A Few Misc. Projects

Sometimes a custom solution is needed for a particular job, as was the case of our friends who needed a railing for their back door, but wanted something a little nicer

Prior to powdercoat

Other times a replacement part is hard to find, like old John Deere brackets

And still other times it's cheaper to build it yourself.  Here is a my first attempt at an edge lit sign

 

And a large version I built for my church

'57 Chevy Sign

This is an old project my father-in-law brought to me.  He wanted to build a new sign for my mother-in-law's business and had a '57 Chevy in very poor condition sitting in a back field.  I received the back half with generic instructions to modify it so it would bolt to the side of the a building.

The first step was to plan out a mounting scheme and determine how much the final weight of the sign should be, then cut it down appropriately.  I decided to only retain the trunk poriton of the car.  After scribing a parting line, I remove the inner portion of the car that was not needed, taking care to ensure it would mount flush to the building with no gaps or waviness.

The next step was to remove as much weight as possible without compromising the structure of the trunk area and add back in the necessary framework to mount it to the side of a building.  The threaded rods visible in the picture are vertical support legs I added for stability.  In the end the sign rigging crew commented that the internal framework was some of the better work they had seen and stated in their experience, the legs were unnecessary.

With the factory frame removed for weight savings, I had to fabricate mounts for the bumper, taking care to get it in its original position.  Additionally I removed the trunk lid hinges and latch and replaced them with 1/4" bolts to hold everything together. 

Here's the final product after a trip to the body shop and being mounted to the building.  My FIL spent a fair amount of time digging up new trim pieces and a bumper due to the originals being rotten paper thin in spots.

I was quite impressed with the work the body shop did, considering I swept up over 150 lbs of rust that fell off the car during the construction process.