When restoring 60-66, sticker or paint tailgate letters?

[Slowtruk]

Like the title says...whats the "right" way to do it?

[k1rodeoboater]

paint is the correct way to do it

[jbgroby]

AND....If you have a GMC the color is a semi-gloss light aluminum color that is reflective at night. It took us about 3 hours to find the right color of our tail gate.

I don;t know or think checy did that,

[Shaky]

I did the white one with paint (all of it under the clear coat). I did the black one with stickers under the clear.

[Slowtruk]

beautiful! Seem like it would be very hard to tape all that up for paint...Could you possibly paint the tailgate white (or the correct color) and then put a set of stickers on the letters, then paint over that the color the truck would be? Then pull stickers off and gloss it? IDK

[jocko]

I don't think you could do that - once the stickers are on, they're really ON. My vote (of course I'm not the guy doing all the taping) is to paint the letters. I've wondered about this too, but just think of all the times you'll be waxing the gate and be worried about the stickers peeling back (unless you clear over them like above - good idea - but I would also be concerned with how the clear will last over the stickers - it looks great now - I just don't have enough experience to know if it would stay that way - Shaky might know). Either way, both the painted and the sticker/clear approach look great on those gates.

Ideally, someone would make a paint stencil. You'd think that since the company makes stickers they'd make a stencil also! I'm just sayin.

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

What color is your truck bud?
http://secure.oldchevytrucks.com/Tai...products/1046/

[Blue Blood]

Originally Posted by Shaky

I did the white one with paint (all of it under the clear coat). I did the black one with stickers under the clear.

Those look great, esp. the black w/ white lettering.

[SIR]

...i vote paint......

[Shaky]

I don't have any experience on the durability of the clear over the stickers. A guy down the street does clear jobs over the stickers on the gas tanks of the local Hells Angels. I don't imagine that he wants to have any unhappy customers, but I dunno.

I sprayed the color coat on the white gate, then masked the letters with 1/8 inch tape, sprayed the black, then cleared the whole thing. It was time consuming. I also masked the whole raised letter which I don't think is stock. The picture is kinda crappy 'cuz it's a scan of an old film picture.

Be aware, I ordered the stickers twice from the same place (Classic Industries) 'cuz I screwed up the first ones. The first ones were smaller than the stamped letters on the gate (looked more like the original). The second set (maybe a different supplier???) were larger and covered more. I'm not doing a perfect resto, so it didn't matter much to me, but it may to you.

[Slowtruk]

Thanks everyone for the help! It will be very useful.

hey SIR, is that green a factory color? Because the 65 I picked up for $900 couple weeks ago that is now the subject of a resto, was that color. It looked like it had been repainted but I could see that metllic gree under the newer green paint.

my build thread http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=479868

[Slowtruk]

Originally Posted by 1Bad62Pro/Street

What color is your truck bud?
http://secure.oldchevytrucks.com/Tai...products/1046/

Thanks for the link! Its in my favorites now!

[jbgroby]

I wonder why chevy decided to revert to the art deco style (closest style I can think of) on the stepside lettering vs. the fleetside style. Anyone know?

[LostMy65]

It seems there should be sticky stencils available to use to paint the lettering.
Posted via Mobile Device

[oem4me]

It depends on what you mean by "restoring". Originally they were sprayed using a die or stencil, and it shows. Some of the letters have lightly fuzzy edges and sometimes they are a little off-registered from the stamping, and I love that! But there is no way to reproduce that look though without making your own stencil, which IS doable, but a ton of work.
Tape jobs are also lots of work and will look terrible if not done well. Even if the taping is done perfectly, you are going to have hard edges.
I think good quality stickers are the answer for the average repaint. They are super cheap and stick like mad. I have done two 60-66 tailgates using the stick-ons over single stage acrylic enamel and never had ANY issues with lifting. To this day, almost fifteen years since the last one I did, the stickers are tight all around and look great despite NO special care or attention. They really almost look like paint, except they are too perfect.

[lakeroadster]

When I bought my stepside the tailgate looked like a pinstripper simply outline the letters and then fill them in, just like a sign painter would do if they were painting a logo on a panel or door.

Just another option, maybe more for a resto-rod than a full of restoration.

[Slowtruk]

Thanks guys, I sure am not going for a full on perfect resto or else I wouldntr be putting a crate 350/700r with a floor shifter in it lol. But I just wanted to know yalls thoughts. Stickers for me sounds like the way to go!

[chevyrestoguy]

See if there's a good pinstriper or sign painter in the area and have them do it. If it's a restoration, I'd spray it. If it's a hot rod, I'd have it hand painted and then pinstriped on the edges.

I love restorations, but there's something about a hand-painted and pinstriped job that looks so cool, brush strokes and all. It's old-world craftsmanship, which is rapidly becoming a lost art.

[jcraig304]

How about this. Paint the tailgate the color of letters. Let it dry. Then tape some waxed paper of something and apply the tailgate letters to the tape. Cut out the letters with exacto. (they now have paint tape under them) Apply to previously painted tailgate. Paint the main color of tailgate and remove letters. Should get around the issue of the letters sticking and peeling off your paint.

If anyone has tried this and it does not work let me know because I am about to try.

John

[Turkey]

Paint

[kieth]

Originally Posted by LostMy65

It seems there should be sticky stencils available to use to paint the lettering.
Posted via Mobile Device

buy a set of vinyl letters and just remove the letters and use the outside of the vinyl letter set as the stencil......

Oh yea, we are redoing my gmc tailgate as we speak, we painted the letters silver fawn metalic, let them dry, masked them off, then painted the tailgate green, when we were getting ready to clear the tailgate we pulled the masking tape and the paint came with it.........so I would suggest painting the solid color (greeen in my case) then clear the tailgate, let it sit for a week, then do the letters, then clear it again.....we had to go back and re blast the tailgate with walnut shells and start again cause of the detail in the lettering..................Kieth

[PGSigns]

Couple of things. You can clear over good vinyl lettering with no problems. First coat needs to be light and let it tack, then paint as you normally would. If you go to most sign shops that do vinyl lettering you can get the lettering cut in paint mask. can have it weeded straight or reverse depending on what color you want painted first. The paint mask is resistant to the solvents in paint and it leaves no residue when it comes off. Edge quality is close to what you get using fine line tape. Been doing signs for a good while and will help with vinyl related questions any way I can.
Thanks
Jimmy

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

I always like the painted tailgates like this:

[oem4me]

Originally Posted by PGSigns

Couple of things. You can clear over good vinyl lettering with no problems. First coat needs to be light and let it tack, then paint as you normally would. If you go to most sign shops that do vinyl lettering you can get the lettering cut in paint mask. can have it weeded straight or reverse depending on what color you want painted first. The paint mask is resistant to the solvents in paint and it leaves no residue when it comes off. Edge quality is close to what you get using fine line tape. Been doing signs for a good while and will help with vinyl related questions any way I can.
Thanks
Jimmy

Question for the sign dude:
Since only the stamped "flats" of the letters get painted, and the surrounding edges are "rolled in" about 1/8", will the paint mask have any trouble conforming to the contours without wrinkling?
Sounds like the way to go if the mask would lay down ok.

[PGSigns]

What I am going to on mine is paint the letter color first. This should make it easier. Plan it to paint the white, and let it dry. Then install the mask and shoot the hotrod flatz black and then pull the mask asap while there is still a wet edge to let it flow just a tad. This is not need if doing base clear but with single stage pulling them wet will ease the edge.
Jimmy