The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Grille red lettering and stripes

I want to paint the red lettering and top and side stripes on my 46 truck. What type of paint do I need for this and how do I apply it?
My 46 Truck Grille That I need to Paint

One shot lettering enamel, and a lettering quill, a small one, like a #0 or something.

Or you could laboriously mask it off.

http://www.1shot.com/

And a steady hand!

I agree with the One-Shot and steady hand, but striping quills are WAY to expensive. Did
this with a small good quality artist brush, about 1/10th the cost of a striping brush.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/141374486/original

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Very nice Denny! Lettering brushes (quills) where I live, are only about $9 or so. After use, you clean them, and soak and save in neats footoil, they last forever. I've found other uses for mine! But you're right, it is such a small area, and you're fenced in, that you can use just about any tiny brush.

http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd45/HomeCrafter/?action=view&current=IMGP0001-12.jpg

Thanks! What colores from one shot would you use for the chevy blue (light blue or reflex blue) and red (fire red or keel crimson)?

One Shot Colores

Very nice Chris, I hope you didn't do that
lettering, if you did your in the wrong
business, sell the saws and buy more paint.

I was assuming by quill you were talking
about pinstriping brushes but I see
lettering quills are much different.

I used 152-L Light Blue and 104-L Bright
Red for the emblem on my '50, thought it
looked pretty natural, the Art Deco's may
be different.

DG

That was my first shot at lettering, I did practice a few times on some glass. It's a skill I've always wanted to learn. I've always thought the term "Renaissance man" was something to live up to. There isn't much that I'm not interested in, and eager to learn about. Sign painting fascinates me, you can haul all your tools under your arm. What could be better?

Thank you, I ordered the paint and brush, so lets see how steady my hand is

Have a drink, you'll be more steady!

If you do paint outside the line, you can do two things to solve the trouble easy. You can wait until it's mostly cured (almost 24 hours) and cut it off the chrome with a razor, or you can get a "push stick". Mack and others make them, it's a sort of pencil like thing, with beveled rubber on the end, and it will squeegee the wet paint back into place, just like the error never happened.

Plus, you can always wipe it off and start over! No worries!

Well I gotta say, that was one bang up job you did there. I'm bout the same way,
interested in everything that I run into. Of course more often than not that can be a curse
also, it means that I've not been able to be a master at anything I've done. I bury myself
into some project and when I finish it and feel that I’ve proven to my self that I can do it,
another something grabs my interest. Wanted to fly aerobatics back in the 70’s and 80’s
so I built this and taught myself the skills. Flew aerobatic competition for several years
and proved to myself I could turn a plane every direction including backwards, got bored
and had to move on.
When I was a kid I had an uncle on my dad’s side who’s whole family was into sign
painting. Of course that was big business for a few decades after WWII. His dad and a
couple of his brothers had a big old barn that they converted into a sign shop. I always
thought it was neat to wonder around the barn with all the colorful signs in process. I’ve
tried it over the years but I was never really that good at it. I guess it’s like playing an
instrument, you have to be born with some artistic talent to be good at it. Been beating on
on of those guitars almost every evening for 60 years but still can’t play a darn thing on
it.
I tried painting again a couple of decades back but pin striping this time. I bought the
brushes, paints and practiced for months. I had the same thoughts as you, I envisioned
grabbing my box and head out to lay some stripes on some guys jewel like a Von Dutch
or Tommy The Greek or Dean Jeffries. I thought it would be a great way to make a little
money on the side and still keep a full time job……it wasn’t! I still have the One-Shot
paint, amazing but most of it’s still good even after all these years but I can’t find those
brushes for the life of me.
DG

Gotta' love One Shot...my favorite paint in the world! And I have to agree...that's some mighty fine looking lettering Dude! Crappy cut vinyl will never compare to well executed hand lettering. It's as simple as "real" vs "plastic".

I think it depends on the temp and humidity. I wish all paint was as thick and wonderful. They sell a reducer, but as my truck is painted with plain enamel, I just used a tiny amount of penetrol to "thin" the one shot, and slow it down a little.

Here is a couple things I learned when I used to shoot Bulls Eye Matches.
Do not drink anything with Caffine in it as that makes the Heart beat faster and the results is shakeness.
The second thing is eat a light meal too.
Both these two things stimulates the blood flow causing nervousness. The one thing you do not need when lettering or painting in small areas.
62Blue
Don

Or enjoy a small glass of scotch prior to and during. Not too much or you may get wavy or think you are going straight and run off the panel.

I too am about to delve head first into some sign painting. My shop has an extra room that has been converted into a old-west themed man-cave known as the "Elm Creek Saloon". I was going to cut the sign for it out of steel as I have a plasma cutter on a CNC machine. However the font that I selected has intricate florals, lines, and flourishes in the letters and I can't cut that detail with my plasma.

So I turned to having vinyl cut. Well, turns out the lines are too fine even for a vinyl sign plotter. So, my only option is to paint it out myself. About to paint the sign blank and will wait for a night that my manic creative stage kicks in, turn on the projector and get to painting. Good thing I don't charge myself by the hour.

I did a few license plates a few months back. Turned out great for a novice, very rewarding. And as it turns out, contrary to what I would have assumed, being tedious and requiring concentration, it was a very good stress reliever. Looking forward to this one.

Just take the plunge and do it. Why? You can say I did it myself. its easy to write a check. but more fulfilling when you can say, yep, i did that.