The Letters, continued [John]

I mentioned in my missing parts post that we need a complete set of DESOTO letters for the tailgate and an S for the hood. These occasionally pop up on eBay, and in fact, my daughter bought a set as a gift. When they arrived, we found they were in disappointingly poor condition, and the S was bent badly. Condition is probably average, considering their age, but we are not at all sure we can straighten the S without breaking it.

The "new" old letters

So the new status of letters is we need two Ss, and if we decide to use these, they will all probably have to be cleaned up and rechromed. 

Given all that, and given that my son-in-law Dr Mark has a newly imported laser cutter in his garage, we investigated some alternatives. I looked for a suitable font on the web, and found some candidates. I distorted the proportions to make them fit in the same size rectangle the originals use. and I got the first 5 results shown. 

Meanwhile Mark traced a photo of the originals using a drawing program and came up with the sixth line shown. Local viewers all agreed that the factory font was much nicer looking than any I had found. 

Mark cut a set of the traced letters shown in the last line from a 1/8th-inch sheet of black acrylic. The arms of the T turned out very thin, unlikely to stand up to a car wash. Close examination of the original chromed pot metal letters reveals they are beveled: the delicate face of each letter is backed up by a stronger, larger, thicker piece of material. The laser cutter, although computer controlled and very precise, can only cut vertically, so it can't reproduce the bevel of the originals. However, we came up with an alternative: make a second set of letters, in the same or a contrasting color acrylic, such that the outline of each letter is everywhere a millimeter outside the outline of the first copy. Glue the two together for added strength, and then attach them to the body using some kind of automotive grade double-stick pad. The pad can be cut by the laser to exactly fit the outline of the larger set. Here's how they came out:

And here's a closer look at the first two. These are just stacked and not properly registered.

Laser-cut acrylic letters

Not sure we will use these yet. They are consistent with our emerging goals for restoration in that we are not concerned about restoring the car to completely as-built. Might not last forever in sunlight, but it's a simple matter to cut a couple of spare sets. We might still find originals, but if we have to restore and rechrome, not sure it's worth the money compared to this slightly custom touch. If we do use them, the color of each layer is negotiable. Needs to be visible on whatever paint we pick, and might look more elegant if the top copy contrasts with the lower, larger copy. Opinions welcome.