This was too interesting a project to not post for somebody that is dressing out an engine bay. I found on ETSY a number of people that for less than $50 would laser cut surprisingly thick stainless plates with whatever a person wanted. When I built out the '34 Dodge motor I wanted to hang a name plate on the horizontal stainless return spring retension bar that I ran between the two carbs on the Asche Dual. I ran through 100s of fonts until I found one that looked right and sent off, in an exact scale vector file, the completed design. Now I did make up models in aluminum to work out the balance centerline (all adjustable in the this design) and built a simple mandible to "bend" the plate upon its return. Here it is.... Incredibly, within about 10 days a package came to the house with not one, but two plates in two thicknesses. The work was impecible! Now, the order of the bending matters. In my design, you bend out the side arms 1st, then bend the full backplate (backing and letters) 2nd, and then you carefully, using in my case nylon needle nore pliers, each letter. You hold push the letters out with a full height ( size of a letter) thin wood pusher until you can get the needle nose pliers on the full letter, and then you stand it off the backing plate. Then I used a rod mandrel to bend out the hanging tabs. These are relatevely thick and require some hand strength and the right tools to bend the letters...and the bend....out properly. But what a great detail!
Sweet! Looks great. I’ve been using sendcutsend.com for a lot of work projects, very fast and affordable as well.
The Jalopy Journal
