Articles

Custom Car Show Wheel Marquee's

Great way to make your Car Stand Out at the Custom Car Show

These Wheel Marquees are a great way to make your Car Stand out even more at the next Rally or Car Show. Just place it in front of the wheel and drive on. Yes, Pontiac was our first couple of requests but we can do any manufacturer and add the Make or Model or Engine or any detail to the graphic area, These are Powder Coated for Long life. Alien Silver from Prismatic Powders and Gloss Black for the Tempest Sprint and Dormant Copper from Columbia COatings with Gloss Black for the GTO

Bad Frog Beer Custom Metal Sign

This has been one of our favorite Custom Metal Art Signs. Cause He Just Don't Care!

It allowed us to use a lot of cool materials and techniques. First we had to create the design file. Working from an existing picture we redrew the graphic in our Design Software to establish the size and create all the tool paths to cut the pieces. The sign is about 24 in wide. This sign has 3 layers, 5 colors and uses a mix of Powder Coating and Vinyl. One of the challenges is how to do the color fades. We first coat the back layer in all white and then do a fade coat in Yellow. We use vinyl for the very small detailes like the Yellow Lettering and the White accents on the Black Letters

We think it looks great in it's New Man Cave!

BAd Frog Beer Custom Metal Sign

THE GATHER SIGN

Oakland Signcraft Custom Metal Art Gather Sign

People ask where the ideas for our signs start. Every project is a bit different but in this case one of our Customers saw a Sign they liked but knew the wood wouldn't hold up outside by their firepit where they planned to hang it. Apparently their Firepit is a reknowned local gathering spot for friends and neighbors. So they sent us a pic of the sign that was the inspiration and said make it work for our space!.

Oakland Signcraft Custom Signs

We take that, and recreate it in our Design Software, We use Corel Draw. This lets us establish the size, try out a few color schemes and ultimatly leads to the final design that we take to the Plasma Cutting machine to cut everything out.

Oakland Signcraft Custom Metal Signs Graphic Design

Once the Design work is finished we go to manufacturing and Finishing. In this Project, after Priming everything with an Epoxy Powder, we chose a Jet Black from Tiger Powders, and an Illusion Copper form Prismatic Powders. On some of the letters we did a Copper Acid Wash to create a pure metal feel and some stainless fasteners to give an industrial look. We think it turned out great!

Oakalnd Signcraft Custom Metal Sign

Give us your inspiration and let us help you create a one of a kind piece of custom metal art for your favorite hangout!

CS Bell Farm Bell Restoration

At Oakland Signcraft, we enjoy bringing things back to life and often learn some interesting stories along the way!

One of recent Projects was the restoration of a classis Dinner Farm Bell. We learned it is a Size #2 Bell, which has about a 15" Diameter. It had a lot of flaking paint, some corrosion and all the fasteners were corroded beyond use.

We started by Sandblasting everything to remove the Rust

CS Bell Powder Coat Restoration

After that we gave it a coat of Epoxy Powder Primer Coat. This helps smooth things out a bit and is critical for long life

CS Bell Powder Coat Restoration Primer Coat

Lastly a Top Coat of Powder Coat, We chose a Satin Black for the Bell Frame and a Whiskey Bronze for the Bell and some new stainless hardware. It looks Great!

Cs Bell Size Powder Coat Restoration

We always like to learn some of the history behind our Projects. We discovered this was a Class 2 Bell, that's the size. It was manufactured by the CS Bell Company in Hillsboro Ohio, somewhere between 1890 and 1920, so for sure over 100 years old. The CS Bell company was founded by Charles Singleton Bell in 1875. Ironic that the largest Bell manufacturing company in the US was started by a guy named Bell. I guess his lot in life was chosen early! One of his accomplishements was the devlopment of a unique metal alloy. This gives the bell its clear crisp tone and was trademarked with the name of Crystal Metal. This cast into the frame and an indicator of the authenticty of the bell and can be clearly seen in our bell. In Hillsboro Ohio there remains a summer Festival of Bells to celebrate the heritage. Its always fun and interesting to learn about what we are working on. If you have a Bell or another unique item you woudl like tio see come back to life, let us take a look!

CS Bell Crystal Metal Restoration

Garden Bench Restoration

One recent Project at Oakland Signcraft was the restoration of a Garden Bench. We received this in pretty rough condition, All the wood was rotted. The Wrought Iron pieces had some corrosion and the old paint was flaking a bit. The original color was forest green but our custommer wanted a color change so we needed to get the metal stripped and blasted.

Below is the Wrought Iron pieces as received.

First Step was to get everything Stripped and Sandblasted. This is important to give the Powdercoating something to grab on to. It helps improve the life of the coating.

Here are the Wrought Iron Pieces after Sandblasting. All the old paint and corrosion is removed and ready for Primer. We use an Epoxy Primer Powder coating. This smooths well and has a great bond to the bare metal.

Here are a few pictures of the completed bench, We used pressure treated lumber with an amerreto wood stain protected with a Urethane Satin Spar for long life. The Wrought Iron End Pieces are Powder Coated with a cool color, Whiskey Bronze, The wrought lattice piece in the seat back is Powder coated with a Semi Gloss Black. All the hardware is replaced with Stainless Steel Fasteners. So this Garden Bench will look great for many years back in the garden! We enjoy restoring old stuff. Contact us today with your next Project!

Garden Bench Powder Coat Restoration