License Plate Letters

Dick Deegan

Dick Deegan

Well-known member
I have just aquired a 1930 Ontario license plate. I have it stripped down to bare metal ready for primer and paint. I have two questions:

1. What is the correct colour for the plate background and letters - from the Ontario crowd. I think the background is yellow, but I'm not sure.

2. I'm sure there are those in the "barn who have restored plates. Is there a trick to painting the letters so they have nice sharp edges etc.? My hands shake so I'm reluctant to try it freehand. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks
Dick
 
Temclad "Recreation White" from Canadian Tire is a match for the background white on a 1930 Ontario Plate. I have painted this on a set of plates which I intend to put on my 30 Town Sedan but haven't painted the black letters yet. This plate matched the 30 Ontario plates on my Roadster which have been approved by the Ontario MTO. The Roadster plates, which I bought, were restored by Jon Upton - ontplates.com - out of Ottawa

I am still working on an approach to paint the black letters
 
I have a set of 29 NY plates that I am doing now. I am going today to a sign maker to discuss the use of stick on vinyl letters to cover the numbers on the plate. He says he can make them. I will let you know what I find out. John
 
Dick Deegan said:
I have just aquired a 1930 Ontario license plate. I have it stripped down to bare metal ready for primer and paint. I have two questions:

1. What is the correct colour for the plate background and letters - from the Ontario crowd. I think the background is yellow, but I'm not sure.

2. I'm sure there are those in the "barn who have restored plates. Is there a trick to painting the letters so they have nice sharp edges etc.? My hands shake so I'm reluctant to try it freehand. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks
Dick
Click to expand...

I have been told to paint the entire plate the color of the letters, let it dry completely, then paint the background color, and wipe it off the letters revealing the letter color. It sounds like it might work, but I have not tried it.
 
Thanks for the replies. I did Google 1930 Ontario license plates and it gave me some pictures etc. pgerhardt's approach is not one that I would have thought of, but it just may work. I think that I might try it. It will report on its success or not.

I also had not thought of going to a sign maker to get stick on letters etc.

Dick
 
pgerhardt said:
I have been told to paint the entire plate the color of the letters, let it dry completely, then paint the background color, and wipe it off the letters revealing the letter color. It sounds like it might work, but I have not tried it.
Click to expand...

I paint the back round color first, then outline the letters with thinned out paint and a ruling pen before filling in the interior.
 
All, if you want the plates to look good there is no way around hand lettering. That being said, masking them off is probably the best bet if you don't want to hand letter. Just take your time and use a VERY good tape made for paint otherwise the paint will wick under the tape and look bad. Unfortunately the depth and "roundness" of the pressing on the letters makes the "painting then wiping" process extremely difficult. I've seen this process done more than a few times and they never look right so if clean edges is your goal I'm pretty sure you won't be happy. There are a LOT of lettering videos on YouTube that show how to hand letter for signs. The process here is very much the same. Use a long quill brush and move steadily. The length of the bristles "cleans up" the line so if you are a bit shakey that will help a lot. Just practice on another material before you try it on your freshly painted plates! If you do make a mistake you can wipe the paint off and try again. By all means if you decide to hand paint, do NOT use a small brush! The key is to let the length of the bristles keep your line straight. A small brush will mean you'll make a ton of small strokes that look BAD. You could paint each letter in two strokes for each direction change in the letter or number with a lettering brush (most sign painters paint freehand letters in one stroke but since you have two predefined edges you'll need to paint each side of the letter independently). Or you could use a long "liner" brush to outline the letter/number then fill it in with a lettering brush. Use "1 shot" lettering enamel for the characters. Or, you could ask a pin-striper or sign painter to do them for you. Myself I'd probably charge $50 to do a set that was already painted the background color. Good luck and check out YouTube for sign lettering!
 
All, if you want the plates to look good there is no way around hand lettering. That being said, masking them off is probably the best bet if you don't want to hand letter. Just take your time and use a VERY good tape made for paint otherwise the paint will wick under the tape and look bad. Unfortunately the depth and "roundness" of the pressing on the letters makes the "painting then wiping" process extremely difficult. I've seen this process done more than a few times and they never look right so if clean edges is your goal I'm pretty sure you won't be happy. There are a LOT of lettering videos on YouTube that show how to hand letter for signs. The process here is very much the same. Use a long quill brush and move steadily. The length of the bristles "cleans up" the line so if you are a bit shakey that will help a lot. Just practice on another material before you try it on your freshly painted plates! If you do make a mistake you can wipe the paint off and try again. By all means if you decide to hand paint, do NOT use a small brush! The key is to let the length of the bristles keep your line straight. A small brush will mean you'll make a ton of small strokes that look BAD. You could paint each letter in two strokes for each direction change in the letter or number with a lettering brush (most sign painters paint freehand letters in one stroke but since you have two predefined edges you'll need to paint each side of the letter independently). Or you could use a long "liner" brush to outline the letter/number then fill it in with a lettering brush. Use "1 shot" lettering enamel for the characters. Or, you could ask a pin-striper or sign painter to do them for you. Myself I'd probably charge $50 to do a set that was already painted the background color. Good luck and check out YouTube for sign lettering!
 
I painted the plate first, let fully dry. Then put blue masking tape over numbers/lettering, covered rest of plate with newspaper (or you can mask the whole thing off). Took a light to mid sandpaper and sanded the edges of the numbers cutting the tape, then removed the tape revealing the number. Painted the numbers/lettering and let dry, removed all tape. Then lightly wet sanded the edges of the numbers with ultra fine sandpaper and polished out the plate. Gave the numbers a nice faded edge like original, not too sharp. Worked great on the smaller lettering on the plate too and a lot easier as all you need to do is sand right on top of the letters to reveal the metal.
 
Well, I tried the wipe method today. I first painted the plate the colour of the letters (black). I did this outside using a hook to hold the plate while I sprayed it. Just when I had finished, the plate slipped off the hook and fell on the ground painted side down in grass, mud and dried up dog doo doo. I then proceeded to demonstrate to my neighbour my considerable expertise in the use of descriptive adjectives.

I then stripped the paint off and started over (used laquer thinners). I oven baked the black enamel and painted the plate with white paint and tried to wipe off the white paint before it dried. It did not go well. In fact it was a mess. So I again stripped off the paint and I have painted the plate white.

I will try to paint the letters/numbers by hand as suggested by PeteCruz2715.

BTW Glenn in Camino - what is a ruling pen?

Thanks to all again for the replies.

Dick
 
The easiest method is spray 4 coats of the letter color over the entire plate then 2 coats of the background color. Then lightly sand over the letters with fine sand paper to bring out your color The letters will be perfect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top