GMC Trucks Sign-Garage Art

[murphy98]

It's was a dark & stormy night!....sorry wrong story. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks back, too wet to take in a local car show.... What's a guy to do? Make some Garage art!!

I recently acquired one half of what used to be a two sided illuminated GMC Trucks dealership sign from the 50s-60s era. The sign was is very good condition given it's age so I could not pass it up! Figured I'd find a way to display it some day. That day came on the rainy Sat. I decided to make up a single sided illuminated version for my garage. Had some scrap 1/2" MDF kicking around the shop so I made up an illuminated box for the sign to fit into. Easy & inexpensive afternoon project to do. I have posted photos of the project below. Unfortunately I did not get any pics of the box construction but I think that's more or less self explanatory as you will see. I hope to make up another similar one with the 70s blue GM logo soon. Will post pics of that when it's done, should be a nice set of signs for the garage.

Hope this gives some of you ideas on how you can make an old sign come back to life again in your shops!
Not sure how to post text below the photos so I will try to describe the pics as they are posted.

Pic 1. Plastic (rather brittle at this age) sign as bought.
Pic 2. 1/2" MDF box painted with a silver hammer finish paint to give the box a metal appearance. Note, I doubled up the front edge of the box in order to crate an inside lip to support the 3/8" plastic flange on the outer edge of the of the GMC sign. I also beveled the outer edge 45 degrees to give it a more finished look. (it's the furniture maker in me)
Pic 3. Close up of the hammer paint finish & beveled edge.
Pic 4. I used two 18" inexpensive florescent light fixtures (wired in series to give me just one plug at the end) attached to 1/4" plywood (backing) to light up the sign, I would have preferred LED lights (less heat) but they are still rather expensive around here anyway! I did try one light first but did not feel it was bright enough, two did the trick nicely.
Pic 5. The rear of the box with some cleats to hold both the plastic panel in place and the 1/4" plywood backing.

Part two pics to follow.