The number (licence) plates on the Sand Scorcher can be fiddly to paint - neither painting the background blue & then the letters yellow, nor painting the whole thing yellow & then filling in with blue all the bits that aren't letters or numbers seems to work very well.

However, you can take advantage of the fact the bits you want to be a different colour are a different height.

First off, you should have a pair of clean, paint free licence plates, possibly even with a coat of primer if you can get a very fine coat on without losing details.

Paint the plates yellow (pic 01) - aerosol or airbrush will give a better result than brush painting, unless you're very, very good. 2 light coats are better than one heavy one.

jr scorcher plates tips 01

After enough curing time has elapsed, spray with a compatible clear coat (pic 02).

jr scorcher plates tips 02

After more curing time (and this is where it might seem a bit counterintuitive, but bear with me), paint the whole lot blue (pic 03).

jr scorcher plates tips 03

After adequate drying time, very carefully sand off the blue paint over the raised letters (pic 04). I used a tiny bit of 1200 grit wet 'n' dry paper, wet.

jr scorcher plates tips 04

Touch in any areas that may have got damaged; I also added tags (just for the rear plate) (pic 05) after drawing them up in PaintShopPro & printing on white transfer paper (pic 06) & clearcoating.

jr scorcher plates tips 05

jr scorcher plates tips 06

A final coat of clear (after dusting) completes the job. I used gloss (pic 07), but satin may be more appropriate (or even matt) depending on the overall look of your car.
These aren't perfect, but they're a lot better than I would have been able to do by any other method.

jr scorcher plates tips 07

 

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Written by TB member Jonny Retro

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