Quote:
Originally Posted by cericd
Thanks for posting that pic hewittca. I was looking for a picture that illustrated that exact point. After reading Keith’s response I remembered seeing several patina and survivor gates with the main color of the truck showing from beneath the worn lettering color. I feel like they must have used some type of template that didn’t seal perfectly to the contours of the stamped lettering. This would account for the alignment being slightly off and the feathered edges. I ran across a website where someone was painting camouflage on models of vintage fighter planes and they kept the stencils raised slightly off the surface of the model which gave the soft edges.
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I'm glad you posted this. I wanted the same factory effect on my gate so I experimented with a masking technique which mimics the factory stencil result as mentioned in the post above.
It's easier than you might think. While toying with ideas, I produced an acceptable result and more or less just left it. Here is a link to my original post (includes pictures) on the process a few years ago. Starts at post #33
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=409385&page=2
First thing is paint the gate the main body color using proper catalyzed material and let it cure. Then later (after masking described below) paint the letters using non-catalysed paint similar to a high quality spray can. The reason being, If you don't like the result you can easily remove the lettering paint with some mild solvent and start over. Mine happened to come out ok on the first go.
As for the masking itself, let it FLOAT. That is, stick the tape on but let the edge hang out over the indented letter and DO NOT press it down against the metal. Seems crude, but it works! The edges of the letters will be fuzzy and poorly defined as long you apply your paint straight-on and not too heavy.
It's obvious looking at factory originals that the painting process was done quickly with a stencil, and without too much care on accurate registration.
Once the lettering paint is on and dried, if desired you can clean up and refine/define the fluffy edges a bit using some rubbing compound and a hard rubber sanding block tightly wrapped in a cloth. Block only the flats around and in between the letters and leave the painted indents alone. Works like a champ! It's actually really fast and easy.
What you are left with is NO hard edges, NO perfect masking outlines, and NO countless hours spent with fine line tape, buffing, clear coating, etc.