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Replacing the letters on the tail panel and Stingray emblems. Having severe drill anxiety. Has anyone done this with good trim tape? If not, does anyone have a really good template for the tail panel letters? I've looked up the placement of the Stingray emblems and it looks pretty straightforward but the tail panel would require 16 holes with very little room for error, so I'm not super excited about drilling.
Even a professional would have some anxiety. But a "transfer" needs to be made first to ensure correct spacing of the lettering. I would start out using foam board for lettering placement. Then onoin paper (yellow drafting paper) to tranfser the holes from the foam board. And then from there some heavy bond cardboard Once that's completed, it gets easier.
Considering you have side pipes, custom wheels, etc... not sure you are going to offend anyone NOT having the letters there. But you could use good 3M autobody emblem tape and letters won't come off.
But OTOH, if you DID use emblem tape, eventually the adhesive 'soaks' into the paint anyway. Even if you removed the letters, say a year later, there'd be 'phantom outlines' where the letters once were. The longer, the more obvious it would be. Kind of like those trucks where they removed the sticker that said, "Billy-Bob's Well Drilling" from the door, but you can still read it...lol. A guy could probably buff the paint out if you removed the letters down the road, but a trained eye would notice it. So in that sense it's kind of a permanent thing one way or the other. But you wouldn't have the holes if you use tape.
If it were my car I would leave them off. No matter how good you trim the tape it will show. No matter how good your template to drill it will only take one OOPS and it’s a mess. Besides, anyone with any intelligence already knows it’s a corvette. A BEAUTIFUL one at that. And when I finally get to the paint and body part of my 78restomod I plan on leaving my lettering off.
I think I would use plexy glass, a strip of it maybe twice the size as the letters are tall... get the letters the way you want them on the glass, then you can tape the glass to the rear of the car and step back to see if you are satisfied. If so then remove the letters and use the existing holes in the glass as your template... Clear as mud, I know but I think it would work, gives you a chance to see how it looks before you drill....
That looks like a real nice paint job, who ever did it knows what they are doing and I'll bet someone with that kind of experience could point you in the right direction for this...
Replacing the letters on the tail panel and Stingray emblems. Having severe drill anxiety. Has anyone done this with good trim tape? If not, does anyone have a really good template for the tail panel letters? I've looked up the placement of the Stingray emblems and it looks pretty straightforward but the tail panel would require 16 holes with very little room for error, so I'm not super excited about drilling.
I would feel the same way. Oooh, that makes me mad that the PO did that. Why would anyone remove those letters - it's not like folks wont know what it is with or without those magical letters.
Have you tried to locate the holes from the backside?
Excellent point, Jim. OP - The holes will show on the backside unless someone sprayed undercoating on the inside, but you will have to remove the fuel tank to see them and drill from the inside out. My '69 is in the paint shop and the fuel tank is removed, and you can see the holes plain as day. It's cavernous up there without the tank.
I don't think you would be able to see them with the tank in place without a bore scope - way too tight up there. If you're serious about drilling, before you do anything, get a bore scope up there and look for yourself. Once you find them, you may want to consider fuel tank removal (and spare tire well) in order to very carefully drill the holes from the inside out, like with the smallest drill bit possible as a pilot, and then you can finish the job from the outside. That way, you aren't guessing.
It won't be easy, but it's the most direct route to drill those holes. At least you would get to retrieve the tank sticker and make a copy of it while you're in there (assuming it hasn't rotted away).
If you want to put the letters back on, your only other option that I can see is to measure very carefully and glue them on, but then they're on for good. No easy removal to clean them and wax the underlying paint unfettered, periodically. You could also try strong double sided tape like you'd find at home depot, but I don't know how well that would work, long term. Just ideas - ultimately, it's your decision, so do your research.
Last edited by Corvette-ZL1; Aug 29, 2023 at 08:40 PM.
I took poster board measured everything out and pushed a pin through the holes. Then pushed a pen through the pin holes to make the holes bigger to the size of the letter holes. Then placed the letters on the poster board to make sure everything fit correctly. Took 4 times to get it right.
Then I put the poster board up and used this pic as a reference for spacing.
After I got the spacing correct I taped the poster board using painters tape. Then I drilled with the smallest bit I had and worked my way up to the correct size so the lettering fits snug.
I had a few letters that needed to be adjusted just a hair up or down, to hold them in place I used a dot of clear silicone as the hole was just a tad bigger.
I took poster board measured everything out and pushed a pin through the holes. Then pushed a pen through the pin holes to make the holes bigger to the size of the letter holes. Then placed the letters on the poster board to make sure everything fit correctly. Took 4 times to get it right.
Then I put the poster board up and used this pic as a reference for spacing.
After I got the spacing correct I taped the poster board using painters tape. Then I drilled with the smallest bit I had and worked my way up to the correct size so the lettering fits snug.
I had a few letters that needed to be adjusted just a hair up or down, to hold them in place I used a dot of clear silicone as the hole was just a tad bigger.
It looks like your car is pretty well stripped, including the underside (spare tire and fuel tank[?]), so why wouldn't you just get up in there, find the original holes (they would be obvious with plastic filler poking out), then drill from the inside using a tiny drill bit, and then finish the job from the outside with progressively larger drill bits until the letters fit snug?
No measuring should have been necessary if just using the original holes, unless you didn't trust how they installed them on the assembly line.
Last edited by Corvette-ZL1; Aug 30, 2023 at 09:37 AM.
It looks like your car is pretty well stripped, including the underside (spare tire and fuel tank[?]), so why wouldn't you just get up in there, find the original holes (they would be obvious with plastic filler poking out), then drill from the inside using a tiny drill bit, and then finish the job from the outside with progressively larger drill bits until the letters fit snug?
No measuring should have been necessary if just using the original holes, unless you didn't trust how they installed them on the assembly line.
Thank you all for the feedback and compliments. I think I may hold off until winter and drop the tank to locate the holes from the inside. For now I’ll focus on replacing the Stingray emblems and the fender grills. Fender emblems should be fairly uncomplicated. The fender openings however are a very contentious subject. My wife loves them as is but they’re the only thing I don’t love about the car. I believe these were made by Eckler’s in the 70s-80s?? I just hope they weren’t painted in place because it could get messy when I try to remove them.
Thank you all for the feedback and compliments. I think I may hold off until winter and drop the tank to locate the holes from the inside. For now I’ll focus on replacing the Stingray emblems and the fender grills. Fender emblems should be fairly uncomplicated. The fender openings however are a very contentious subject. My wife loves them as is but they’re the only thing I don’t love about the car. I believe these were made by Eckler’s in the 70s-80s?? I just hope they weren’t painted in place because it could get messy when I try to remove them.
Hi Dusty. My last post was actually directed toward stingrayiii as to why he went through all the trouble of measuring when it APPEARS his vette is disassembled enough to get back there. But regardless, GLWTP....
To drill or not to drill??
