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Data Plates

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jpet View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jpet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Data Plates
    Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:50am
This is my first attempt to make a reproduction data plate from aluminum:

First.  I reverse designed the data plate in a word processor.  The Willys logo I drew in CAD.  Then I printed a mirror image of the plate on some PNP blue paper,  You need to do this with a laser printer:


Next I tape the blue paper to a piece of aluminum plate with the toner side towards the aluminum:


We have a laminator at work so I sandwiched the aluminum plate with pnp blue paper between some heavy paper stock, set the temperature on the laminator to 285°F and ran it through 20 times:


If you don't have a laminator, you can use an iron.   Lay a piece of cloth over the setup and iron until the toner sticks to the aluminum.

When I was finished running it through the machine, I cooled the plate with running water and pealed the blue paper back:



You may have to touch up a few spots where the toner did not take.  You can do that with a sharpee:


Next I will etch the plate with a mixture of peroxide and muriatic acid.  2 parts peroxide to 1 part acid  I'm not a chemist.  I got the recipe from browsing the internet:

This is nasty stuff.  Don't breath it.  Wear gloves, goggles and work in a well ventilated area.

I poured just enough of the mixture in a cookie sheet that it would cover the plates:



This stuff works pretty quickly so don't leave it in there too long or it will start eating the toner.....

......like it did on meEmbarrassed  If you want to inspect the part as you are working, rinse it off first.

Edit:  I put packaging tape on the back side of the metal so that the acid would not etch the back side.
Edit2 05-06-11:  The acid worked quickly because I actually used a 50/50 mix.  If you use a 2 parts peroxide mix to 1 part acid, the solution will work slower and you can control the etching better.  Have a bucket of water handy.  You can always rinse the plates off, inspect them, and then put them back in the acid bath to etch some more. Another problem with the above experiment is that I had got the toner too hot.  This I believe is the main reason that the acid dissolved the toner.  If you read on in the thread, you will see that it works better with the laminator set to 300° and I ran the pieces through individually about 12 times.

Since the acid ate some of the toner off, and since this is an experiment, I went ahead and cleaned up the plate to see what it looks likes.  If the toner was intact, i would just steel wool the part, off, rinse it off and paint it.



As you can see, the acid ate into some areas that I did not want to. but oh well, that's how experiments go.  Let's move on:

Paint the tags:


Let the paint dry and then I used Scotch brite to rub the paint off the high spots.  i also want to dull the paint somewhat because I want the plates to look vintage:



On the first plate, I got a little carried away.  The middle one turned out the best:


They are not perfect but not bad for my first try.  I think I will try it again but next time I will run the parts through the laminator a few more times.  I don't think the toner stuck good enough.  Also, i won't leave it in the acid as long.  I think that was biggest problem.  All in all, that middle plate doesn not look so bad if you don't sit and study it.  It would not bother me to use it, but i can do better now that I have a little experience.  I'll try it again when i have a chance and post my results.



Edited by jpet - 06 May 2011 at 7:34pm
CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM"

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Harriet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 7:33am
Blimey Jeff, is there no end to your talents? And tell me, do you ever sleep?
Good job ... ClapClapClap
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote all4jpn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 11:49am
you seriously have some crazy abilities...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Night0wl Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 11:53am
Jeff,
That looks great.  Is that a military plate? Do you have some good prints of a 2A serial plate that is on the dash?
I think the early ones say Willys and the later ones say Jeep
You did a great job on your first run!Clap
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jpet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 11:55am
Originally posted by all4jpn all4jpn wrote:

you seriously have some crazy abilities...

Not really.  Read it on the internet.  It's about as easy as it looks.  It just takes some practice.  I got five 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper for about 15 bucks.  The acid was about 4 bucks and the peroxide maybe a buck.  You can buy a 4" by 48" strip of aluminum for 16 bucks.

It would be a neat side gig for one of you guys.


Edited by jpet - 25 Mar. 2011 at 11:56am
CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM"

"We do what we can, and we try what we can't"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jpet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 12:00pm
Originally posted by Night0wl Night0wl wrote:

Jeff,
That looks great.  Is that a military plate? Do you have some good prints of a 2A serial plate that is on the dash?
I think the early ones say Willys and the later ones say Jeep
You did a great job on your first run!Clap

I made that plate for my MB.  If I were making a 2A plate, I would take a picture of an original straight on to limit the amount of fish-eye and parallax of the image.  Give the photo a high contrast to accent the features, scale the photo, and then print a reverse image of the plate onto the pnp blue.

Edit:  Oh and I would probably open the photo in an editor to take the serial number off of the photograph and maybe clean up the photo some.  Probably on the 2A plate, you would want to just use the artwork and logos from the plate and retype all of the wording in a word processor with the correct font.

Edit 2:  Maybe some of youns' have done this before.  Any suggestions to make it better/easier?


Edited by jpet - 25 Mar. 2011 at 12:32pm
CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM"

"We do what we can, and we try what we can't"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote lowenuf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 12:42pm
i wonder if this is how Robert DeRuyter does it?   
 
that process is neat.....
 
here is a picture of 2 plates that Robert recently completed for me......
 
the top plate has been sealed using Eastwood's Diamond Clear for painted surfaces, in satin, the bottom one is natural as i received it.
 
 
 
There are also 2 different number/letter stamping fonts that were used, study still remains on this issue, but to date, it appears the font changed in the serial number range of 10200 or thereabouts.....


Edited by lowenuf - 25 Mar. 2011 at 1:33pm
45 #10012
45 #10033 ACM #47
45 #10163 ACM #188
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Joe Friday Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 3:37pm
I could be wrong, but i don't think aluminum was ever used on the originals.  I think it was Zinc or brass only.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jpet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 3:42pm
I think that the originals for '44 MB were zinc.
CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote russnj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 3:54pm
Great work!

Early were brass late models were zinc.

It's spelled out on this page.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~rdrnl/4UWPWillysMB.html

I'll still keep my originals, even thought they are all buggered up.


Edited by russnj - 25 Mar. 2011 at 3:55pm

43 MB, 48 CJ2A, 50 CJ3A, 55 M38A1, 56 CJ5, 79 M151A2, M100 ,65 M416
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jpet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:07pm
This is just an experiment.  I don't have any zinc plates laying around to test. LOL  I'm pretty sure, although not certain, that the same procedure works with zinc.
Originally posted by russnj russnj wrote:

......I'll still keep my originals, even thought they are all buggered up.
I would too....... but I don't have originals. Cry

Edited by jpet - 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:08pm
CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM"

"We do what we can, and we try what we can't"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote russnj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:18pm
Originally posted by jpet jpet wrote:

I would too....... but I don't have originals. Cry

That's kinda what I thought.

What font did you use for the lettering?

43 MB, 48 CJ2A, 50 CJ3A, 55 M38A1, 56 CJ5, 79 M151A2, M100 ,65 M416
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jpet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:22pm
Tunga Bold Size 8 for most of the txt and 12 for the word "NOMENCLATURE"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jpet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:24pm
FWIW, You would probably want to cut the plates to size before you do all this stuff.  That way you don't chance damaging the plates after they have been finished.  Again I was just messing around.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM"

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dennisanvil Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:25pm
nice job jeff;
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ndrtkr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:48pm
I'd like to see your version of a Governors Warning tag Smile.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jpet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 4:49pm
It's not that hard.  Give it a try.
CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM"

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote woody Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar. 2011 at 9:42pm
Hey Jeff ,
 what do you do on your spare time?Smile
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