Restoring the body ID plate

[Uncle-Pekka]

Once the paint job was completed, the interest and motivation to enhance the details increased as well.

The body Id plate was quite bad after weathers of 60+ yrs:

I turned the plate and polished the back side to mirror finish.

First sanded it by grades 400, 600 and 1000 wet papers,

then polished by chrome polish and rag on a drill...

Then I searched a good picture of the original print on the tag in the web and

printed it on water adhesive decal paper:

...applied the water decal on polished surface and sealed by clear lacquer.

Did the same with the smaller plate with body serial no stamped on it.

Only with this tag I did not turn the plate but had to polish the original front side to have the original stamped numbers as they were. Slightly more work to get glossy surface since front side is more oxidized.

[Niel Hoback]

Excellent work! Maybe you should remove the paint from the screw heads, or just use new cad plated ones.

[oldodge41]

Great job.

[Mark D]

Nice work Pekka! But time always seems to be an issue for me, so I probably would have gone this route ...

http://tinyurl.com/9bh56c9

[bamfordsgarage]

... and printed it on water adhesive decal paper...

That is a very nice job.

I don't think I have ever seen "water adhesive decal paper" but a number of uses come to mind. Can you please post some details of the manufacturer, part#, etc.? Many thanks.

[BobT-47P15]

Looks good.

I've been known to do things similar to that to make labels for the

air cleaner, the coil and the breather cap.

I would also like to know more about the decal making paper.

Another way for some things is to use an adhesive label paper

which can be found at WalMart and other similar places.

[Andydodge]

As I own a hobby Shop I am familar with water slide decal paper..........thats the standard model kit decal or transfer paper....there are a few aftermarket brands such as Testors around BUT........if you want to get decals made the easiest way is to find a print shop that will print a picture or photo on a coffee cup or similar .........this process uses water slide decal paper..........so you can design whatever you want onto a disc, take it to the print shop and get them to print your design(or Mopar logo) onto a sheet of decal paper and your set to go...........note tho' that some places may NOT be able to print the colour white..........anyway.........hope this helps..........andy

[Uncle-Pekka]

The above comments by Bob and Andy says it for the water adhesive film:

It was popular in past applying decals as seen on oil filter cans, air cleaners, even some farm tractor hood "painted" scripts were these decals.

Today they are used in scale models: All the graphics on scale kit airplanes etc. are on this type of water adhesive. My supply is also stolen from my kit hobby stash.

In case someone would "start a business" reproducing car decals, here is economical supply (batch of 25 sheets letter size)

http://www.decalpaper.com/product-p/l825c.htm

For single car, I would recommend the same as Andy did: Find a shop making photograph mugs and have it made there. Will be most simple and safe. There is always a risk that your printer will mess up the decal or print too light copy - then the paper is ruined.

Sliding the decal film from wet paper to place will also take some rehearsing: It is very brittle, will rip easily. The surface must be even. E.g. wrinkle on a paint will be a problem. For surface curved in two dimensions a decal softening liquid is recommended to avoid wrinkles in the film.

When the decal film is properly set and dried, spray clear coat on to protect it from wear. Coat also brightens the color a bit.

[bamfordsgarage]

Thanks guys, that is very helpful.