Last month I purchased two very nice polished C valve covers from Herve for my 140 roadster restoration project. I am ready to do the intricate job of painting around the Jaguar letters. Not being a very proficient painter and not knowing actually what technique to use, I told my wife, who is a talented artist, that I had a job for her. (I never ask her to do anything with my cars.) She said, “okay what?” I showed her the beautiful covers and she said, that will be hard to do and not get red on the Jaguar letters. I said, yes of course, that is why I am asking you to do it. Then she said, I think one would put clear nail polish over the letters first and then use a fine tipped small brush to paint around them. I said that sounded like a good idea and that I wouldn’t have though it. Before we embark upon this task, and to help maintain marital harmony so that I don’t get blamed for sending her on a “mission impossible,” I am writing to ask for direction from any members who have done this before and if there is a simple method for doing this little job. Thanks in advance.
The usual way to deal with backfill painting like this is:
- Prep and mount the object so that the backfill area is horizontal.
- Paint with a fine(ish) brush. Be careful, but don’t get too worried about a bit of paint on the lands - in fact, a slight edge of paint on the lands is inevitable if you’re actually getting paint on the etched slope leading up to the land. You brush should be about as wide as the smallest gap to be backfilled.
- Paint a few stripes on a flat test piece.
- Wait until you think the paint has skinned.
- Dampen a tightly woven cotton (Shirting, or calico) cloth with solvent (not soaking wet, just enough to pick up skinned, but not completely cured, paint).
- Form a pad with a smooth flat surface (put it over a cork sanding block).
- Wipe across your test piece - if it gives a clean break without smearing the paint it leaves, then the paint has skinned just enough.
- Wipe across the piece.
If you’ve waited too long, it will take some pressure and a bit of rubbing, but the cloth will only be contacting the raised lettering, and won’t be dumping any solvent into the backfilled part.
If you end up with slight smears:
- Wait until the paint has cured completely (twice as long as it says on the can)
- Put some polish on a piece of leather, stick the leather to a flat wood backing.
- Polish the smears off.
- Clean any polish out of the lands with soap, water, and a fine brush.
I worked in a sign shop which made etched and backfilled signs for a while. This is how we did it. The trick is to wipe at the point where the paint has skinned enough that it doesn’t smear. Once you get the hang of that you can do it all day long, and none will need polishing.
I dip a scribber in the paint and stipple it onto the badge. Just make sure you don’t “overfill” the gaps between the letters.
And for a third method, I use a touch-up pen in the colour (you can get custom colours in the pens) and use a razor to trim the felt tip to a point.
I don’t have a C Type but for the brass ID plates, I have had success by cleaning them , spray painting lightly with a pressure pack . Allow to wet dry and then remove the paint from the tops of th e lettering with a flat block and wet and dry. One needs to be careful but it works with those . I assume a similar method would work on the cam covers.
…and neither do I! I used the pen on my old BSA Cover.
Andrew, thanks for this detailed step by step professional method. I’ve never heard the usage of paint being “skinned,” but years ago in college, I did have a beautiful girlfriend named Sally Skinn. Thanks for the reply and for bring back good memories. Don
JonV2. Thanks for the reply and for the photo. If I can find such a pen, this looks like it might be the simplest way of doing the job. Thanks again for your time, Don
Using Andrew’s technique, the C-Type badges on the cam covers should be easy to paint. I used essentially the same technique to restore the small brass badge on my Lucas Sports Coil - which someone had stripped off all the original black paint. With a steady hand and patience I found that even the tiny raised print on the Sports Coil badge could be restored.
For paint I used original Rustoleum enamel in a spray can. This paint skins as it dries and cures slowly. After the paint skins, a wooden tooth pick is a good tool for peeling back the unwanted paint from the raised letters. If all is not satisfactory after the first attempt, let the paint cure. Then dab on additional paint with a tiny artist’s brush and keep working at it.
