Painting Raised Willys Letters

[Tumbleweed]

I tried to do a search on this subject but had no luck finding helful information.

I am almost done with the painting on my rig and I was wondering what the best way to paint the embossed raised WILLYS. Is masking the best option or sponge roller over a masking plate?

Thanks,

George

[terryb]

I just used a small hobby brush, one like you would paint small model cars or jeeps and hand painted mine.

[Dutch_Jeeper]

Using a hobby brush is indeed best, use a solvent based paint, it dries slower then acrylics so you have time to clean up the edges with a cottonswap and some solvent, do not try to get it on in one go, better to apply several layers and try to get the edges straight first, then fil in the center.

Just finished a piece with raised letters on my CJ3

[garage gnome]

Yep, I too used a small brush to do mine as well. I used rustoleum gloss black on both my jeeps.

[Ryan_M]

A couple glasses of wine to steady my nerves and a small paint brush with red rustoleum sprayed into the cap. It came out much better than anticipated and I'd do it that way again if had to.

[Tumbleweed]

Wow the black on red looks nice. Guess I will try this method.

Hey gg how did you get the stencil on the tailgate to look so good without bleed?

[Ryan_M]

I'm curious what GarageGnome says but I'll throw in my $0.02.

I tried a stencil, taped down, on a scrap hood I had. I used light coats of Rustoleum spray and it was a disaster. If you look at an original tailgate stencil they are kind of fuzzy but not nearly this bad.



My next attempt was with a "peel and stick" paint mask stencil. The results were far better (although way too crisp for a genuine "original" look).



Here's my shaky hand painted letters too. Up close you can see the flaws but like everything else on this Jeep it's passable if you stand at least 20' away.�

[athawk11]

After seeing how nice everyone's lettering turns out using free hand, I almost hate to admit I have this saved on my eBay list.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/201382307409

[1955CJ-5]

I tried to imagine how they would have done it at the factory..IF they did it at the factory. They would not have spent hours masking...

Now i know professional sign painters can probably free-hand these things in a jiffy..

but I made a template, sort of, and used a flat wide foam brush and just went back and forth a couple times...not perfect, and all three are different, but it looks authentic..

I used the card template on the tailgate...I put double sided scotch tape everywhere I could to hold the template tight and reduce bleed..it still needed a little cleaning which isn't difficult if you do it before the paint really sets...I used some hard cotton swabs that were meant for gun cleaning..they had a pointed cotton end and worked well...

By the time you do the last one you will be pretty good at it....

It made those paint masks that Tim mentioned look pretty good..

[garage gnome]

I used these decals on my tailgate for the 4WD. You can get them in any color.

http://www.pixeldecals.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=37

[macrisel]

On my 3A, my paint guy and I went a little overboard, but I wanted everything to be straight and crisp and protected under several layers of clear.  Here was our procedure...
1.  Paint and clear your raised letters in their color (white in my case)
2.  Scuff everything and paint/clear the entire hood/tailgate in the final color (blue in my case)
3.  Take 1200 grit sandpaper and LIGHTLY sand through the top coat (blue) until the bottom layer (white) shows through.
4.  Scuff everything again and put 3-4 coats of clear over everything.

For the tailgate, all the above procedure is the same for the raised letters, but the stencil was a little different and completed after the letters were finished.  At the time, I didn't have a stick on stencil, only a cardboard stencil from Walcks.  We laid down a layer of masking tape, traced the stencil onto it, then used an Exacto knife to cut it out.  We then sprayed the white over the stencil, sanded the edges to eliminate the hard lines, then scuffed everything again and laid down 3-4 more layers of clear.  The tailgate ended up having 8-12 layers of clear overall (and about 8 hours of labor) but everything is crisp, clean, smooth and protected under clear!

[Matto]

Small magnets close to the letters will help hold the tailgate stencil tight to the metal. Strip magnet from an old refrigerator door gasket works good for this. You still get some creep but it eliminates blow by.

[Tumbleweed]

Wow the template method turned out great.

Tim, there is no shame to the stencil method either. I'm am sure the back in the day the Wiilys guys didn't look for ultimate perfection in the painting process but damn they sure built a great jeep! I had to repaint my hood 3 times due to sweat dripping from my respirator. I was not a happy camper. I am so glad the painting is done and now just contemplating should I or shouldn't I do the raised letters.

Think I'll have a beer and think about it[ch128516]

[Dutch_Jeeper]

If you are not confident enough that you have a steady enough hand, look for "Frisk" film it's used for making stencils/masking for airbrushing. You still have to cut the letters yourself, but once it's on you can even use a paintroller or spraycan. The film, if applied correctly, wont let paint leak under it so you should always get straight letters. You could put it on the raised letters using a heatgun first and then cut the frisk away. It's light tack so you can easily remove it. Trick is removing it at the right time, just before the paint is dry to the touch and still flexible so you dont pull paint from the letter edge when you remove the film. It depends heavily on the type of paint you used, there's no real guideline to give other then experience.

You can also use it to make your own texts or anything, just as long as you cut straight and use sharp X-acto blades. I just finished this on the CJ3a. I used frisk film for the large areas and painted in the rest by hand:



I did'nt want to sand down the surface and ruin the patina, so the edges did come out a little bit rough. But on new or smooth paint it should not be a problem with the Frisk film and you should get razorsharp edges if you want to.



















Now i'm not an artist, i do do modelscale building and paint 1/6 anime figures, but never tried to paint a drawing on a flat surface before. But she turned out pretty well i think.

[Tumbleweed]

Dutch,

That is absolutly the coolest! I really like it........