We were looking for someone to letter our shop truck, and everyone we called tried to sell us on vinyl type decals. We do use a great sign painter on lots of our work, but he wanted 1,200 dollars to do the job. Now mind you, I dont think that is an unreasonable amount of money for the work he does, cause he's one of the best I've ever seen. We just couldnt see spending over a thousand bucks on a truck we only have 5 grand in total. Steve and I have done a fair amount of painting, but never sign work. But we figgured what the hell, lets try to sling that one shot on our own. One of our buddies cut a stencil for us out of a masking material. He used our original John Detrich artwork as a pattern. Step One.. We applied the stencil to the side of the truck after we had cleaned it off with windex, The only critical thing here is to get the stencil where you want it. There's no going back if you put it on wonky. Step Two Scuff up the area you are going to paint with a purple 3M pad. Be careful not to lift the fine points of the stencil Step Three Paint the sucker. Be sure you get full coverage in one coat if possible. Use a good sign painters paint. We believe in ONE SHOT. Step Four We wanted the colors to fade from white to green, so Steve airbrushed the fade. Step Five Peel the stencil and stand back. Dont let the paint get too dry before you peel the stencil. This looks OK, but we still have lots to do Step Six I tried my hand at this step, but I suck. It fell to Steve to pinstripe a line around each letter in black. This really made the letters pop. Step Seven Add the drop shadows to your letters. This really makes them stand off the surface of your work. A perfect job? Hell no, but we learned a lot and saved a grand. And, Its good enough for the hoodlums we hang out with. Now go out and paint sumpin! There you have it, more stupid tech from the Strange Days Garage.... Satisfaction considered.
Looks great in the pics. Something about red,white and green though reminds me of Christmas... or Mexico. Thanks for the tech. So simple, even I could do it.
Guess What ! You got It ! In every issue of Sign business Magizine, Good old "Mr. J "from Jersey does a step by step on a job just like this and does it THE SAME WAY. This is a trade magazine ,only sign guys get and I'v known "J"( THE father of Jersey Style letterin) for over 30 years. Its the way I do it ...trick being your ponce pattern on the transfer stencil paper makes both sides match. The procedure is only enhanced by the final outline and shadow with a trained letterer. He has even ROLLED on the paint prior to airbrushing. Its called wet on wet so the whole thing glosses out dry together. Hot rodders are such an inovative bunch . Congratulations on "breaking the code" Oh! $1200. ??? thats a little much. $350 more like it. Google images "jersey style lettering" and check out www.autoartmagazine.com
The 1,200 dollar figure truly was fair. It included some door and tailgate graphics. We're gonna try those too! If you saw this guys' work I think you'd agree. I've never been disappointed with his stuff. It was just that in this case his lettering was too exquisite for our lowly shop truck.
This is right up my alley! You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal. You guys did a really great job
Dino the wierdo is right. A 35 year journeyman sign painter showed me the same thing a couple of years ago. Just make sure you use a good masking medium.{I like "stickey Mickeys"} I cheaped out and tried shelf paper,the paint thinner attacked it and I ended up with shit for the whole project. I ended up starting all over and doing it right. Hard lesson learned. "why do we have time to do a job twice, but not enough to do it right the first time?" - My Dad
Very nice job! I have a friend of mine back east who has been a sign artist for many years and he uses a lot of stencils such as this.Great time saver;especially if you are doing multiple jobs.A lot of the time you can get the stencil cut with the outline perforated as well to make that job a bit easier too. I realize that prices vary pretty widely around the country and I am sure your painter does excellent work but the price does seem a bit on the high side. Nice tech article as well.
If you apply the stencil "wet",you can move it around to get it in the proper position,before you squeegee it down flat.
One of the body shops I worked in we worked on big trucks. One fleet owner had a old time sign painter do all the lettering on their trucks. This was before vinyl. The guy also did the fleet owner's son's race cars which we also painted. Just before the start of the season we would paint the race cars and the sign guy would come out and hand letter the cars. He was a true artist. He drew out the designs with a grease pencil, not stencils, just free hand and went to work. It was awesome watching this guy. The only thing the fleet owner told us we had to do was keep the beer supply going, once it dried up the guy was done and would go home. The second truck shop I worked in did their own lettering. The owner and his his son did all of the hand lettering but they did it an easier way. They would use an overhead projector to project a customer's logo on to a large piece of paper, adjusting it to the size they wanted, trace it out and then lay it out on a large table covered by a large piece of sheet metal. They then energized the table and used a probe to arch small holes in the paper as they traced the design. I don't know what they used but it was kind of like a fast arching cattle fencer but it must have been very low amperage. Anyways, once they had the small holes burnt in they would tape the paper onto the side of the truck and use a bag of pouncing chalk to transfer the design onto the side of the truck. They'd pull the paper off and move it to the other side and do it again. This left a light dotted pattern which they used like a paint by numbers set to paint inside the lines. Very simple and you don't have to worry about a stencil sticking to the side a newly painted vehicle. I've used this technique a few times and it's turned out quite good and it was fairly easy.
Old way ..hand done Pounce Pattern ,new way... computer cut paint mask. BUT its important to have design look hand done ,not point & click "font. Problem with most "sign programs" or even desk top publishing Font librarys is the're "printers " type faces ,used for headlines & body copy. Most are kind of old (50's-70's) Never intended for bigger than 8 1/2 X 11. Not large what I Call "display" lettering "typestyle". Check out these sites for Real Sign-guy Hand designed "Type styles" : www.signdna.com www.letterheadfonts.com www.signfonts.com smartartz fonts at www.signcraft.com THERE the cats outa the bag ...or do actual black & white hand lettering and scan in to cut pmask. Hope this helps Dino
There's more but these are my favorites...YOU GRAPHICS GUYS THAT DO T-SHIRTS and photoshop Illustrations should have fun with these for Period Correct... Oh...Can't forget this one -hard to find, hard to navigate BUT Kool ...even has Rat Fink stuff www.houseindustries.com
The stencil used in this was computer cut. We had two stencils made from John Detriech's artwork and Chuck and Steve did an excelent job, it was fun watching. Pays to have a friend in the plastic and sign buisness to cut stuff for you. Hey Chaz looks like the striping and shadows turned out great.
Oh I believe it...I wasn't being cynical or doubtful-my Dad did a fair amount of commercial illustration, sign painting and sign-carving as a side income when I was a kid to help make a little extra money for our family. Plus a friend of mine has a sign business on the East Coast and he makes a small fortune because he can do the vinyl and/or he can do hand-painted artwork as well...I just never have looked into the pricing for such services, I'm a pretty handy with a brush and I remember the lessons my Dad showed me....I just never realized it could pay so well...so now I'm-a-thinking...Hmmm...
Finally we rolled it out into the sun. Here's how it looks today. Lotsa little details and pinstriping still to come.
It doesn't pay that well, usually, until you've put in a lot of time and energy and built a reputation on doing quality work. Even then, sometimes it doesn't pay that well........ By the way...you guys did a pretty nice job!
Dig it guys....I'm jackin' my prices up right now!! Cool that you didn't drag your regular sign painter through the mud for his asking price, just decided that it was not in the budget and went after it yourself...shows character I think...too many times people will ask us for prices, won't like 'em, and we'll know nothing of it until we hear it through the grapevine. Then they go somewhere else (don't compare apples to apples) and give 3/4 the price for crap because they could not communicate with us.
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