Typo sandblasted sign - remove and replace wood with clay?

[JustinMcDowell]

Ok - I didn't want to admit this - but we goofed! There is a typo on a sandblasted wood sign. The sign has one letter that needs to be changed on a cedar wood blasted sign. Now - I am hoping that someone on here has had this experience and can lend some friendly advice. I was thinking of using sculpting 2 part epoxy clay to press into a mold of the letter that I engrave out of acrylic then pull it out of the mold and place it onto the wood sign with some studs - or use acrylic and laser out the letter I need and build up the sides with the modeling clay so it looks like wood and add the texture and paint over the entire thing. Ideas?

 

[fresh]

could you blast off the letter that is there, make the replacement letter out of the same wood but cut-out, and then stud mount it to the sign face?

IDK, we've never encountered this problem.

 

[synergy_jim]

i would grind the incorrect letter off. Epoxy a coupe studs into the wood. Use epoxy clay to mold new letter over studs.

 

[Gino]

We've never encountered this kinda problem either, but we have had customers come back and wanna make changes to existing signs because of change off address or lose a partner or whatever. It's an expensive sign, so they want to salvage it.

There's no way to blast the old letter out, as you'll just blast the background further in, making it more obvious. Trying to d!ck around with clay, bondo or some other treatment will still look like you goofed and just tried unsuccessfully to cover it up. If you can't afford to do it right and do it over..... the best way to make a mistake.... any mistake, look like it wasn't a mistake is to make it look like it was done on purpose. If you could possibly post another picture of the entire sign, I'll go into it further for you.

 

[Billct2]

When I worked at a shop that did a lot of sandblasted redwood we fixed a few by cutting a patch, blasting it, then dutchman it into place and touch up with chisel/file to hide it.

 

[brian oliver]

I've had to fix a typo on a sandblasted redwood sign before. I carefully matched the strokes of the correct letter with the wrong one and chiseled out the parts that didn't match up. Then sunk some trim nails into the panel and used these to anchor the new letter strokes which I fabricated from bondo. Came out pretty good if I do say so myself. It was a lot of work but was more cost effective than making a whole new sign. Since redwood has a more pronounced grain texture the correction was easier to hide than what I'm seeing in your photo. And without knowing the exact nature of the typo it's tough to give advice.
Sometimes kerning, letterstyle and available space can make this method unworkable. Good luck.