The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Thrift-master script on valve cover

So I ran into a fella who has an AD fire truck with less than 4,000 miles on it and I asked him if he could send me a pic of the valve cover with the original script. Here is what he sent me.

From what I am looking at, it looks to me that it was painted on with a stencil, but not how I had imagined.
The only breaks in the script which keeps the stencil intact are at the middle of the letter "f", the top of the letter "a" and the bottom of the "s".

There were a couple of variants I think. When I got mine it had one that looked very much like what is below. Mine had the 235 and many more than 4000 miles but the decal was still intact...mostly gone, though.

Carl your picture looks like it would be a stencil that would work. Everything exterior of the paint could be in one piece, not like if there was an "O", there'd be nothing to hold the center masking of the O together.

the museum i got the truck made a half heartened attempt cleaning this side of the v-cover.
i'll remove coil clean better and take another pic of it with a scale for reference.

yesterday i got all the shoes off the drums enough to spin wheels/tires when jacked up.
cylinder kits are ordered AND thinking about changing m-cylinder to later dedicated front - rear operation.

ac429 f-pump rebuilt and going on 2day. the weak action barely usable china special worked only for driving on the farm lanes/off road total 7 miles to free up b-shoes. china pump has big trouble priming the carb when servicing the overworked fuel filter. Reillys said they'll take it back. thx

Some pics of engine bay.
Script width is 10 11/16", bottom of f starts 3/4" outa groove of cover flange.
Rebuilt ac 429 pump installed working perfectly even with low fuel in tank, china pump wouldn't at less 3 gallon mark on stick.
Looks to be a sticker stuck to bottom of hood. Maybe from the fire pump/tank manufacturer.
Engine is real crusty with only 3000 miles but unknown firefighting hours. Green engine paint comes off as if never there when cleaning the oily dirt curst off the valve cover.

I just noticed on your new pic that there is little to no paint in the vicinity of the yellow script.
I have seen a video of a valve cover from a truck which was abandoned in the desert out West.The only paint on the engine was the yellow script and it looked intact! I couldn't get a good enough look at it to see the details that I can see in your pics.

That yellow must of chemically reacted with the thin green overspray effort to keep it bonded on. thats my guess.

I believe that the original logos were painted onto the valve cover. The style changed with the engine.

Here is info about the ThriftMaster 235 logo for my '54 3104 that I regrettably sold. Earlier logos were script.

I traced and tweaked a decal that I bought from the major AD Chevy truck suppliers. Then a vinyl sign maker cut the traced logo from yellow vinyl sign material. I applied it using a placement diagram in the Assembly Manual. It looks great. You have to look hard to tell that it is a decal.

I believe that the vinyl sign shop still has the file to cut a ThrifMaster235 decal. Cost is probably around $20. Contact me.
I can send the full-size ThrifMaster 235 pattern if you want.

I recently found a removable stencil material that you can use to paint the logo. Seals tightly around the openings and removes cleanly. Cut with an Xacto knife. Remove the backing. Rattle-can spray paint, or dab the paint on with a foam brush. The stencil material is Oracal® 813 Adhesive Stencil Film. I think that it is discontinued, but similar film is available.

I can send the full-size ThrifMaster 235 pattern if you want.

Lonnie
lonniecook@aol.com