The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Colouring the letters on the Dashboard '51 chevy

Hello fellow truck enthousiasts,

Quick question...

The black lettering on my dashboard (under the radio) has disintegrated over time. J want to colour them in again. So my question is: what is the best way to do this getting paint outside the letters. I tried filling them in and removing the excess with a cloth or sponge without succes. The paint inside the letters also gets removed.

If somebody has a way to do it please let me know!!

With kind regards,
Thijs van Dongen

I haven't gotten there yet, but I'm going to try a real fine polishing disk after the paint has dried. Something that's pretty rigid would keep the paint from being taken off the recessed portions.

I used a black Sharpie marker. (Zwarte stift)

Just throwing an idea out there. Take a scrap of cloth like a cotton tee shirt and wrap a single layer tightly around a paint stick. Tape it on so it’s tight. This would enable you to remove the top layer without wiping out the indented letters. I haven’t done this yet, but that is what I was going to try on my own truck.

Picture: Another thought is to buy a quality paint stick like this. They come in three different tip sizes, 1, 2 or 3 mm tip. You can buy them on Amazon.

I am sure you could always take it to a sign painter and they would be able to do a professional job. I wouldn’t think it would cost that much.

….or you can buy a decal kit from Chev of the 40’s for $3.50 or one of the other vendors and it’ll look perfect. Item # 306543 47-53

Best idea yet!

Or you can buy some white waterslide decal paper (laser print or inkjet) and make your own waterslide decals. I've written about this at least a dozen times. Maybe as many as 30 times. There are actually speedometer and gauge decals I've posted for free use in the interior section. Hopefully one day all this stuff will become tech tips.

Key takeaways:
buy the paper from sellers on Etsy.
laser print is best.
if you use inkjet, remember to coat your decal with clear urethane, enamel or lacquer (best to coat laser also). You can use gloss or satin. If you fail to coat inkjet, it will vanish when you submerge the decal in water.
trim the letters out carefully and spray a fine mist on your part to allow you to slide the decal before it dries. One of these days I may make CNC laser instructions, print a complete black sheet and provide these for the group so they would already be cut out for use. Lots of other things to do right now, however.

Why white? Well, it gives you a better end product. The clear is fine if that's what you need for a particular application, but the white makes the printed stuff look better. Doesn't let color bleed through from your surface material.

When you've finished doing this, you'll have leftover printable paper. You can tape that to an 8.5" x 11" piece of plain paper and make other decals with it.

Thank you for all your answers!

I have a Cricut vinyl cutter at home so printing stickers isn't a problem. But from my experience it is really hard to get the letters cut out exactly right so it only fills in the deep part of the lettering. That's why I want to paint it so I can get it more precise. I'm going to try Phak1's idea.

Again thank you for your ideas and answers!

Thijs

One other suggestion Thijs...I've used this for 30 years or more to refresh/restore numbers on dials, etc: https://tinyurl.com/2w9p9fd6

Bottle of black Testors model paint and a toothpick.