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Hubcap lettering


Oldguy48

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I recently purchased some better quality hubcaps for my P15.  Naturally, the lettering needs to be repainted.  And I'm OK with that, but I'm curious to know if anyone has any insight as to how this was originally accomplished at the factory.  I can't imagine that they had individuals with artist's brushes painstakingly performimg this task.  And even though the hubcaps I purchased needs the lettering repainted, the remaining lettering paint looks remarkedbly well done.  As I'm not much of an artist, I'm curious to learn how this was done on such a large scale back in the day!!!  And I have searched for an answer, but have not found one so far!  Thank you for any input to my question.

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I don't know how they did the lettering either.  

If painting by hand, you can mask the letters off, but that would take a while.  I just paint and keep a piece of cloth with some paint thinner on it handy.....if I go

outside the line, I just wipe along the edge, then maybe go at it again -- or maybe the wipe cures the problem.    As you probably know....the circle around

the Plymouth name and the ship is NOT painted.  Some have painted them but I prefer to leave it chrome.   

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The way i painted my caps (which is probably the wrong way) is to "paint" where you don't want the paint to be with

Elmer's glue.  After that dries, either brush on or spray the color.  After your color paint dries (24 hours or so), wipe off

dried glue with a rag dampened with water.  This does a pretty good job.

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21 hours ago, wldavis3 said:

The way i painted my caps (which is probably the wrong way) is to "paint" where you don't want the paint to be with

Elmer's glue.  After that dries, either brush on or spray the color.  After your color paint dries (24 hours or so), wipe off

dried glue with a rag dampened with water.  This does a pretty good job.

 

I think I'm gonna try your method.  I experimented a bit today, and it looks like it should work pretty well.  We'll see!?

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I did mine with paint specifically made for auto pin-striping, it was pretty pricey for a tiny can but it worked well on my hubcaps.

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I tried the method posted by "WLDavis3".  It looks good so far, but I'm letting the paint dry until tomorrow, and then I'll wash off the Elmer's glue.  Today I came to the stark realization that I'm not an artist!  Egads....My mother was a very talented, and accomplished  artist, but I guess I didn't inherit any of her skills!! ?

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So to answer your question, the factory used a stencil set up remarkably similar to the screen printing that they use for printing t-shirt designs nowadays.  When the hubcaps came off their final assembly, they were automatically oriented correctly for paint application.  As the equipment got older and more worn, the quality diminished a bit.  I have D24 hubcaps that run the gamut from sharp and clear, to barely making out the stamped background lines through the design.  How to do it yourself is covered in several Forum threads.  But...I always enjoy when an "old" topic is brought up again to see if there are any new ideas out there.     

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On 7/20/2018 at 8:30 PM, wldavis3 said:

The way i painted my caps (which is probably the wrong way) is to "paint" where you don't want the paint to be with

Elmer's glue.  After that dries, either brush on or spray the color.  After your color paint dries (24 hours or so), wipe off

dried glue with a rag dampened with water.  This does a pretty good job.

That's a great idea!  I will have to try it sometime.

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On 7/22/2018 at 6:28 PM, Oldguy48 said:

I tried the method posted by "WLDavis3".  It looks good so far, but I'm letting the paint dry until tomorrow, and then I'll wash off the Elmer's glue.  Today I came to the stark realization that I'm not an artist!  Egads....My mother was a very talented, and accomplished  artist, but I guess I didn't inherit any of her skills!! ?

You know what they say, practice makes perfect!  LOL

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