Exterior (part 1)
First let me say that what I'm about to post wouldn't have been possible without my wife and her many talents, she is a graphic designer who owns her own business and works quite hard. I'm sure many of you have noticed all the pictures and signs in our shop, they are all fake, and she made all of them, she has more design talent in her little finger than I have in my whole body. We collaborate very well, I sometimes provide ideas or opinions but it is her skill and hard work that has made her succeed in business. I feel very blessed to have her in my life!, and would not feel right posting this without giving her the credit she deserves, she did all the work and my only input was a opinion here and there.
So having said that here's the story......
You all know what our truck looks like and that many of us have tried to formulate a category to stick it into, a popular title for vehicles like our truck that keep the patina is to just call it a "shop truck", of course there are lots of "real" shop trucks with "real" patina that has weathered and shows it's age well. One common theme with shop trucks was the door lettering for the business it served, like today's vehicle wraps it served as rolling advertisement for the business.
This is something we have always liked because it shows the history of the vehicle while kinda' telling a story. Of course our slick was a work truck for a lot of its life but was basically a source of transportation for its owners over the years, but it is something we wanted to add to our truck.
So we have for weeks been developing ideas, we have went through many different names and slogans before settling on what we applied to the doors, we came down to 3 or 4 different versions and finally felt we had what we wanted.
Let me say we could have done this in vinyl, even printed vinyl that would look aged, but it wouldn't have the correct feel or vibe besides the fact it wouldn't be sand able nor would it age, there is also a very good chance that it would just peel off taking the paint with it...lol
The other day while looking on the interwebs for info on ageing painted vehicle lettering I came across a post on another very popular forum about the subject, I was amazed at the attacks the OP (original poster) was getting from some of the members about making a "poser" or fake vehicle just because he wanted to add lettering then age it to look authentic. It really made me feel sorry for the OP until another member put them in line, I don't really understand this attitude from people....anyway.
Our first attempt at doing this was a total failure, my wife made a mask from vinyl that we could apply then paint, then remove the mask, first problem was the slicks paint, there is very little bond left between the blue paint and the primer underneath, the spray paint we used reacted with the blue paint (lacquer maybe?) and wouldn't dry or adhere properly, then when removing the vinyl mask it took the blue paint with it...it was a total failure that I sanded right off and re-sprayed the doors with the paint I had mixed up in rattle cans.
So back to square one.....
After thinking about it a week my wife said she could just paint it on like the old sign painters did. So we found the sign paint that the old guys used called 1Shot was still sold and a local retailer had the colors we wanted.$100 later we have the materials and a better plan. So my wife made another mask from different material that was less aggressive (less sticky) applied that to the doors, then drew the lettering on the door with a grease type pencil, removed the mask, and started the multi-hour process of hand lettering the doors.
I should say she wasn't real happy with the results, but I was thrilled, over my lifetime in our business we have had many vehicles lettered by sign guys, course today everything is vinyl for lots of very good reasons, but the old guys had a lot of talent and she shares that talent even if she is a perfectionist and doesn't think so.
Anyway after the paint had dried for about 24 hours we used a combination of 1000 and 800 grit wet sandpaper to age the lettering, we even hit a few spots with some 320 grit to add advanced aging...lol
All in all I'm very happy with the results, it's a neutral type of logo that if we ever sell the truck it won't have to be sanded off.
I apologize for such a long post, but it needed to have a lot of explanation to go with the pictures.
Jon