Refinishing Plates

[CharlieB]

Hello all. 1st. Post. Have listed this on other sites. Concerns lic. plates. I refinished these myself. Rusted hulks from E-Bay. Lacquer thinner soak & steel wool gave me clean metal. Backround paint is close as you can get-off the shelf color. Tried a number of letter painting techniques with very poor results. Finally took some brown paper & a crayon on it's side & took a rubbing of the #'s. Cut these out of the paper and used as templates to cut them out of "Contact Paper". Finessed to fit & installed. Stripe around edge is pin striping tape. 2 coats of poly. Of course it all depends on what colors are available, but you can get a pretty fair job of it at home.

 

[southfork]

Those look great! I wondered how one could get exact looking numbers and letters. Looks like you've found a good way to do it. What is the "contact paper" that you mention? Does that have a sticky side to it?

 

[CharlieB]

Contact paper was a product name. Self adhesive shelf lining paper is what they call it today. Sticky back with wax paper covering the glue. (Lowe's/Home depot carry it).

 

[southfork]

Thanks for that info, Charlie. I'm going to have to try my hand at restoring a pair or two of plates.