I've been working on my own and thought I'd share.

I bought a roll of 12in x 10ft white magnetic sheeting for $25 off ebay link

Used a set of print out class/number templates from blue ridge region scca link

The template


The roll


Some tools


Cutting


Numbers


Done


Another use: stickers!


I test painted some of the leftover magnetic material with Krylon Fusion paint and it turned out great. The paint sticks very well to the vinyl, doesn't scratch and dries very quickly. It doesn't require primer and has a semi-glossy shine.

I went out and got a $4 can of black at walmart and sprayed my numbers with 3-4 coats over the course of a couple hours, letting each coat dry for 15min. Unfortunately I have no clean place to paint, so I did it in the grass outside of my place, so some slight particles got deposited in the surface. I pulled them out and resprayed it, and it still turned out well.

Here they are on my fridge


And on the car


The number look gorgeous and the straight lines of the 1 and 7 came out nicely. the S's of the STS were very hard to cut and were rougher, but they are small and still look ok from far away.

I also tried another method, cutting a template out of paper and spray painting the template onto a square piece of magnetic material. This did turn out well at all, as the paper template doesn't stick to the magnetic material properly and doesn't give nice sharp lines for the paint.



If you had a lot of time on your hand, you could do a better job, this is what it might look like


So in total for my good set of of 2 class designations and numbers I used 2ft of magnetic material. I bought a 12ft roll for $25 shipped so, ~$4 for the magnetic material. I used 1/3 of a $4 can of spray paint, ~$2.

so a total of $6 of supplies, not bad for a set of numbers.

I have to give the numbers a test drive to see if they will hold on at 30-60mph for an autox, or faster for a track day. I'm not sure the STS will hold all that well as they have a small magnetic surface, the large numbers hold very tight however.


Modified by xizor at 2:32 PM 6/16/2004

 

I would still tape the leading edge for HPDEs just to be safe.

That looks a lot nicer than my two tone duct and painter's tape numbers.

 

Bravo sir.

If only more people (not those on this board) would take the time to make up some magnettic numbers for autox use. I can't stand the number of cars we get at our events that use paper sheets for numbers.

I know it sounds so obvious but good job picking black numbers for your white car. I can't tell you how many times I have seen silver numbers on white cars or dark blue numbers on a black car.

 

Keith Casey will make you one for 15 bucks.

http://www.rallydecals.com

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xizor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've been working on my own and thought I'd share.

I bought a roll of 12in x 10ft white magnetic sheeting for $25 off ebay </TD></TR></TABLE>

got any leftovers? i can't see myself ever using 10' of the stuff, so i can't rationalize buying a whole roll. we can send the roll all over the country and have it be a magnetic sheeting "group buy"

 

Any tap plastics store sells 24"x(however many feet you want) at ~$5.50 a foot.

Always keep extra handy, you never know when SCCA changes their sticker requirements and suddenly you need new magnets.

 

Nice looking numbers. I recently ordered some blue sheeting from McMaster for about $10, 2'x2'. Drew up some numbers and letters in AutoCAD, plotted them, then cut them out. Used these as a stencil to draw my numbers on the sheeting, then cut those out. I must say, they look pretty dope.

I don't have a picture yet with them on the car, but as soon as I do, I'll post them up.

for the DIY'ers.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bad-monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">got any leftovers? i can't see myself ever using 10' of the stuff, so i can't rationalize buying a whole roll. we can send the roll all over the country and have it be a magnetic sheeting "group buy" </TD></TR></TABLE>

The company I bought it from also sells 2ft sheets link. Which should be enough for a whole set.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xizor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

The company I bought it from also sells 2ft sheets link. Which should be enough for a whole set. </TD></TR></TABLE>

awesome, thanks for the link.

 

Nice job. As mentioned above, you can get them from McMaster in various sizes, thicknesses, and colors, to save the trouble of painting.
http://www.mcmaster.com/
Search on 'magnetic sheet'
Mine have lasted 1.5 seasons so far with no probelms. I've never had one come off in an autox. Extra magnetic material gets used for whatever sponsor logos we have to run. Here is the blue:


DIY

 

I did the same thing.

But after I printed the font I wanted, I trimmed them up, and used a elmers glue stick to stick it to the magnet sheet. After I cut out the numbers and letters (scissors) I just put them in warm water and wash off the paper.

Quick and simple and less likely to cut your fingers with a utility knife

 

FWIW, number "plates" are even easier. Get a few vinyl numbers/letters made and stick everything to a big square of magnetic sheet.

 

Thanks for the Template link. I always tell people to use word or some other means of printing the numbers for templates. After doing the same procedure as you mine turned out very well also.

Another good source for magnetic material is:

http://www.soloperformance.com

 

do the numbers have to be all one color?? i read somewhere that they did. i was thinking about making camo numbers.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by spock_rocker &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">do the numbers have to be all one color?? i read somewhere that they did. i was thinking about making camo numbers. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I believe numbers have to be a solid color and may have a 2nd color as an outline. making camo numbers while cool, untimately makes it harder for scorers to read.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xizor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nice Fridge, looks like mine

 

I was just going to do the magnets this week. Good write up, what i was going to do too.

 

Stencils?! We don't need no stinkin' stencils!!!



I did these freehand (through trial and error). Used the same type of magnetic sheet. The "3" is actually modelled after the "3" from the Porsche 917 "hippie" car. I always liked the look of vintage-style numbers.

 

Just a little tip: If you want custom-colored numbers, use Tamiya synthetic lacquer spray paints - the kind you'd get at a hobby store for painting a plastic model car.



I painted my autox numbers with the stuff (I used Italian Red). As long as you don't lay the paint on uber thick, it'll be flexible enough to bend a bit without cracking. There are tons of colors, too.

 

Just ordered my own magnetic sheets, hopefully they will turn out as well.

 

Also you can use the trim sheets from a company called MonoCoat. They are like 3 feet long and 6 inches wide, in a few colors.

 

Funny how people think and act alike.
I got
When you run at night is better to have "neon" colors!!!

This is what I buy from Lowe's. Just $4 for 2 sheets, and you buy as needed