Mildew/grime inside lit channel letters

[gnubler]

I hope you're not joking. Is that accurate enough? I figured I'd have to remove each individual letter face and get a tracing around the inside of the trimcap.

 

[Moze]

It can be done both ways. A rubbing of the letters is definitely preferred but a rubbing of the faces will suffice as well. I've done tons, both ways, and they've always turned out fine.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I use a roll of Tyvek and tape it tight to the sides of the channel letter set.. then I take the side of a crayon and rub the outline of the letters. Once you spring for a roll of Tyvek to do rubbings and patterns you'll never want to go back to paper. It doesn't rip or get wet so it's perfect in windy or damp conditions. https://www.uline.com/BL_1969/Tyvek-Rolls?keywords=tyvek

 

[Gino]

Tyvek....... good idea

 

[MNT_Printhead]

I prefer tracing the letter faces on the ground/flat trailer, less labor and easier to do without tearing up the paper. Just make note on the pattern which way you did it so they folks cutting them will know. 7 years is a long time for even a UL label to hold up, though we had Direct sign wholesale send us a pattern from a set that was 14 years old! They literally said "I'll have to check the archive and see if we have it." I figure the archive is an external HDD they had to go find in a closet.

It is amazing how much data they have, I was an estimator for them about 8 or 9 years ago. You have the drawings we would break down and price and save whether they had us make it or not. The fun part was pricing the same job to 50 or more different shops bidding it - you have that split across 6 estimators so the price would wind up different depending on who did or when they did it; They were working on a resolution for that when I left to go run another corporate shop 10 minutes from where I was moving.

I believe DSW does good work after seeing the operation from the inside and would recommend them if they can build what you need in time for your deadline.

 

[gnubler]

Awesome! Thanks, Tex. If I get this job I'll post some shots of how we end up doing it.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I read this earlier and this is exactly what popped in my head. Southpark?

 

[MNT_Printhead]

I read this earlier and this is exactly what popped in my head. Southpark?

High School if you are really a GenX sign maker. The Simpson referenced it I believe, think it was the episode that Phish was in in the late 90s.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

 

[Notarealsignguy]

High School if you are really a GenX sign maker. The Simpson referenced it I believe, think it was the episode that Phish was in in the late 90s.

I am but the simpsons lost their edginess around when beavis and butthead came out. Then southpark topped them. I never got into Phish.

 

[gnubler]

This one is back on my table. I'm now bidding out the job to supply and install new faces. Somewhere on the forum someone mentioned plastic trim cap getting brittle and breaking in cold temps, and my daily high here is usually below freezing. Is it a bad idea to attempt an install like this during winter? The customer is really pushing for it.

 

[gnubler]

Yes. Found out the existing faces are going on 20 years old. Nothing lasts forever...I was a lot less dirty & grimy 20 years ago too.

 

[Billct2]

You can install in winter. New trimcap is way more resilient than old letters. Keep the letters in a warm spot till right before you install

 

[Johnny Best]

That made you 5 years old?

 

[gnubler]

You must have been busy licking shopping cart handles and stuff, yes?

 

[gnubler]

One of my suppliers declined to make just the faces with trim cap, saying there's too many complications to replacing just the faces and that the entire sign needs to be refabricated. Is this valid, or did they just have a few nightmare jobs that went awry?

I've had a bad feeling about this one from the start and would rather just pass on it.

 

[Johnny Best]

If you have bad patterns it would have complications. Bent metal and a lot of other Murphy's law things come up. But that is part of learning something new. Or find someone else to do it.
I hope you have two bathrooms where you are, you have a hard time making a decision without consulting someone.

 

[Gino]

Yes and no. Ideally they have a fat wad of cash and don't mind paying for a brand new sign that will work for another 15+ years, but with a physical rubbing, anybody can recut faces and glue trimcap on. They are just big hollow cans with some lights in them, if that supplier can't cut new faces with confidence, then I'd find a different outfit to work with.
This is really easy to do yourself. Once you have a pattern, get a 4'x8' piece of 4" thick styrofoam, sheets of lexan or acrylic, cut the pattern down to fit on your sheet, then start cutting with a jig saw. You will either want to cut on the line if you traced the faces, or outside of the line if you traced the cans. Once you're done, get a roll of trimcap and some CHANNELBOND, not weldon, pin the letter to the table with a few nails, start your trimcap, and place nails every 1-2". You'll need a nipper to cut the edge of the trimcap for inside bends, but that's about it. Once you have all of the perimeter capped, lay down 2 or 3 thin coats of channelbond, letting it dry 15-20 minutes between coats.
Bottom line, a new sign would look better and be 'perfect', but new faces would be cheaper, with no guarantees of a perfect fit. (This is where you hopefully started this venture with "and how much would you like to spend on this project")

No way would I ever do this to someone else's work from 20 years ago. Unless you can take the whole thing down, bring it into your shop, no way in this weather would I ever attempt this. However, at my age, I don't wanna do something like this. I like to be kinda dead on with things and know it going in.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I don't do this kind of work but if I did I would take it down and do it in the shop like Gino said. Rather than a foam pattern and jigsaw, I'd cut it out of particle board, tighten it up then cut it with a router using that as the template.

 

[gnubler]

I hope you have two bathrooms where you are, you have a hard time making a decision without consulting someone.

Only because there are always a number of contrary answers and suggestions offered here. And that's not meant to be an insult, just that as a novice I have to read through it all and decide what the best solution is for my business and ability.

Normally I'd be all over this one as a good learning experience, but I agree with Gino...the weather, getting accurate rubbings, and just my lack of experience makes this sound like a disaster in the making. Finally got a quote from a national supplier, about $1,500 for eighteen 24" characters with trim cap. I'd rather do it myself and watched some videos on installing trim cap, but I don't have the space or time to do that in-house.