The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop restoring old licence plates

I just repainted a 1950 Mississippi tag I found in my barn from the guy who use to own my house. I soaked it in Phosphoric acid for a day took it out hit it with a stainless steel scouring pad and water. Put it back in for another day and cleaned it up. Put it on a flat surface and hammered out the dings. Then I primed it and painted the base color. It looks great so far I will post a photo later tonight. The tricky part is the numbers etc.. I am going to roll the paint on with one of those hard black rollers like you use in a dark room to roll prints out flat. They are a hard rubber roller but only about 4" wide so it will take a few passes. I have to wait 7 days to re-coat what is on there now according to the can. I hope to roll the roller in black paint then across the letters. I will let you know how it all works out. Somewhere I saw a film on how they made tags and they rolled them through a machine that looked like an old ringer washing machine with the top roller supplied with paint from a hopper deal. Unfortunately the tag is 2 years to old to use on the back of my 52' but I may hang it on the front just for looks.
Tag