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Little Detail item takes hours!

LumenAl

Member
Little over a year ago I purchased an old Washington state 1925 plate. I sent if off to a member of the NTBA and he painted it for me... problem, DMV would NOT accept it because it HAD to be a white plate with dark blue lettering... so I stuck it on the shelf for a year before I remembered my renewal was coming up. I decided to media blast it down to the metal, it was in excellent condition considering how old it was... then of course primed it, sealed it, then painted it dark blue. At that point I got some clear contact paper, used exacto blade to outline the lettering, then pained it white.. I pulled the remaining contact paper, let it setup then shot 4 coats of clear.

Next problem was no one makes a licence plate frame for these size plates as far as I find, so I purchased two standard licence plate frames then cut 4 sections out of each one. I then joined four pieces of the frame and used JB Weld and 4 inch long sections of aluminum embedded into the epoxy for strength. After setting up, I did a little clean up at the seams and walla... I have a custom sized license plate frame. Of course then then I primed it, sealed it, painted it black, and shot 4 coats of clear.

Next dilemma was the arm of the taillight bracket that held the plate old plate was not long enough to span the holes in the new plate. I decided to cut a piece of aluminum blank and shaped it to the size of the licence plate frame. This would become my new backing plate. I drilled 5 holes, one hole the screw goes through, frame, licence, backing plate, and mounting bracket... one hole simply secured the backing plate to the mounting bracket, then the remaining 3 holes just secured the frame, licence, and backing plate... a secure mounting for the plate and it finished off the back side of the plate.

Here is the plate mounted on the car with my custom frame :lol:

plate001.jpg


Here is a shot of the backside of the plate looking up from the ground... you can see where the old bracket was too short and how it's mounted to the backing plate...

plate003.jpg


BTW, those are not dents in the back of the plate... they are reflection off the shiny mirror like surface :D... the specs of stuff? road grime from the 150 miles I put on it yesterday in the very first good day (weather wise) we've had all year!

Hours to complete... 10! I know... I should be embarrassed! :eek:
 
Sweet. That looks great.
 
Very nicely done Al. Looks great.
 
While little details may take time, they are the things that grab attention and garner praise. Nice job!:lol:
 
Little touches like that make the difference between THE car at a show and the other car at the show. Great post Al.

Ron
 

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