Im looking for an old dealer sign to get measurements from. It is a vaccuformed front hood badge. We have one but the plastic is falling apart and some is missing. Also the sign is really warped. The sign is about 2 feet tall and maybe about 18 inches wide,guessing.

 

Pics would be very helpful.

 

I will try tomorrow. i have looked all over the the net for one.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-item-iso.html

Ive been looking for years

 

Im going to make it in fiberglass.

 

Are you talking about the V8 symbol? or the mid-50's shield?

 

Its falling apart but I'm going to make it in fiberglass.
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Oh and im making a fiberglass tailgate and pancaking another tilt front for Terry.

 

In this day and age of 3-D printers you would think that someone would have one large enough to "print" a buck for you based on a photo or drawing. With a decent buck you could do a FG layup or even better a vacuum formed acrylic like the original.

 

In the 1970's, I found one of these in the attic of Ojai Valley Motors along with a 20' canvas banner with NEW '56 FORDS HERE NOW printed on it.

 

Unless the depth of field is playing tricks on me, the fractured sign is a good bit bigger than the fiberboard set I found and mentioned in the above old thread. Wish now I'd have bought them for myself even if they weren't what Doc was looking for. Stu

 

I was thinking this morning about paint jigs for it. I recently made a Fordomatic drill fixture for a guy in New Jersey. These little side projects are kinda fun.

 

Charlie and Stu are right. I would suggest cleaning up what you have and filling in the missing pieces with modeling clay. Then find someone to do a 3D scan. Then you can make as many of those as you want with a 3D printer.

 

Not sure where you'd find a 3D printer capable of that size. Assuming you wanted FDM you'll find a max bed size of ~7"x7" for a consumer grade printer. If you want something stronger and precise you'll go to SLA or even SLS which typically has an even smaller bed size. I have 1 FDM printer and 2 stereolithography printers that I use for prototyping and even with a combined cost of $10,000 I can't print over 6" diameter.


You could get a 3D scan (everytime I've done this it's $2k+) and sent it to a shop like ProtoLab for printing but even that will be real pricey. Last time I sent them a print the bill was $18,000.


I'd think your best bet if you had a CAD model, which shouldn't be too hard with some dimensions and time, would be a CNC mold from delrin/ABS that you could use in a vacuum mold with a composite layer.


-Alex