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Make Your Own Custom License Frames

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Old Dec 14, 2005 | 04:54 PM
  #1  
Lee Willis's Avatar
Lee Willis
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Joined: Dec 2005
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Default Make Your Own Custom License Frames

It is quite simple to make license frames with you own custom message -- whatever you want to say (or the law allows, anyway).

Attached photo shows three license frames I made for my cars.
"My Other Car Has Twice As Much Horsepower" - on my 320 HP Porsche Carrera
"Corvette C5R 427 c.i.d. Superchargered 635 HP" on my 'vette (have to update since the new H pipe and 5 more HP.
"Yes, Its Fast. No, You Can't drive It." On the Camaro sometimes. (((This is the famous homily stenciled on the back of the Jim Hall Chaparels that dominated road racing in the late 70s.)))

To make your own frame with any message (at least any you can fit on it), all you have to do is:
1) Get a blank license plate frame. I usually get one with any car I buy - the dealer puts one on the car that says "Big State Car Dealer" or whatever. I just use a power sander to sand the letters off and am left with a "blank" frame. Or I go to advanced Auto and buy one.
Get one with frame width (space for letters) or about 3/4 or 1 inch.
2) the letters. Go to an Office Depot or an Office Max or Staples and buy a set of plastic letters for office building foyer signs. These are white letters, available in sets with 5-8 of each number and letter, in 1/2, 3/4 and 1 inch heights. The are made with tiny tabs in back to hold them into the signs you see in office building lobbys ("Welcome Our Vistors Today, from Big State Car Dealership"), etc.
Get what size you want.
3) Get one of those epoxy dual hypodermic things (squirts out equal amounts and you mix it). Get a can of flat black or shiny black spray paint. And some 180 grit sandpaper.
4) Now, you select the letter size and the message you want. Take out the letters and cut the tabs off the back and sand them smooth on back. Make sure they will fit well.
5) Mix some epoxy - best to do only about ten letters at once. "Paint" it on the license frame and along the back of each letter. Push the letters on and move them around for good spacing--until they look right. You tend to get exposy all over your fingers and everything so do this where you can make a mess, but don't worry - it will look good anyway.
6) epoxy on all the letters of your message.
7) Let the epoxy harden and sppray the whole thing black. If you made a mess with the expoxy, use flat black, it hides more mess.
8) Let the paint dry.
9) Now make a sanding block and sand across the letters, removing the black paint from atop them and leaving their natural white plastic showing. Doesn't matter how much epoxy you splattered everywhere (that's covered with black), you end up with perfectly formed, perfectly white letters on a real black frame.

You're Done. Bolt it on. Have fun.




[IMG]local://upfiles/25496/FDA9EF60ED004147BBCFF5A000DA62B2.jpg[/IMG]
Old Dec 14, 2005 | 06:11 PM
  #2  
slip's Avatar
slip
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Default RE: Make Your Own Custom License Frames

Nice tutorial, thanks for the work on this. Im gonna try it out, see what i like.
Old Dec 21, 2005 | 01:51 PM
  #3  
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98GTstang
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Default RE: Make Your Own Custom License Frames

dont you think with a porsche, corvette and a camaro you could afford to buy a license plate frame?
Old Dec 21, 2005 | 06:52 PM
  #4  
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slip
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Default RE: Make Your Own Custom License Frames

Some people just enjoy doing this sort of thing.
Old Dec 22, 2005 | 01:28 PM
  #5  
ryan1994mustang's Avatar
ryan1994mustang
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,555
From: San Diego, CA
Default RE: Make Your Own Custom License Frames

that is a pretty good idea. someone else must have thought so too bc the day i read this the first time, i went into wal-mart later on and they had pretty much the exact same thing for sale. i dont remember what the price on it was, but someone is making some cash.
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