Many Hands all finished. It's been many great experiences working with Margaret Wilson. She is amazing & now owns the longest sign in town. I was directed by her and her talented designer from the Bay Area, Rafe Bethal, to design this layout with just the lettering and the rows of men. I was convinced it would be too simple and, well, a bit boring, since there is so much acreage of sign. I designed this simple tribal pattern to add interest and with a comparison study got their approval. The pattern was planned to be very efficient to produce. They chose the background and 2 foreground graphics colors. I chose the 2 pattern colors.
These are my 2x4 stackers. A pair of them will bridge a wet 4x8 panel and you can keep stacking them vertically, drying lots of wet paint at once.
A simple application of tape defines the 2 colored edges and provides a 3rd element, the stripe of the background color.
Here's some wallpaper for your desktop.
Paint rollers cut to efficient size. I'm coating 3 parts and unmasking the tape on each panel before I move to the next.
All the years I've been using '1 Shot Lettering Enamel', it's always had lead in it 'for commercial use only' and been a wonderful product. I would thin it with various reducers. They've recently taken the lead out and it's not the same. I've had issues with premature oxidation. I called 1 Shot and talked with their chemical engineer. They now have a line of their own reducers and a hardener, much like an automotive paint system. I was reassured to stay with this new system and the paint would not oxidize prematurely. This sign is so large, will face south and west and get baked with UV. I needed to get it exactly right and have it last a good long time. There's lots of product in the above photo.
The yellow paint mask has a low tack adhesive for easy removal.
This is a historic building with a somewhat historic sign. It is not a historic storefront. A sign permit is needed and by leaving the old sign up, Margaret was able to grandfather in an exorbitant amount of square feet for new sign use. She needed to move fast, get open, and get money coming back in. This is retail. Because of the historical structure, she also had to also get approval from the Historic Resources Commission. Catch 22: the HRC moves a bit slower and it can take a couple months to get an answer. Frustration for Margaret. A permit is contingent on approval from the HRC. After many meetings, design mock-ups with construction details and such, she got her approval. Yay. We had to leave the old sign exactly in place and could not damage it in any way.
The Rexal Drug/Albright & Raw sign is porcelain enamel on steel. Each square panel measures 46" x 46" with 1" bent over sides. Adds up to 48"; stock material. Brilliant. Attaching the panels to the building are 3, 1" x 1" L shaped brackets per side, hidden under the sides. We attached similar brackets in a reversed configuration to the outside and our new 4' x 8' panels fit perfectly, overlapping the old panels by an inch. We removed a bucket of old rusty screws, then custom marked and drilled each new bracket to align with the old randomly placed hole. One by one, pain in the butt. New stainless screws attached the new brackets through the existing sign holes to the old brackets. There were a lot of these!! We used pop rivets to attach the new panels to the new aluminum L brackets. The new sign bridges over the old. We never drilled a new hole in the old porcelain enamel sign.
Helping me on this lengthy install is Tim Foley. Along with being a good friend and an amazing metal artist, he's also a licensed contractor.
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