The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Thriftmaster Logo needed for stencil.

Well I just spent the third day looking for a picture or add or flyer or what ever of a "Thrift master" logo so I can make a stencil for my '50, 216. Any one have a good picture they could post or send me?????
Denny G
Sandwich, IL

This company sells a "Thriftmaster" logo that you apply to your engine. Look on page 13. For some reason this 20 some page catalog takes a while to load. (45 seconds with cable modem and an IMac.)

http://www.classicindustries.com/pdf/Truck-Emblems&Decals.pdf

Hope this helps.

Denny, just buy the stick on decal and cut it out to make your own stencil. That's what I did and it worked great.

Randy, It’s a PDF, high in graphics, that’s why it takes so long to download. I’ve got one of the “decal/sticker”, it’s the same one that JC, CD, Classic and all the other vendors sell. It’s not a very good reproduction of the original, it’s to mechanical looking. The original was a kind of free flowing script with uneven thickness lines. That’s why I’m throwing out this plea for a scan or picture of the original script. Mine was in very poor shape, about 70% missing so it’s very difficult to reproduce it from my pictures.
Beaver that was my intention originally, just paste the decal on a piece of Mylar and cut it out.
Yep, checked Google for three days now!

Hopefully someone has one still in tact that they can take a shot of. I fully expected to find a drawing of the logo in one of the advertisements, but nay.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Someone jog my memory. I didn't think THRIFTMASTER was on an AD truck in 1950.

49_chevy_truck,
My catalog says the application is for 1947 to 1953 with the 216. Then, 1954 to '55 came a 'Thriftmaster 235' decal. Then in 1955 to '59 came a 'New Thriftmaster' decal. Check out The Filling Station website.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b386/littlebuddytoo/Decals.jpg

Y'all were talking ENGINE decals and I was thinking BODY decals & emblems. My bad

I repeat guys, SA-39 decal at the Filling Station, Jimmy Carter, Chevy Duty, All of the vendors is not what the original script looked like. It is a poor reproduction and tht is not what I am looking for.
What I am looking for is a Picture of an original Thriftmaster Logo on a 216 rocker cover that I can scale up in Photoshop and use for a template to cut a stencel to spray the logo on with Yellow spray paint. Don't know how to say it any other way guys! A source for the crappy looking repro stickers from All the vendors, is not what I'm asking for.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

In my 1950 accessory installation guide there is a detail picture of where it goes and what it looks like, would this help?

Brad,

Can you post it so we can all see it?

Thanks!

OK Denny,

I'm getting it. No decal for you on your valve cover.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2918582190100355167cCazUo

Does what you are looking for look like this engine script (on the 235)?

http://www.brads41-46chevys.com/id15.html

If it does then use it as an example and find a script/font that will satisfy you. This site has several examples that might be candidates. Brush Script MT, Tarantula Script, Harlow, Chance, True Grit, Streamline Light, and Kalligraphia EF all seemed to be possibilities for tweaking/combining their letters to get what you want.

http://bowfinprintworks.com/ListPages/ScriptListAB.html

Just another idea if you can't find an original example to copy from.

Denny, if no one comes up with a picture for you I could ask my brother to take a pictue of my Gramps engine, it is an original 51 216 and when I looked at it a couple of months ago the thiftmaster was still in very nice shape. Dave

Dave, I would be eternality grateful to you if you could get a picture of the complete logo for me. Believe me when I say, I have looked everywhere.

Yes Brad, could you post a link to that? I'm not sure what your looking at, I have a reprint of the "Chevrolet Accessories Installation Manual for 1950" and there is no such drawing in mine.

Randy, I’m sure your aware that the 235 was a “Load master” and the 216 was a “Thrift master” and what you are referring to is the font rather than the actual wording. Yes it is a similar looking font. However, in 1950 this would have been produced by a graphic artist employed by GM and would have been “art work”, not a scripted font from a font library as we know it today. I have been through this many times with paper labels that I have reproduced for antique radios.
The scripted computer font is what the vendors supplier is using for the copy, in an attempt to reproduce the original one. I refuse to call them a reproduction, rather a copy and a pi$$ poor on at that!

This is like trying to guess what the whole dinosaur looked like when all you have is the head and a leg.
I have reproduced as much as I can by hand from the little bit that remained on my cover. It looks quite good but I still don’t think it is correct. I don’t believe there were any breaks between the letters, which are necessary for a stencil. With the line width as thin as it is it is difficult to keep a stencil of this size down flat. So after working with this for several days now, I am convinced that the logo was applied by silk screen to the covers and not as a stencil. I could tell quite easily if I could get a picture of a complete original VC logo.

Just for the record, the later “Thrift master” logos were originally applied as an adhesive backed decal. I saw one on Wednesday that had 16,000 miles on it and was purchased out of a museum. Everything was original on it.
Thanks for putting up with all of this just for one small detail, but like I’ve said before, “I’m a nit-picker”
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, I'll get in touch with my brother and ask him to take a picture for you. It may not happen real soon, I'm not sure if the truck is at his house for the summer or still in storage. Dave

Tks a bunch Dave! Just tryin' to fill in the puzzle.

By the way, this is my interpitation of what it should look like:
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2006357490098611668eWzZVS

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny when I got home I looked through my literature pile and found that the assembly manual shows the location but no text. I knew I had seen it somewhere so I looked through my original brocuhres and it is in the 1950 brochure I found the Thrift Master and Load master logo's I think you want. I will scan and post on Monday since I am unable to get it done today. It is quite a bit different then the decals being sold because I looked through my catalogs to compare it.

I've been following this post. We've got a lot of really knowledgeable, resourceful and generous folks at this site. They've helped me a lot but I'm always amazed at how much time and effort these folks are willing to put forth to help a fellow bolter. That's awesome.

Thanks Brad, that would help. I've got the logo stenciled on but I'm not really satisfied with it and I will probably change it when I get a glimpse of the original.
Boy you got that right Mike. I can't imagine what it would have been like trying to do a restoration in this much detail 20 years ago. Back in the 50's and 60's I was just happy to keep my transportation running.
Denny G

Denny, check your e-mail I sent the pictures, hope they help. Dave

Can we see too homer52?
Gotta see, let's see please??

Ask Denny to post one, I can't post, I just send them via e-mail. Dave

Denny,good ideal on making a stencil. can you post your findings or e-mail me.

Thanks Dave

Hey Denny, do you have a photo album of your truck project you can share with us?

Don

Soon as I get a confuser up and running with a USB I'll post some pics. Sure Don, I've posted a lot here before on the mechanical things that I have done. Won't get into the over all cosmetics till this Fall.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

D G, how about if you make up a stencil of that little dumplin' and peddle them to the rest of us poor devils who are trying to do the same thing you are? I've got a 216 (originale) sitting in my '50 3100 that would love to have the same garnisment on its valve cover.

The Mylar stencil worked ok, the line is a little heavy and there was a little over spray but with a little rubbing compound it looks pretty good. The Mylar really isn't stiff enough to maintain the thin line that I believe the original logo had. One of our members emailed me that he thought that they might have used a metal stencil. It would be quite possible to produce a metal stencil now days in brass using a laser setup. If I had access to this equipment I think I would pop a few hundred out and would bet that they’d sell like hot cakes. I’ve been to Wood Working shows and seen some very intricate shapes burned out with small CC lasers. I have seen what people believe are original logos and they look like they were done with stencils. But you have to consider that we all believe that our trucks when we found them were original and that no one before us did anything to them, right?
Now that all that has been said about stencils I still have this gut feeling that they were either printed or lettered with Silk Screen. If you look at all of the Load master logos (I wish there were some pics of the Thriftmaster) in the advertisements they were one continuous scripted word. This could only be done by printing or with a Silk Screen. Silk Screens actually seems like a more practical method for the restorer as you can make a simple SS up in the home shop with out much trouble. Now if I can ever figure out how to get my warped Rochester “B” to stop leaking fuel all over the engine I might find the time to tackle the Silk Screen thing.

Isn’t it funny that there is no one left in the whole world that worked on the GM production line and actually performed these tasks that could set the record straight on many of these little details! A dad, brother, uncle, neighbor, etc. I went through this very same quest with my last hobby, i.e., old time radios, all of the people that worked in the factories are gone and with them the production processes were lost and apparently there isn’t any documentation that survived either. It’s to bad that when the production department cleaned out their file cabinets of production notes that someone didn’t think to take them home and horde them. Then we might really know what color the interior of our AD truck was painted.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,
I use http://www.emachineshop.com/ for small parts that I don't have the tools to make. They have done a good job in the past. You just download their CAD program, drop the design in, and send it off and they ship you the parts. I wouldn't think metal stencils out of thin sheet stock would cost much.

The other way to do it would be to get some copper sheet and etch it yourself using PCB etching chemicals. They aren't too nasty- radio shack used to sell them.

Pictures, Pictures? Pictures!
please.......

4ontheFloor - That has got to be one of the coolest sites I have ever seen. What a great concept! I just downloaded the software and will be putting it to use as soon as I get my office put back together. I've got several parts that I want made and it should be interesting to see what eMachineshop quotes.

Thanks for the link,

Don

littlebuddy, read:06-04-2007 08:45

Agree, Don, thks for the link. I have lathes and bridgeports but there are some things that are better done on CNC equipment.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL