The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Painting a sign on the doors

I want to paint a old company name on my 53 chevy doors. The doors will be black primer. What paint should i use. I want the paint to look faded like i have seen on some rat rods. what do i need to do to make it look old.thanks

Good question I tried to find the same info and could not pin anything down, One Shot sign paint seems to be the best, but I could not find much on getting that old patina look.
Keep searching, and good luck!

One Shot makes "poster colors" which go on flat as opposed to their normal "lettering enamel" which is glossy. You could probably reduce it a bunch so it would go on really thin. Might be worth a try. I used to letter race cars and do sign work years ago but I never tried to do the faded old look that seems popular these days. You might wanna use an old fender or something to practice on 'til you figure out how to make it look like you want...

Here's One Shot's site: http://www.1shot.com/home.html

62CHEVY11
has hit it on the head.
Grab your standard enamel paint, mix it with some flattener.
Water it down nice and thin so you can control the amount of "Opaqueness" over the individual letters.

If it still looks too modern........a bit of work with some wet and dry over the paint can reduce it back to the effect you desire.

One way to do it is to use stencil mask. Something along the lines of: http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/...34&iSubCat=1348&iProductID=14463

Once you paint the sign, leave the masking on and do whatever you need to do to distress the paint. This helps to protect the surrounding paint from damage. I would paint a couple of thin coats, let it dry and use fine steel wool or thinner or whatever works to get the aged or distressed look you want.

Let that cure somewhat and then strip the stencil mask and ease the paint edges.

Whatever you decide to do, it is always a good idea to try it on a test panel before comitting to the door.

I like the idea of masking to protect the surrounding area. Also try some dry brush and stippling. Brush out most of the paint on the brush and just drag the brush with enough pressure to graze the surface for dry brush. Use a short bristle brush with a wide flat end and again brush out most of the paint and just tap the end on the surface to stipple. You can also use a natural sponge to dab some rust color or the base color showing through. use a rag coated with thinner and wad it up and lift some of the slightly cured paint. I would start with a good practice run. It will be a lot better if you work out what you want to do before you get to the real door. Oh, try dragging something like a thin broom straw through the wet paint to look like cracking. Let it dry and lift by selective sanding.
Let us see what you come up with. http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2016717540103315458ntkpbS

Neil

you can take a spray can and open the tip up with a drywall screw and puff it to throw some black or dark color spots on it"fly specking" goes a long to distress the look of fresh paint.also either an airbrush or spraycan to shade the paint.wet and dry works wonders also................dave