking you could do it by hand using a printmakers roller.

 

I tried that on the plate for my Merc, using the same reasoning. It didn't work out quite as planned. The edges just wouldn't come out crisp. Or maybe it was just operator error. I figure I'll have to either tape off the characters and paint, or step up and take it to a pinstriper/letterer and have it finished. I don't have the talent and steadiness to hand paint it. I've tried.

 

Like Wayne, I got a set of rubber rollers at a garage sale for a buck, from a lady who was into "stamping". I tried them on an old license plate with Rustoleum. Turned out terrible. I need to find something to avoid hand-trimming this plate, just far too many edges.

 

Has anyone tried the paint markers? It's like a marker, but it has paint instead of ink.

 

I don't know if this would work on a plate, but to paint the FORD block letters on the back of my 1970 F350 flatbed I took a foam brush and cut it to the width of my letters and dipped it in paint and tried to cover the letter in one stoke. It worked much like a magic marker, probably like the aforementioned paint markers.

 

I wonder if a foam roller may work better, kind-of the best of the roller and the foam brush idea.