Who's a good license plate restorer

[cmayna]

Looking for a good license plate restorer which others have used and like.

 

[Horseplay]

Looking for a good license plate restorer which others have used and like.

This sounds like a nice little project you could take on yourself, no?

 

[KBMWRS]

I used this outfit.
http://www.mojoartworks.com/

They were expensive. If the plates are in decent condition I think maybe you could actually do them yourself.

 

[Horseplay]

After checking out that website and reading about what a restorer does on a project like this I am convinced you could do this yourself. In the end you may not save a lot but it would be one more thing you would be able to say you did yourself. To me that is what this hobby is all about, right?

 

[cmayna]

These are Shag's original plates which are beat to heck. Don't think I'd want to take such a task on, especially painting on the yellow with a nice edge finish.

 

[Horseplay]

Being that the letters are embossed (raised), I'm thinking you could use one of those hard foam mini paint rollers and do just fine on the lettering. I've used them on doors and trim and such and if laid flat, the paint smooths out and looks sprayed on.

I've got some old plates laying around I might play around with it this weekend...just to see what it would look like.

 

[cmayna]

Here's a pretty good video. I like the stenciling of the letters. Very clean work.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=7jb8IvCaGdc

 

[nymustang]

I've restored a few plates but they were not as bent up as yours. I stripped them bare stripper, cleaned them thoroughly with light steel wool and alcohol then primed and painted. The letters were very tricky. I used a hard rubber roller to run the paint accross the letters. It took some practice but they came out pretty nice. I have no idea what you do for the stickers though. Good luck!

 

[crustycurmudgeon]

I have no idea what you do for the stickers though. Good luck!

I know... :roll

Frank

 

[crustycurmudgeon]

If you really want them to look original, after finding the correct paint colors you'll want to dip the plates in the black paint and hang them up by a bolthole to dry. If you look at a good original plate you can see the paint run pattern in the plate and a thickened drop of dried paint at one corner. Then you would need to roll the yellow paint on the raised portions. The hard rubber roller (brayer) sounds like what I had in mind. They didn't use primer on the plates when they made them.

Frank

 

[SELLERSRODSHOP]

craig,

i've done a bunch of plates over the years. at one time i had a guy locally who would drop off 8-10 at a time for me to do in my 'slow periods".
this one was really rough when i started on it:

if you aren't in a great hurry & need them back right away, send them to me & i'll fix em up for you. frank can give a thumbs up or down on my lettering skills based on the cooler i did for him a while back.

 

[crustycurmudgeon]

That looks great. Do you use a brayer for the letters or just freehand?

Frank

 

[SELLERSRODSHOP]

i just freehand those. they are much easier than a pepsi or coca-cola script on the old soda machines/coolers.

 

[cmayna]

Steve,
Shag's original plates are being shipped to you on Monday. This is going to be totally awesome.

 

[SELLERSRODSHOP]

should be a fun project to break up the monotony of all these motorcycles (15 here now)..