masking off a license plate for custom paint

OJ86

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I have to make this plate match a 57 for I painted. Boss wants it white with metallic brown letters. Do they make stencils for this? I couldnt find anything.





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The engine covers were easy with the recessed letters, but not sure how to approach the raised letters



 
Sweet car!!! I know a few people that painted them and then used one shot for the letters/numbers.. that's free hand.
 
youll never find any kind of stencil for it. even if you did it would not fit the raised letters perfectly. you would need to make it yourself. best way is to scan the plate, throw it in adobe illustrator, make the file and use a vinyl cutter to cut the masking. you would shoot the whole thing metallic brown, mask them away then shoot the white, unmask and clear. if you dont have the ability to do the computer end and access to a vinyl cutter just shoot me a pm.
 
Paint it metallic brown and clear it, then sand it up and basecoat it in white. Wetsand the white off the letters, and reclear it.
 
well crash normally i would say that would work great but looking at the plate, the stamped letters dont really have a sharp enough edge for that. it has a radius on the edges. if you did that you wouldnt be left with nice clean lines or edges. the lettering should look nice and crisp.
 
Yeah, you are right. I make it work by slightly varying the angle and such when sanding to produce the desired shape on the letters. A lot of those plates were just run under a paint roller to produce the letters when they were new, so imo one can get decent results with a steady hand and a sufficiently straight plate... just depends on what you're looking for, I guess.
 
Thank you for the replies and ideas! I talked to my buddy who normally makes my stencils for me and he is going to do exactly what jim suggested.
 
You know if you get the right cop then you can get a ticket. I did it to my 64' vette years ago and was never bothered. That is a nice looking car. Notice the chunky rear bumper, it might be just the picture angle but that thing looks huge.
 
If you're going to digitize, why not just cut the letters and apply them after painting...maybe even use reflective vinyl
 
Id rather have the real colors of the car. Kinda adds to the detail that's already in the car.
 
Yes. Its in ohio at the moment getting interior.

Were taking all brand new cars this year. 57 ford Fairlane, 37ford truck(original resto) 35 ford truck(hot rod) 85 svo mustang and the bare metal 68 camaro.

Only one I didnt fully paint is the 35ford. It was about 80% complete when I started there.
 
Looking forward to seeing them. Im helping Carl setup during the week.
 
The guy that restored my '64 plate did the numbers with a striping brush and a steady hand. It looks great, just like the day the cons at the state pen produced it 50 years ago.

To my eye the original plates of the time had the raised portions painted with a roll system using a pickup roll, transfer roll setup. wouldn't be that difficult to make one if you wanted.
 
I've done two sets of YOM plates. I painted the field color, then used one-shot and a pinstriping brush to paint the letters. I had to drink some scotch to get my hand a little more steady. Started out too shaky and nervous. 3 drinks later, I was more relaxed. Turned out great. I tried to use several methods on a junk set to see what method would work best. Tried the sanding. Didn't work out great. Never tried to clear it though.

I thoroughly enjoyed painting the plates. Wish I had more to do. But I couldn't do it on a time frame. I had to have the right window of time, and the right frame of mind.

YOM Plates.jpg
 
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