panel labels

[swoeric]

Just painted the panel now i need some labels...the paint is textured black....Im not real big on the engraved plastic......have you guys found any good options?



Also i like a few of the brass things ive seen in the past.......where and how much etc

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: panel labels

Eric,
My 45 had water slide decals originally (can still see a lot of pieces of white decal on the old black paint) for the marking at the bottom of the panel to identify the knobs. There are several pressed brass plates for things like the warning when you remove the right wheel and the fuel transfer warnings. On later models they went to printed paper "stickers" for a lot of items.
Josh and I were doing a lot of them before the accident and unfortunately I was doing the pre-war engraved metal and he was doing the early post-war brass embossed placards and we hadn't shared techniques yet. I have a few of his pre-production prototypes and I am trying to figure out how he did it but we couldn't find any of the tooling he used in his stuff. I even looked around for a "Magic Wand" in the corners, but no luck. We lost a real artist before he could share his techniques. I DO know he had a REALLY NICE LASER engraver if anyone else happens to have one (Laura wants to sell Josh's if someone WANTS one).
Did you want to reproduce the original panel? If so, what year is it? I will see what I can find for the configurations around that time.
Hank

[Ron Coleman]

Re: panel labels

Well there is some good news out there! If you go to Hobby Lobby Or the net) you can find water slide components. You can print ( jet ink or laser ) on transfer paper, spray it with a sealer, and make your own water slide transfers. You can also get a topcoat spray which will make the membrane material transparent (no white undercolor or shiny surface). If you are going to put a clear coat over the decal you will have to get a sealer for the decal because clear coats tend to disolve water slide decals. I have found that the last productions from Fox ( antique automotive, cycle, and scooter decals ) frequently come apart with modern paint systems. They will usually work with original paint systems.

RonC

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: panel labels

Just as an addition, the decals on my 45 had VERY SMALL clear surrounds around them. Each word had a small edge of clear, not the whole strip. I have no idea how they kept them so straight! The white letters were also VERY dense. Lots of times with models I found it very hard to make a white decal completely opaque over a black background. Going to be interesting when I start restoring the 45 panel.
Hank

[jmvolpp]

Re: panel labels

A recent EAA video showed using a Brother label printer for that type application. It can print in a variety of colors as well as black on clear and white on clear.

Mike V.

[M Towsley]

Re: panel labels

Hey Mike, I will look that up. I have a brother label printer.

Hank,

I have some of Josh's metal labels for when I get my new panel done. You couldn't find anything??? I wonder how he did it then, hmmmmm. They were nice items. He had both printed metal and embossed.

[M Towsley]

Re: panel labels

Here is the link for that video: http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1316990171001

I have another label printer for packaging, I was hoping someone had used that to print decals.

I currently use the system in the video, but to me it does not look original. As my old panel had no labels when I bought the plane I used black on white labels to label above the knobs. I will include a picture later today. I also cut each corner in a 45 degree angle to neaten them up.

The label printers are a fast and easy way to label an instrument panel, but just don't have that decal look to them.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: panel labels

There used to be a product called "LetraSet" that was dry transfer letters that looked GREAT. I haven't seen them for a while. I looked at the 45 panel under some good light and those markings are NOT decals, is is Silk Screened.
I just may have to invest in a Silk Screen kit and learn a new skill!
Hank

Silk Screening would work great on the knobs too!

[Larry Lyons]

Re: panel labels

The LetraSets were hard to apply and almost impossible to keep lined up and properly spaced. But, once on and clear coated looked very nice. However it would not work on a black wrinkle fininsh on nice Mooney Mite about 40 years ago! :-)
L