Help! How do you paint the Jeep letters?

I've got a '66 CJ5 that I have completely restored to stock. Everything looks great, but the "JEEP" letters on the side of the body need to be painted in white to contrast with the gold body color. Does anyone know of a fool-proof method of getting some clean paint lines on these letters? I've tried to make my own stencil, paint them free-hand, and tape around the letters, all without success. Thanks!

 

I would take it to a professional painter that does freehand pinstriping and whatnot. I know I wouldn't want to booger up a good paintjob with a lousy looking JEEP on the side. It shouldn't be too expensive to let a pro do it. I can't think of any way to get it perfect, short of having a stamp cut out the exact same size as the letters. But then you gotta worry about putting it on straight too. Good luck. You got pics of this restored ride?

 

I seen this done on my Chevy Truck on the tailgate.

The letters along with the the general area is painted white (in my case)---after it dried hard, the letters were taped off using a razor blade to cut the tape around the letters. Some skill is involved as he brought the tape past the "flat" part of the letters to the curved part slightly. It dubicated the original look too a Tee. Then the whole truck was painted with your color of choice. Afterwards---the tape was removed. The results was great!!

It sounds like you have already painted your jeep---which means you would need to paint the area with the color you want your letters, tape, then repaint to body color. It may be more trouble than you want to go through---however, that was how I seen it done.

Harold

 

i practiced the painting on an old license plate. that way i could use some thinner and 'wipe' up mistakes.

 

AFAIK the factory used a roller. That's how the body man at the Jeep dealership did it too.

 

:iagree: Use a straight edge across the raised lettering and build up on either side with old cut up magnetic sign material to just below the top of the lettering. Use a semi-hard roller to put a light coat of paint on just the tops of the lettering. Repeat till you get desired coverage. Remove bridging - done. OEM will show the same result, I've never seen an original that had sharp, crisp, outlined lettering. HTH.

 

I used a Hobby paint pen marker, worked good. That way it didn't DRIP down the side.

 

THe sell the "Jeep" lettering on ebay.

 

Thanks for the advice! I'm attaching some pictures of my '66 V6 CJ5. View attachment 21993

View attachment 21994

View attachment 21995

 

Sweet Jeep! Needs a nickname and more info. Where are you located? Got pics of what you started with?

 

Very Very nice. Lots of TLC.

 

very nice cj

 

Very nice stock restore!!

 

Thanks for the comments. I bought the Jeep on E-bay out of CO. in mid-2006. It was very stock and had hard top all its life, which saved me from a lot of rust problems. O'all the Jeep was very intact but pretty worn out. I took it apart down to the last bolt, had the frame and body media blasted and epoxy primed. I rebuilt the engine and had the tranny & xfer case rebuilt by Vintage Jeeps in Beasley, TX. Had them add an o'drive unit while it was out. (4.88 axles). I replaced the axle springs. All new brakes, master cylinder, bearings, seals, lines, steering parts, hoses, u-joints,etc. New wiring harness. Had all the body parts painted by a local body shop and then I put it all back together. All body parts are original except the windshield and the tailgate. Took me about a year to do it all. I take my kids to school just about every day in it and it is great fun. The V-6 with o'drive really moves along. This is the first Jeep I have restored from A to Z. Previous Jeeps: 1947 CJ-2A, 1986 CJ-7, 1944 MB. I've still got the MB--runs great but needs cosmetic work.

I can send more pictures if someone can give me some hints on loading more--after posting 3pics, I'm over my limit. Sorry, I'm not on top of the computer stuff.

 

Here's a tip I found on another forum.

take Glad Press & Seal and cover the lettering, making sure to get a tight fit between the letters. Then trim away the letters and spray.