Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Phillips 66 sign fix

I'm new to the site, I've looked around and found all kinds of opinions about restoration and touch ups. What about REPAIRS? I traded around and picked up this Phillips 66 sign. It's an original made by Veribrite Chigago. It's rougher than a nite in the county lock up. My plan is to repair the top corner, and leave the rest alone. Would this help the value, or hurt it?

Welcome to the OG group. Although things are only original once, IMO the sign in the current condition has minimal value because of the scope of the damage. If your display of signs included overlapping corners or edges of other signs, then this sign becomes much more presentable. However if you wanted to experiment with repairing it, the experience may be enjoyable. I don't believe the sign value varies significantly either way. Many of the OG members still have their first signs and first pumps regardless of condition or rarity. Enjoy the hunt.

Welcome to Oldgas, should you decide to repair please post your process. We always find these interesting.

I will definitely be repairing it. Where would I post my "repair thread" at?

Your repair story and pictures would be great right here in General Petroliana Discussion, but you could also put it in Showcase & Stories. Your choice. We'd love to see the process.

Keep in mind that any welding on the sign will cause localized heat and cause the surrounding porcelain to chip off the base metal.

And it may warp the sign itself.

Later . . .

Jim

Thank you, I plan on welding a corner back on. I'm gonna try to spot fill with my wire welder and butt weld clamps, while cooling it with a wet rag. Somewhere I read that porcelain is cured at around 400 F. The porcelain should stand the heat.....I hope.

It's not the heat so much.

It's the difference in expansion rates between the steel and the porcelain.

The steel will expand quicker than the porcelain.

Causing the porcelain to fly off the steel.

Later . . .

Jim

BTW , porcelain fires at 1,450 degrees.

In the words of Lloyd Christmas, " Man, I was way off!!!!"

So.. I started on my sign project the other day. I don't want to restore it, just make it presentable. This is my process, it's probably different from everyone else's.

Pic 1. I cleaned the torch slag off with a hand held grinder.

Pic 2. I found a piece of sheetmetal and trimmed it to fit by tracing the top crown and then I lined it up on the torched side and traced along the torch cut.

Pic 3. I welded it in and ground my welds smooth, I kept the heat low and used a wet rag to cool it, so as not to ruin the porcelain.

Pic 4. A little body work goes a long way. Primed and ready for paint.

Wow! Very good. You have talent! I look forward to seeing the final product.

Now that the metal work was over, it was time for masking and paint. I had some orange and black rattle cans in the paint cabinet , so I decided to use them. The shades didn't match, but at least it is the right colors. I traced the letters on wax paper from the good side of the sign. I then layered masking tape on the wax paper and cut the letters out by flipping the paper over and following the lines with my scissors. This made it really easy when it came masking the letters off. One layer of orange paint covered by a layer of black and this is what we have.

I plan on sanding the black with 1500-2000 grit to dull the gloss a bit

xlnt work, looking good .. ...

nice job