TacomaNut.com

Chrome Emblem Letters

I wanted to find a creative way to lead people to this Web Site without an unsightly sign on my truck. There was plenty of room because I had already removed all of the Toyota and Tacoma emblems on the truck. To do that, I used a hairdryer to weaken the adhesive and fishing line to saw the emblems off without breaking them. For the new emblem, I placed an order with an eBay Seller for Chrome Emblem Letters.

The Seller offers each letter separately. I had to order the number of letters I wanted, them include in my payment the request for which letters (or symbols) I wanted. For "TACOMANUT.COM" it cost me $25.75 including shipping.

I did not realize that the Seller was based in Canada, so the time to receive the letters in the mail took longer than I expected, but they all arrived in great shape and intact. My problem now was how I was going to carefully mount them so they looked as good as they should on the truck.

I wasn't sure how this would all end up, but I decided I needed to produce a template. I found a font on my computer that looked close to the one that would end up on the truck. I then printed it several times at incremental font sizes until the length of key letters matched the length of the actual Chrome Emblem Letters.

The letters were too large to print all the way across on one page. To solve that problem, I created two lines and duplicated a couple of letters on a third line to tie the two lines together perfectly. When taped together, I had a template for letter spacing as shown in the images below.

To prep the area, I sponged the tailgate with hot water and Cascade dish washing gel. I find that the mix helps to create a streak free surface. I dried the area with an old wash towel.

I next needed to be concerned about making certain that all the letters were positioned on a baseline. To do that, I made two small pencil marks on the tailgate where I wanted the baseline to go. Part of my decision was based on a very small scratch that I wanted to cover with one of the letters. I then bridged the two pencil marks with painter's tape and check my work by making sure the painter's tape was an equal distance from the bottom edge of the tailgate all the way across.

I placed the letters last-to-first to make sure that the last letter was where I wanted it to be. I then taped the template above the last letter. The template not only helped me make sure that I spaced the letters properly, but it also helped me make sure I did not accidentally position any one of the letters in the wrong place.

I took my time with each letter. I quickly found that the adhesive took hold of the tailgate with a death grip so I had to be very careful not to place a letter incorrectly. There were no second chances. Letters such as "A", "M, "N" and "T" were relatively easy because I could line them up directly along the baseline. However, letters like "C", "O" and "U" were much more difficult since there is no flat bottom to the letter to match to the baseline.

When all the letters were in place as in the above image, I finally removed the template and the painter's tape which resulted in the professional look shown below.

Even my son said I did a great job and that it looked "cool". Coming from him, I consider that to be the ultimate compliment.

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