HERE YE HERE YE – From This Day Forward, Tag Restoration Shall Be Called “The Mark Method”

,

The work station

Well.. Ever spent two days on painting a dumb engine tag? Ya.. I did.. And guess what? It can be fun, and sucks all at the same time. See, when I wrote the article on my Engine tag, I also had started on a various set of paths. And at one point I thought I had cracked it. The method was letting paint get kinda paste like, and scrape it on like a putty knife. It was cool and worked. And all I had to do was go in with a tooth pick and clean it up.. That took a while, but with music on, kinda fun.

Mid way through the day..

Heated up the barn

NOW, then  I red Marks Method half way through the day. I had tried a variation of that, but my Tag was so wonky it just was hard to make it work. And then a death blow happened. I messes up on the clear coat. And in about 2 seconds it just crazed and all the work was gone.

CRAZE HELL

AHHHHHHHH, So I got pissed, cleaned it all off and now for a 4th time, said F it.. Sprayed it like Mark showed in the photos, and let it dry in the heather, and like with the weight of the 1200 sand paper, just lightly sanded.. And Bam, in about an hr the entire job was done. thats it. Done. Over, And installed.

Sprayed that sucker..

Light sanding

You can see some of the low and high spots. But I stopped here and went in with detail work

Closer

DONE, cleared and the way it should look

Thanks Mark for the confidence to go forward!

So got a plate to restore? We know have a proven method. “THE MARK METHOD”. You can see Marks comments here in the original story HERE

The engine tag as found.

13 replies
  1. Mark
    Mark says:

    Hey Matt. Looks great !

    Glad I could help. I hated discarding anything original that had a chance so this was perfect for me.

    I just hope Staib doesn’t get pissed at me for not marketing engine plates and has Jaxon bite me or something.

  2. Shep on Lake Shafer
    Shep on Lake Shafer says:

    Matt,
    That looks awesome! Now you are going to have to restore Stinky to match it!
    Dora is approaching fast! I plan to have the boat in the water with in 23 days.
    Looking forward to it.

  3. Martin Field
    Martin Field says:

    Mike D, exactly what I was thinking, yet the factory have had those plates made with that grammatical error! Back in the good old days when you could do photo-etching artwork with a pen and a photocopier I could have had brand new plates made which would look exact and read correctly. Now, you have to provide computer files, which I can’t do. On the paint front, rattle cans need the base coat to dry for at least a week, before clear coating, even with the same make of paint and even then it should be just dusted on in about 3 thin coats. How do I know? I’m a professional modelmaker!

  4. Matt
    Matt says:

    So, I went out and looked at it again, the OF or OR is in an area that was flat. I had to kinda scrape the R.. Wouldnt you know I am the only one that can make a typo on a metal embossed plate. HAHAHA, IT IS “OF” upon real close inspection.. Thanks, its fixed with a dab of paint and exato

    • m-fine
      m-fine says:

      It takes alot of tailent to misspehl a too leter werd, but even more so when it is already stamped in metal for you! Forget the diet, you deserve an extra Woody Weiner today, you earned it! 😀

  5. Mike VanMiddlesworth
    Mike VanMiddlesworth says:

    Just redid my Century plates with the Mark Method two weeks ago but didn’t use a clear coat…. probably will have to redo it next year…

Comments are closed.