1942 License Plate Restoration

I picked up a vintage license plate on eBay for the 1943 Dodge WC51. The plate is 1942 and the truck is 1943. In Washington state, and many other states during WWII, steel was in short supply, so the normal yearly issuance of license plates was curtailed for 1943 and most of 1944. That means a 1942 license plate is correct for my truck. I was fortunate to find a plate specifically for a truck, as all other 1942 plates on eBay were for cars. In fact, doing an online search, I couldn't find a photo of any other 1942 Washington truck plates other than this one. These first two photos are the condition of the license plate I got. It's not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but I think I can work with it.

As you can see, there is some rust and other damage to the plate that will need to be dealt with before paint.

These next two photos show JB Weld applied in various spots.

I used some thin wood pieces to hold the epoxy in place until it dried.

This next photo shows the plate painted with a can of white spray paint I had in the basement. The off-white color on on the right 2/3 of the plate is a shadow. The color was really too white.

I then bought a spray can of Almond color, which is much better.

Next is the green lettering. I did it by hand, which is quite the feat for someone with essential tremor... I used a small paint brush about 1/4" wide, and a can of green enamel paint. I used the flat edge of the brush to dab around the inside and outside edges of all the characters. That was the best way to control the straightness and sharpness of the edges. I didn't want the plate to turn out looking like a three-year-old did it. It was time-consuming but worth the effort.

The paint looks splotchy in the photo below but that's because it is still drying. This took about 1-1/2 hours, so 15 minutes per character. I may have my wife do the small lettering, as I think I'd mess it up too much.... Lucky her, huh.

It's a day or two later and I decided to try my (shaky) hand at doing the small lettering. It really wasn't any worse than painting the large characters. I started with completing the word "Truck".

I then jumped down to doing the middle part of the word Washington and the 1942. I had to jump around like this so I wouldn't drag my hand through any wet paint.

I let the above characters dry during the day and finished up in the evening.

That was quite the transformation from start to finish. It was a bit tedious, and took close to three hours just to paint the lettering but I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.

We affectionately call the truck "The Beast" (for good reason I might add), and when I got the license plate, that moniker seemed quite appropriate. I am a Christian, so it is a little weird having those numbers on this license plate, but in one sense it's kind of fun. I've toyed with the idea of painting some lettering after the T and B, as it is just too convenient the way they happen to be the right letters for the job...