Lowrider Plaques...

[JohnnySomersett]

I love 'em... in my eyes, a perfect finishing touch to a well crafted lowrider. But, how are they made? Are they cast then chromed? Laser cut? And what'd be a good, non-exorbatant way of making something similar??


(PS: feel free to post pics of good ones)

[rysz]

I Have no idea how that one is made, but depending on the thickness of the metal, you could get them photo-etched or laser cut for not horrendous prices especially as you CAD it up first.

Be aware though that it it trickier to get differences in profile (Up and down bits) with these methods and for that either casting or machining! If you made it up in wood initially, I am sure that there was someone who was doing alu casting on here in the "Other Mods" section...

Rysz.

[Mystery Machine]

Draw design on a flattened out Corn Flake packet then cut the shape out carefully (make sure parents supervise you using the scissors)

Now scrunch up some of this and place over your design:


Finally draw around the edges with a gold/bronze one of these:


Stand back and admire....... ;D












Sorry Dude, I don't actually know!!

[MWF]

I believe the whole point of these plaques is they are highly skilled to craft and thus expensive.

As mentioned you could get two sheets laser cut, coated and overlay one over the other to build up the border profile.

[akku]

and usually remain the property of the club not the guy who's car they are on

[Mystery Machine]

Actually Johnny - I do have a plan for one of these which won't cost you any vital organs. I could design it in CAD and know of someone who might be able to make it for you.....

.....you'd then be left to finish it off.

Sound like a plan? Give me a call and I can give you more details.

[JohnnySomersett]

Yeah, I'm aware they're 'earnt' by whoever owns the car... and can lose it due to 'dizrespectz' etc. Fortunately, I don't live in Compton and don't have to worry about silly things like taking a 'cap' or two for my 'dizrespectz'

Bruce, though I'm extremely tempted by the Blue Peter technique you suggested... I am more inclined towards a non-wibblepoo approach heheh. I have a high-res design done (though not in CAD). I'll give youa buzz after work. A clue though would be good

[jettadeluxe]

Oct 21, 2009 11:22:19 GMT JohnnySomersett said:

I love 'em... in my eyes, a perfect finishing touch to a well crafted lowrider. But, how are they made? Are they cast then chromed? Laser cut? And what'd be a good, non-exorbatant way of making something similar??


(PS: feel free to post pics of good ones)

Some are cast, some are lasered sheet.

I still have mine from my Unity days.

I keep it around as a pleasant reminder of my bouncy Granada.

It's a single piece of lasered mild steel, about 5mm thick, which is then chrome plated.

I think we had a bunch done at once, and the cost was around £40 each?!

[waveman1500]

When you said plaques, I was thinking more of the hot-rod club plaques, like these:



Those types of plaques are obviously cast in aluminium, then painted and then have the paint sanded/machined off the front face. I made one at a TAFE college once just to learn how to cast.

The type that you're displaying there looks considerably too detailed to be sand-cast, and most other casting methods would be too expensive for a one-off. As long as you can cut it out of flat plate though, the world is your CNC'd oyster! You would want to draw up the profile in some kind of CAD package to create an 'iges' file, and preferably do the tool path yourself as well, or get it done at mates rates. There would be quite a bit of CNC machine time involved if you wanted to make it too fancy, so unless you're getting it done as a favour it could get pretty expensive. The engraving would probably be cheaper to get done by hand, rather than CNC, as the time required to make a tool path for it would be intense, and even machining it would take hours. Everything is possible though. Assuming you didn't want the engraving done, any CNC water-jet, laser cutter or conventional CNC mill will do the job.

[jettadeluxe]

Oct 21, 2009 11:41:25 GMT Mystery Machine said:

Actually Johnny - I do have a plan for one of these which won't cost you any vital organs. I could design it in CAD and know of someone who might be able to make it for you.....

.....you'd then be left to finish it off.

Sound like a plan? Give me a call and I can give you more details.

I have several suppliers with laser machines, so providing the CAD work is done before hand, the actual plaque cost would be pretty small.

[waveman1500]

On a related note, I've just done a bit of a search for these after only just finding out about them. All I can say is, dear Lord the combination of gansta' speech and forum shorthand produces a terrible form of written English!! ;D ;D ;D

[Rich606]

Oct 21, 2009 11:55:58 GMT JohnnySomersett said:

Fortunately, I don't live in Compton and don't have to worry about silly things like taking a 'cap' or two for my 'dizrespectz'

Please drive to the village of Compton, just off the Hogsback, so we can have a photo of your car heading straight outta Compton ;D

[JohnnySomersett]

TBH, out of sheet stainless would suffice... then I could polish it all up nice & shiny.

The design is pretty simple too... a variation of this...

[Mystery Machine]

Johhny,

Give good ol' MM a call later and I'll give you some even more good news

Dan - might give you a bell re: laser cutting - the company I used to use have down right downhill so a new contact might be useful

[jettadeluxe]

Oct 21, 2009 13:19:24 GMT JohnnySomersett said:

TBH, out of sheet stainless would suffice... then I could polish it all up nice & shiny.

The design is pretty simple too... a variation of this...

You're right, stainless would negate the requirement for chroming, but if the fabricator doesn't have 3mm stainless in stock - and it's doubtful they would - they'd have to buy an entire sheet, probably a good couple of hundred quid.

Therefore you'd have to look at a job lot for the economy of scale to work.

[HoTWire]

Oct 21, 2009 13:45:57 GMT Mystery Machine said:

Give good ol' MM a call later and I'll give you some even more good news

You sound like Team Blitz...



JS : looks to be an interesting idea, club stand at RR:G next year??

[bigkris]

This is a Very Very interesting thread. Me and some of my mates are going to start a VW car lub and i want to have a plaque instead of a normal badge for my jetta. If any body is a whiz on the computer i don't suppose they could whip me up one pretty please? If not its no biggie.

I want it similar to the unity one:


And the name of my club is Outhaus Kustoms (outhouse customs) and on the right i want a sihouette of an outhouse too bit like this:


if someone could have put a mock up together id be very greatfull as i cant draw vey well and my mock ups look rubbish lol. i was going to get a CAD done then laser cut and gold plated. Love lowriders and cant afford one so a lowrider style plaque in my car is the closest ill ever get lol.

[jettadeluxe]

Oct 21, 2009 14:03:51 GMT bigkris said:

This is a Very Very interesting thread. Me and some of my mates are going to start a VW car lub and I want to have a plaque instead of a normal badge for my jetta. If any body is a whiz on the computer I don't suppose they could whip me up one pretty please? If not its no biggie.

I want it similar to the unity one:


And the name of my club is Outhaus Kustoms (outhouse customs) and on the right I want a sihouette of an outhouse too bit like this:


if someone could have put a mock up together id be very greatfull as I cant draw vey well and my mock ups look rubbish lol. I was going to get a CAD done then laser cut and gold plated. Love lowriders and cant afford one so a lowrider style plaque in my car is the closest ill ever get lol.

Don't make it too similar!

IIRC, the was a German chap who took the design, lopped off the 'Unity' bit, and started selling them on eBay!

A few threatening e-mails involving the word 'lawsuit' soon put paid to that!

[bigkris]

Oct 21, 2009 14:12:07 GMT @jettadeluxe said:

Oct 21, 2009 14:03:51 GMT bigkris said:

This is a Very Very interesting thread. Me and some of my mates are going to start a VW car lub and I want to have a plaque instead of a normal badge for my jetta. If any body is a whiz on the computer I don't suppose they could whip me up one pretty please? If not its no biggie.

I want it similar to the unity one:


And the name of my club is Outhaus Kustoms (outhouse customs) and on the right I want a sihouette of an outhouse too bit like this:


if someone could have put a mock up together id be very greatfull as I cant draw vey well and my mock ups look rubbish lol. I was going to get a CAD done then laser cut and gold plated. Love lowriders and cant afford one so a lowrider style plaque in my car is the closest ill ever get lol.

Don't make it too similar!

IIRC, the was a German chap who took the design, lopped off the 'Unity' bit, and started selling them on eBay!

A few threatening e-mails involving the word 'lawsuit' soon put paid to that!

Its only the shape i like anyway so i shouldnt think their would be an issue as its completely different name and look. But ill take that into consideration. I dare say it will look completely different. As for font maybe something that looks rather German like? lol

[JohnnySomersett]

MM, ill give you a buzz around 6ish

Oct 21, 2009 13:58:25 GMT HoTWire said:

JS : looks to be an interesting idea, club stand at RR:G next year??

Maybe I have the URL etc on hold waiting for whatever comes of it. I was thinking of an invite-only club, founded by a few people, to 'reprezent' low retro j-tin.