Numberboards, cont....

Numberboards have been the main priority these days. Since I won't be able to do any major body work until later this year, I have decided to get the small stuff out of the way.

If you wanted to make your own boards, it is a very simple process.

First, we would have to get a few supplies. Including: Plexi-glass, a plexi-glass cutter, black and white spray paint (special, for plastics), contact paper, and a full-scale stencil of the number or letter you want.

The first step, would be to determine the size of your numberboards. Once this is done, you will want to measure this out, and using a small Sharpie, trace it onto your plexi-glass. Next, take a straight-edge, and score along the line, using your plexi-glass cutter. Continue to score these lines about 10 times. After that, flip the glass over, and force it to break at the line.

Now, is where the fun begins. Take your printout of the number, and cut it completly out, using a scissors or X-acto knife.

Once cut out, you are ready to start tracing onto contact paper. Roll out a sheet of it, and cut to the approxomite size of your number board. Now, you will want to trace out the entire number onto the paper. It is best if you tape the number to the paper, and then you can peel off the tape and trace under those spots, at a later date.

Now that you have your number traced, you can carefully cut out the contact paper, and set it aside for a day when you had a good night's sleep, and some coffee.

Now comes the aligning of the numbers. What I ended up doing, was sliding all of my plexiglass into my numberboard slots. I then carefully unpeeled the "2", and aligned it with the open space of the numberboard box, and rubbed it on. I repeated this process for the rest of the numbers, until all of my contact paper, was applied to the plexiglass.

The next step is easy: painting. Flip your numberboards over, place them on a piece of wood and saw-horses, and shoot a coat of white paint onto the backside of the board (the side without the contact paper). Once this is dry, flip all of the numbers over, and paint the side with the contact paper (the front, where the numbers are applied).

It is best to let these sit in a dry closet for a few days, just for them to cure. But, once they are done, throw them in the numberboard box, peel off the contact paper (revealing the white that was masked) and try them out. I was certainly not dissapointed :)

Two of my favorite things....

Milwaukee Road switch stands, and Soo Line Geeps...

Numberboards....

Now that spring is in full swing, I now have time to enjoy the outdoors, while I work on some of my projects. Aside from horns and other parts on the workbench, the number-board boxes have had a fair amount of work.

The first project was to clear out the electrical components (coming in a future post). After this, the boxes were bead blasted. Lately, I have been experimenting with plastic abrasive media for stripping paint. Needless to say, it was a very good investment!

After stripping the majority of the paint, I applied paint. The back of the box is painted with Rustoleum Enamel 'Light Machine Grey', which matched the original interior color of the 2405. After drying, the box was masked, and the interior was painted with a chrome colored paint. It would appear that these areas were originally painted as such, to increase reflectivity of the bulbs in both the class and number-board light boxes.

More masking, and the final coat of black paint on the outside, and it's done. (well, maybe a too-heavy coat of chrome paint, but no one will look inside, but me....)