tips on painting FORD raised letters on tailgate

[papy]

thinking of painting the FORD letters Wimbledon white. any tips on how to paint them? mask them off? hand paint, air brush, HVLP gun on low pressure, paint roller?

tailgate is already painted with PPG single stage however i have to suff and repaint as i had some overspray on it.

thanks

 

[Slowleak]

These were originally painted with a rubber brayer, its just a smooth rubber roller. As a result, the paint was dimpled and the edges were not smooth.

 

[904Bronco]

By the stickers from Tom's and save yourself the headache...

 

[papy]

just to confirm the FORD tailgate letters were Wimbledon white?

i wonder if the vinyl letters the vendors are selling are a standard white or close to a Wimbledon white?

 

[MDSD]

just to confirm the FORD tailgate letters were Wimbledon white?

i wonder if the vinyl letters the vendors are selling are a standard white or close to a Wimbledon white?

I think they are a little different. In the pictures my grill is Wimbledon.I have the stickers and they look great. I'd go that route and if it's not what you want you can always paint. Application of the stickers needs a little soapy water underneath to make sure they get put on perfectly.

 

[1970 Palmer]

I'm sure the smooth paint roller was the way it was done during original production.

But in my case, how's a old guy going to refinish the letters and get them to look nice? The stickers are out for several reasons, 1) they are made of vinyl, yuck! 2) they are never going to be the correct color. 3) the sun UV rays are not kind to stickers when parked outside 4) I'd never get them on both straight "and" centered on top of the raised letters. 5) they are crazy expensive!

I plan to call my local pin striper guy over. He's also a sign painter. He has painted logo's on several vintage trailers for me in the past. He uses One Shot sign lettering paint. It's very high quality, and hold up to the sun UV rays with very minimal fading. This paint is very slow drying, which allows the brush marks to settle. After it sits for 24 hours, they almost disappear. He can mix any color or a shade of a color like Wimbledon White for the tail gate, or satin black for my grill letters. He's fast, and does it all for about the cost of the "front and rear" stickers.

John

 

[Rustytruck]

if you dont want stickers paint the letters the color of your choice then spray over it all with the body color. then come back and wet sand the body color off.

 

[papy]

thinking of going with Wimbledon white and painting them. i am still in the process of painting the topper so i have the paint already.

also just to confirm were all tailgate letters painted white from the factory? i am assuming the grill letters were not painted separately from the Wimbledon white mid section of the grill were they?
BTW i am building a 67

cheers

 

[1970 Palmer]

thinking of going with Wimbledon white and painting them. i am still in the process of painting the topper so i have the paint already.

also just to confirm were all tailgate letters painted white from the factory? i am assuming the grill letters were not painted separately from the Wimbledon white mid section of the grill were they?
BTW i am building a 67

cheers

I cannot answer for all years, but my 1970 (standard trim model) had WW letters on the tail gate, and had what looked like semi gloss black letters on the WW painted grill. I would expect different body colors would have had contrasting lettering colors?

I kicked around which direction to spray paint my grill. Do the WW first, then tape, then shoot the Carmel Bronze Poly around the outside? If I had it to do over, I think it would be easier to shoot the body color on both sides, then tape off the body color on both sides, then shoot both sides with the WW. It might take a little more masking paper, but I think it would be much easier to shoot the WW last. Maybe next time.

If you already have your WW material, and you plan to brush it (?), just mix it with some very warm weather "slow drying" reducer and it will lay down nicely, and minimize your brush strokes. If you choose to spend the time to tape off the letters, make sure you do not use normal green or blue 3M masking tape. They (3M) sell a blue plastic masking tape specifically for masking "fine lines" , which is why the call it Fineline Tape, LOL. It's about $20/roll, comes in different widths, but it's well worth the extra coast. It sticks well. it comes off, and it gives a very a sharpe demarcation edge.

John

 

[74 Bronco Billy]

Thanks John, I didn’t know about this and it will help me a lot.

Forrest

I cannot answer for all years, but my 1970 (standard trim model) had WW letters on the tail gate, and had what looked like semi gloss black letters on the WW painted grill. I would expect different body colors would have had contrasting lettering colors?

I kicked around which direction to spray paint my grill. Do the WW first, then tape, then shoot the Carmel Bronze Poly around the outside? If I had it to do over, I think it would be easier to shoot the body color on both sides, then tape off the body color on both sides, then shoot both sides with the WW. It might take a little more masking paper, but I think it would be much easier to shoot the WW last. Maybe next time.

If you already have your WW material, and you plan to brush it (?), just mix it with some very warm weather "slow drying" reducer and it will lay down nicely, and minimize your brush strokes. If you choose to spend the time to tape off the letters, make sure you do not use normal green or blue 3M masking tape. They (3M) sell a blue plastic masking tape specifically for masking "fine lines" , which is why the call it Fineline Tape, LOL. It's about $20/roll, comes in different widths, but it's well worth the extra coast. It sticks well. it comes off, and it gives a very a sharpe demarcation edge.

John

 

[papy]

By the stickers from Tom's and save yourself the headache...

These were originally painted with a rubber brayer, its just a smooth rubber roller. As a result, the paint was dimpled and the edges were not smooth.

I cannot answer for all years, but my 1970 (standard trim model) had WW letters on the tail gate, and had what looked like semi gloss black letters on the WW painted grill. I would expect different body colors would have had contrasting lettering colors?

I kicked around which direction to spray paint my grill. Do the WW first, then tape, then shoot the Carmel Bronze Poly around the outside? If I had it to do over, I think it would be easier to shoot the body color on both sides, then tape off the body color on both sides, then shoot both sides with the WW. It might take a little more masking paper, but I think it would be much easier to shoot the WW last. Maybe next time.

If you already have your WW material, and you plan to brush it (?), just mix it with some very warm weather "slow drying" reducer and it will lay down nicely, and minimize your brush strokes. If you choose to spend the time to tape off the letters, make sure you do not use normal green or blue 3M masking tape. They (3M) sell a blue plastic masking tape specifically for masking "fine lines" , which is why the call it Fineline Tape, LOL. It's about $20/roll, comes in different widths, but it's well worth the extra coast. It sticks well. it comes off, and it gives a very a sharpe demarcation edge.

John

John

i was thinking of mixing the paint as per the tech sheets however not put as much reducer in it. i played around with my HVLP gun settings and it seems like i can really dial it down to perform somewhat like and over sizer air brush lol. i have the blue plastic 3M file line tape already

think i am going to try the HVLP dialed down and see what happens.

Cheers!

 

[Pa PITT]

Papy I SOLD DuPoint paint for 30 years back when these ride were new . I started in the business in 1967.
I sold the 3m Letters & everyone like them . That was yesteryear.
... But I'd hate to try & put the Blue stripe tape in all the curves .
. SO I 'D TRY THE LETTERS 1ST.
GOOD LUCK.

 

[DirtDonk]

It takes time to tape them, I can tell you that.
Probably took me 45 minutes, sitting on a shop stool and being very patient about it and still not getting it perfect. The lines of tape looked pretty darn good, but the final result still looks like the edges are rough
However, the originals were also FAR from perfect on their edges.



Mine had a nice patina to them some would say, but it was just a little too worn down for me (I like the logo as well) so I re-painted them last year. I like the look even though not perfect. And apparently now that it's supposed to be WW I'm not done yet after all.
I was under the impression that the letters, like so many of the "white" highlights were the Ford version of Parchment, rather than the nicer Wimbledon White. But apparently according to all the statements here, it was in fact Wimbledon White for both the grille and the letters. Does not sound right to me, but it's been awhile since I paid attention, so I defer to those more knowledgable.

I used a rust-preventative primer that I usually use on the insides of the tail light and turn signal buckets, so it would still be a flat color, albeit without the rust and bare spots.
I left a couple of areas kind of thin, but in general covered the rest pretty evenly.
That was my thinking anyway, since I had gloss white as well. Just figured I'd start with this and see how I liked it.
Now it seems I might have to use some WW after all!



And yes, the tailgate latch is missing in the pic. I was doing lubing, adjusting, replacing and a little anti-rattle maintenance at the same time I was messing with the letters.

Paul

 

[1970 Palmer]

Paul, I agree that taping raised letters sucks! It's hard to keep everything straight, it looks good right up until you pull up the tape and then you see every imperfection.

In my case, it's one of the very few jobs I choose to sublet out. At least if I'm not happy when it comes back from my sign painter, I can still point the finger at him, LOL.

John

 

[Dogio]

Had mine painted in 3D

 

[Dogio]

 

[Dogio]

OH WELL, i TRIED! NOT EASY LOADING PICTURES on this site

 

[Dogio]

check out MY Garage

 

[bronkenn]

I really wanted to paint mine but I tried taping and just couldn't get it to look right. I went ahead and used the stickers from JBG and they came out pretty nice. I like what Palmer did and got a good pin striper to do it.

 

[Bronco-Brian]

The letters are easy, but are not perfect. I've done both, vinyl white letters, and mask and spray with single stage ww - prefer painting for high quality builds. The masking takes a while as noted above, but you can make a perfect application and look factory this way. I use 1/16in striping tape for the outside border edges, and use black electrical tape w/ trimmed/rounded corners for the inside o,r,d letters. Be sure to only apply a single light coat, and do not let the paint run or sag - spray very light or use cold temp reducer so it flashes as fast as possible. Ideally, paint it off the truck placed flat to avoid these issues. One coat only.

Good luck - its nice to find someone so particular like me - thought I would never live a normal life because of it .