Easy Autocross Numbers

[wret]

Make Great Looking Vinyl Numbers and Letters Quickly and Easily

It was pouring cats and dogs this weekend and I was sure that the autocross event scheduled for Saturday would be cancelled. Nevertheless, I made some great looking numbers and got soaked applying them. The event proceeded as scheduled. No one was impressed with my driving but I’m sure my professional looking numbers made an impression. Much better than the blue masking tape you see everywhere and they stay on in the rain!

Tools
Computer with image program (I will refer to “paint”) and word processor (I will refer to “word”).
Ink Jet Printer
X-acto Knife
Scissors

Materials
Contact Paper (Vinyl)
Cutting Board (Scrap piece of luan or paneling works well

Procedure

1. Type your letters and numbers in any font that you like. You can type directly into ms Paint. I like to use ms word because it has an “outline” text formatting feature that shows just the borders of the letters. Size the numbers and letter as large as you can and still fit it on the screen.

2. If you used word you will need to capture the screen image (shift-print screen) and paste it into the image program. Reduce the edges of the image so there is zero excess around the numbers.

3. Use the image “flip” command to make a mirror image of the numbers. Copy the flipped image (control-A, then control-C) and paste it back into word.

4. Set all the document borders to 0.25 inches and select a custom paper size of 8.5 x 18, landscape.

5. Stretch out the image to fill the height of the paper available. This will make your numbers about eight inches high. You can set the paper size slightly longer or shorter if needed.

6. Unroll about three feet of contact paper and cut a strip 8.5 inches wide. Cut two pieces 18 inches long, or the length of your paper size settings in word. Save the scrap.

7. Load a sheet into your printer paper side up and print. Repeat for the second sheet.

8. Cut out the numbers with the X-Acto knife. It helps to leave some tiny connections along the long lines so the letters do not completely fall out. Be sure to completely cut the inside corners.

9. Flip the sheet and stick a couple strips of the scrap material the length of the sheet (vinyl side). Don’t use tape. The adhesive is too aggressive.

10. Flip the sheet back to the paper side and peal the paper from all the numbers, leaving the actual vinyl numbers in place.

11. Hold the sheet up to your door panel and press into place, and then peal off the excess material leaving just the letters.

There. Now the course crew will not have any difficulty identifying you as you trash those cones and run off course.


Ron Tew