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CHEVROLET SCRIPT

Since I am diverging from following a “stock” truck in many areas and coloring outside the lines, I thought that the lettering on the tailgate (actually doors) might be an area where I freestyle a bit. But I wanted to retain a look of the era (or close to the same era).

So I purchased some white adhesive backed vinyl and laid out the script “CHEVROLET” in a size that I thought fit the space. I did this to just get a feel for the look and to see if it was something that I liked before committing any further. I think the script text seemed to match the curves of the truck better than the original block letters used on the stock truck tailgates.

On the first attempt I simply scaled up a scan from a photo (from a Corvette valve cover, I believe) that I found online and transferred that to the vinyl. The problem that I saw with that approach was that the line weight was too heavy since the original was a smaller text size. To correct that, I got out my old drafting French curves and reconstructed the same size text but with a thinner line weight. I seem to like this better. I “may” end up thinning it a little more since once the text is taped off and painted on the panel it “may” need some pinstriping around it to soften the tape edge (which will thicken it a bit more).

I'll just leave the sticker on it for now. That will give me time to further mull over it's size and lineweight. Eventually I would like to emboss the outline a bit (like the original tailgate text) instead of simply painting it on but I'm still trying to figure the best way to approach doing so. I could use the bead roller and see what I can do but I'm sure the panel will potato chip and could be a handful getting it to match the rear panel contour once it was rolled. Or I could create a male/female wood embossing tool and use the english wheel to roll the embossed panel....either way might be tricky. I still have some time to experiment and investigate before deciding.