Spray Painted Plastic Letters. Well, That Worked?

She is dolling up real nice

Yesterday I had a break in the rain, and zoom meetings so I took on a small job at HQ, And thought, mmmm lets do a story that could be destroyed by a new website being moved. All those gigabytes flying around the internetaverse. So, also the plastic letters are supposed to be a temp fix until I find real ones.

I took the black plastic letters and did a combo spray of Red Gold and Yellow gold, then clear coated, and hit the letters with a flair of the yellow gold to create some light shift. YA, I did all that. And yes I am a tad over the edge of obsessive when it comes to color. And these don’t tarnish!

I have also been cleaning up all the rub rails that are brass, and that is really making her colors pop

Letting her small artistic details stand out is part of the fun.

It’s going to be a journey for sure. Finding all the right letters in vintage brass letters. I did just buy a set off ebay and hopefully they will get the REEDVILLE part settled.

A wonderful selection to get started. See the U, thats the size thats hard to find. Many of these will make great signs and other details around the Railway.

The larger letters are a bit more of a hunt. And yes I know I can find them new. But whats the fun in that?

12 replies
  1. Greg Lewandowski
    Greg Lewandowski says:

    She looks great, but I have a question. Would a stained and varnished transom with gold leafed name not be appropriate on a boat like Sweat Pea? More of a wood cruiser look.
    That should get the peanut gallery going!

  2. Matt
    Matt says:

    Yes! And there is a plan to get some think planks of mahogany and glue them over the exsisiting transom. But thats another story for the winter. In the spring she will get a new swim platform, TEAK, and possible transom refresh. Also Name boards for her bow area.

  3. Troy in ANE
    Troy in ANE says:

    Yorktown has had painted plastic letters for all of my life as far as I know.

    They look and hold up great!

    • Kelly Wittenauer
      Kelly Wittenauer says:

      I usually favor simpler, less busy designs – a “less is more” approach. But I have to say that I really like this with the partial varnished transom.

    • briant
      briant says:

      No no no. This does not look right at all. Those great temp letters really stand out with the dark background colour. The only thing missing from this photo would be having a few of those damn pink hippity hop balls being used as bumpers.

      She looks best with the same colours wrapped around the stern.

  4. Floydrturbo
    Floydrturbo says:

    I like the continuity of the green hull wrapped around the transom over a bright transom. But that’s just from your pictures. In person could be different.

  5. David Clyne
    David Clyne says:

    One picture of Sweet Pea is a good day but a whole series of her looking better and better, now that’s a good day ! One more vote for dark color on the transom. Thanks for sharing with us, Matt.

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