YOM plate restoration odyssey

[lostviking]

I bought a 1945 California license plate off ebay. It was supposed to be "restored". It was horrible. They guy even smeared some RTV over a crack and painted over that. That gives you an idea of the rest of the plate.

 

I took it to work and glass beaded it clean. There were a couple spots I missed, so a quick touch up with some sand paper took care of that also. To fix the crack, which was maybe an inch long in the center of the plate, I soldered over the area on the rear of the plate. I leveled that pretty much, but left some thickness for strength. It's been humid around San Diego, so even over night there was some minor surface rust starting, especially in the pits where it was rusted before I'm guessing. I took a paper towel and some Corroseal and wiped the surface of both sides of the plate. I started with a thicker layer, so it got down into the pits, then wiped most of it off. You could see the typical blue tint from the chemical reaction.

 

Next I went to the store and got some Rustoleum spray paints. Clean metal primer (light rust or none the can says), gloss black and gloss white.

 

So far I've primered the rear of the plate, to make sure there was no reactions. I figured I could test there

 

After I've given it enough time, I'll do the front with the primer and let that dry in the sun also. Last for today is a couple coats of gloss black. I'll continue tomorrow.

 

Almost forgot to mention, I got one of the '46 plates to make my new plate GTG for my truck. It was in pretty much new condition. No work there required. It is interesting to note that although the 1944/46 plates were black with white lettering, the tag is yellow with black lettering. I wonder why? I know that's the correct colors and I'm pretty sure this has original paint on it also.

 

Later that day...

 

Way to optimistic about the surface. Lot's of wet sanding and it's still a bit rough in places. It's a lot harder to sand a license plate than a nice big flat truck panel. Anyway, one more coat of primer and I'll see what it looks like tomorrow. Might go right to black, might sand some more.

 

Sunday 1/26/2020

 

Did a bit more wet sanding today and got most of the pits out. I went ahead and sprayed the back side with the gloss black. I put three coats on and it looks pretty darn good. I'm going to just let the paint cure for a few days now. Then I'll mask off the whole rear and put one more coat of primer on the front. I exposed a bit of metal on some edges, just a bit. I quick spray and then later that day...maybe not until next Saturday...I'll spray some black on the front.

 

Monday 1/27/2020

 

OK, paint was no longer soft to the touch, so I continued.

 

Put two coat of black on the front today. I'll add another tomorrow. I also bought a set of silicone rubber rollers today. I'm going to put paint on them and roll it on like was originally done. I'm going to go for many light coats until I get the coverage I want. Worst that can happen is I start over. The roller is thin enough so that I can follow the top of the letters and number, rather than just going across them all side to side.

 

The CAL and 45 at the top of plate is recessed, so that will need a brush.

 

Picture once I'm happy. You will excuse me for blocking a bunch of the letters thought

 

Thursday 1/30/2020

 

DAMN! Had two perfect looking coats and went for one more...late in the evening...low light...it wrinkled. Crap. Taking it back to work tomorrow to start over. Oh well, it's only time.

 

Saturday 2/1/2020

 

After going down to Bonita for the Saturday morning cruise, I dumped some MEK over it and used a steel brush. Clean Jean. Now after a wash and dry...self etching primer. Very light coats Two on the front drying in the warm sun, then an hour from now, two on the back. More sun drying, then a single light coat of black on the rear again. Tomorrow will be the second coat. I'm taking it slowly this time and not rushing the dry times. Since I won't get more than two on the rear (black) tomorrow probably, I'll wait until next weekend and another day of sun to finish the black.

Edited February 1, 2020 by lostviking
Updated the title to better discribe thread

[lostviking]

OK, been awhile so some updates.

 

After I cleaned the plate to metal again above with MEK, I used VHT etching primer on it. This produced a thinner coating than the Rustoleum did. I think you can go with some high build and sand to get things perfect. I didn't. There are some pits in the metal that still show through, although I did wet sand the majority of it out. But not perfect.

 

I got two or three coats of black on, two on the rear, then went for the white letters. Let me say, that is much harder than I imagined. I tried some silicone rubber rollers...slides too easily and so you can't get good coverage. I assumed I was going to use several coats, but this didn't work at all.

 

I got out the small brushes. I suck. Not good lines at all.

 

I cut a small piece of semi hard foam and tried to stamp the white on. I ended up getting a bunch on area's it wasn't supposed to be.

 

I just resprayed the front black again.

 

I'm going to take the time and effort to mask everything to get some straight edges. Then I will spray the white. Darn. I want to get this presentable before next Saturday. Reg is up Feb 26th and I want to get the new(old) plates transferred when I do that, rather than just redo the reg online and take care of the plates latter. We'll see how that goes. I might just have to fall back to that and then I can be more perfect on the finish of the plates. I figure a few pits in the metal showing won't keep the DMV from allowing their use.

[Tooljunkie]

Funny thing about paint, there is dry time and cure time. If you second or third coat within the dry time you will be fine. But you have to wait until after cure time- usually 48 hours if you want to add another coat. Otherwise it wrinkles. 
buddy just went through this on some signs. Then he read the can. 
had much better results. 

[lostviking]

1 hour ago, Tooljunkie said:

Funny thing about paint, there is dry time and cure time. If you second or third coat within the dry time you will be fine. But you have to wait until after cure time- usually 48 hours if you want to add another coat. Otherwise it wrinkles. 
buddy just went through this on some signs. Then he read the can. 
had much better results. 

Had some wrinkles again...so starting over...AGAIN.

 

That must be my problem as I'm using the same type and manuf of paint.

 

So far that is the only thing that makes sense, and I guess I'm guilty of not reading the full instructions on the can.

 

I also wasn't getting good lines using tape, so I'm going to use a technique from HAMB.

 

I haven't had any problems using the VHT self etching primer, so that's the first coat....after I strip them yet again. I'm getting pretty good at that.

 

Next two coats of white to cover the letters and the white strip at the top of a 46 CA plate. Wait two days for cure. BTW, sent off the reg last night

 

After two full days of cure time, 5 coats of clear over the same area's, it will hit other spots, but those are the area's to be careful to fully cover. Two more days of cure time.

 

Now, finally the black...and two more days of cure time...maybe longer.

 

Now sand just the white area's using 1200 grit and LOT's of water. As stated in the HAMB post, the clear should prevent going into the white.

 

Clean it all up and a final clear coat.

 

Don't smoke, but probably need a cigarette after all that.

 

Thanks Tooljunkie.

[lostviking]

MAN! Nothing but disaster. I've left it for a week after the white paint and the clear still causes some wrinkling. I'm done with using the clear. This sucks.

 

All the paints are Rustoleum enamel paints so I can't see why I keep having incompatibility problems. It's not even all the white that reacts, just a bit here and there.

 

I ordered some 1/8 inch tape Back to plan A.

Edited March 7, 2020 by lostviking

[lostviking]

Haven't talked about this in a while, so here's the update. I contacted Rustoleum and asked them about the problems I was having. Simply put, it doesn't matter how long it has been since you sprayed, if you break the surface (wet sand), then you need to wait another 48 hours before spraying again.

 

I started basically from bare metal again. I used spot putty all over the plate to fill in the pits. Then I wet sanded, sprayed high build primer, wet sanded...et cet until I was OK with the finish. I waited the 48 hours between any time I broke the surface and the next painting. I'm on my fifth layer of clear over the white. I sprayed several coats of white today, and all five layers of clear, waiting 15 mins between layers. Now I'm going to let it sit 48 hours before I continue. That will be several coats of black, at 15 min intervals.

 

After that I'll carefully wet sand through the black over the letters. If all goes well, I'll use a small brush to get the lettering at the top of the plate, which is recessed. Finally, following the above rules...I'll give the plate a nice couple coats of clear to give it a protective gloss finish.

 

Wish me luck.

Edited June 21, 2020 by lostviking

[lostviking]

Did the wet sanding tonight. It works like a charm. You need to make sure you have several clear coats, I did the five that were recommended. I still need to use a fine brush to paint in the small recessed letters on the top of a California 1945 plate with some more white. After that cures, I'll spray several clear coats over everything. I think it's going to come out pretty good after all.

[Radarsonwheels]

No pics?

[lostviking]

Not done yet...You might have noticed I'm a pick nitter, so I will touch up the edges of the 8. The 3 is probably fine. I don't want it to look too good, they didn't originally. I used a dense foam block to sand, 2000 grit. But I pushed too hard on the 8 and it deformed over the edge. that why the bottom right looks like that. I started on the other end and was rushing a bit by the last character. The CAL at the top and 45 on the other end are the only other parts that still need white. Then clear over it all to give it some protection.

[TodFitch]

I am unaware of any California plate after the 1920s that used white lettering. What year is that plate for?

[lonejacklarry]

Oddly, California had a black plate with white lettering for 1945.  The 1946 validation tab was yellow with black letters.

Edited June 26, 2020 by lonejacklarry

[TodFitch]

4 hours ago, lonejacklarry said:

Oddly, California had a black plate with white lettering for 1945.  The 1946 validation tab was yellow with black letters.

 

Thanks! I've learned my one new thing for the day.

[lostviking]

Thanks for that picture. Over time, I forgot which part at the top was white.

[lonejacklarry]

11 hours ago, lostviking said:

Thanks for that picture. Over time, I forgot which part at the top was white.

 

I'm happy to have helpted.

 

[lostviking]

Still working on this. I've been a bit of a nit picker over details, so I've restarted several times from bare metal. This last time around I'm fairly happy. When I sanded the black off the lettering, with 4 coats of clear over several coats of white, I did sand through a couple spots. That's due to the plate not being flat, although I could have been more careful. Today I sprayed some of the white into a small container, and used a very fine brush to touch up the few places I went through. There were a couple black spots that showed also, so I covered them also.

 

It's been about 2-1/2 days since I sanded last, so I should have been good...but one small spot on one letter wrinkled a bit. I'm planning on another coat of paint brush white and a finger print sized sanding area to see how flat I can get that. I won't touch it again until the weekend though. I think I will be happy with the out come.

 

Then I'm going to let it sit a full week. After that I'll clear coat the entire place back and front. Then I'm going to hit up the CA DMV to get the plate transferred to my truck. We'll see how that goes in the current climate.

[DJ194950]

A friend told me about a month or so ago that the Ca. DMV would not allow any walk in customers and they were still working out how to take care of the issues that They Require people to show up In Person to take care of.

 

I hope for all of us including their employees (hard to feel  for them after years of Stupid rules) but it is their job to do, somehow.

 

Best of luck with having just one? plate (exemption for the years Ca. only produced one plate?)

The state now and for years has required and provided two, tickets available from law enforcement for not wanting to ruin the look of your car by running with just one.

 

DJ in Ca.

[John-T-53]

The YOM program in California states that you must display the plate(s) exactly as they would have been issued in that year. Therefore, if one plate was the standard issuance for '45, then that's how it shall be. I would suggest bringing proof of this to the DMV though; don't expect anybody there to know how it's supposed to look, or even know what YOM is in the first place. Your effort will take several trips to the DMV to get it registered, guaranteed. Don't give up!

 

A little historical note, in 1945 we were in hard times....despite winning the war, materials were in short supply, and perhaps the same went for paint pigments that were an actual "color" as well. Thus the austerity of the 1945 tags. This plate is of historical significance and I'm happy to see it receive such a deserving restoration!

Edited July 29, 2020 by John-T-53

[billrigsby]

On 6/25/2020 at 9:07 PM, TodFitch said:

I am unaware of any California plate after the 1920s that used white lettering. What year is that plate for?

 

Yep, They did.....

 

 

[billrigsby]

Here are my (obviously) un-restored 1948 Plates,

I hope they come out half as good as yours

Fantastic Job!

 

[billrigsby]

1 hour ago, John-T-53 said:

The YOM program in California states that you must display the plate(s) exactly as they would have been issued in that year. Therefore, if one plate was the standard issuance for '45, then that's how it shall be.

 

Very lucky to have a 'one plate' year finding pairs of the old ones can be difficult, expensive or both.

I know from experience, a three year search and $175.00 later I had my 1948 plates

[lostviking]

1945 and 1946 specifically require only one plate, because that is all that was issued. White on black as shown above are the correct colors. Interestingly enough, the 46 tag that gets riveted onto the 1945 plate for 1946, is yellow with black numbers.

 

I tried a yellow and black plate when I first registered the truck, because I didn't know any better then. The DMV clerk did. She had it right on her computer screen, which she showed me. She knew that is was a black with white plate, and that there was only one issued. I should be good. Thanks for all comments though, they are well taken.

[billrigsby]

All of this brings up a question, my 48 1 Ton is currently registered Non-Op in CA

with the 1947 plates and the 1948 upper tab, even though I am a CO resident.

I will not go through all the madness to do the COA (Change Of Address), but it was finally done.

 

Being July, just received the renewal, all they ask for is 'proof of insurance'.

Is a 1948 Exempt' from a smog certificate?

Or is that due to the Registration having a CO address?

 

Been gone too long, Not Really,

but I forgot all the ins and outs of Smog Tests.

 

 

Bill

[TodFitch]

3 hours ago, billrigsby said:

All of this brings up a question, my 48 1 Ton is currently registered Non-Op in CA

with the 1947 plates and the 1948 upper tab, even though I am a CO resident.

I will not go through all the madness to do the COA (Change Of Address), but it was finally done.

 

Being July, just received the renewal, all they ask for is 'proof of insurance'.

Is a 1948 Exempt' from a smog certificate?

Or is that due to the Registration having a CO address?

 

Been gone too long, Not Really,

but I forgot all the ins and outs of Smog Tests.

 

 

Bill

Too old to require smog check.

[lostviking]

Any domestic 1975 or older...no smog.

[billrigsby]

NICE - once it's done I got Plates and Regi  ?

 

The State of Colorado may not like it...

(10 days to transfer when moving)

but can not find 1948 CO Plates.

 

Oh Well  ?