Data Plates/License Plate restoring.
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5/20/2006 These pages will deal with restoring data plates and license plates. I will start with the license plates because they are easier, and the results were better for me. I wanted 1945 California license plates for my jeep for two reasons. First, it tells people what year without asking, and second, 1945 metal shortage only requires one license plate. So I don't have to clutter the front bumper. I found this rusty plate on eBay for $15 (better looking go as much as $50)
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5/20/2006 I soaked the rusty license plate in Vinegar for a couple days to see the extent of the rust damage. The left side has some pit holes, but it looks ok to restore.
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5/20/2006 I primered the plate front and back to give it plenty of metal protection.
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5/27/2006 The California license plate is Black and white, so I gave two good coats of black semi gloss paint and let dry.
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6/3/2006 I painted all the raised lettering with a small roller with 2-3 coats of white semi gloss paint. When I was done, I had some touch up to do from rollover. Once I touched up the Black, then the white, it turned out pretty good.
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6/3/2006 Finished product. Looks pretty good for a little care.
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6/5/2006 Data plates are another story. Here I am showing the plates compared to a repo copy that I received. The repo copy doesn't have raised lettering so I want to restore the existing as best I can.
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6/5/2006 I started with my vehicle plate, washed all the dirt and garbage, and then started painting with a brush.
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6/12/2006 As you can see here, I just don't have a steady enough hand to get around the raised letters. I read that is ok, because you can use an Xacto knife to scrape off any excess.
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6/12/2006 In theory scraping off excess paint works, but I found it very difficult, because the plates are old and they have some pits. Therefore the scraping off excess is not easy. This is about the best I could do.
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6/19/2006 The data plate was even more difficult. I needed to clean the plate first before I start painting it.
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6/19/2006 Just removing the layers of paint were a pain. I didn't want to use paint remover because I wanted the original black to be there in case I miss some spots it wouldn't be as noticable.
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6/19/2006 Well, it is tough. Here is after a few hours of painting in between lines. Its just not looking the way I wanted it to, so I will stop and come back to this at a later date.
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