Topic: Glass etching stencils.

[69bossnut]

Anybody know where I can get the correct Carlite stencils for a 69 Mustang glass. I know I can send it to somebody & have it done. But really don’t want to ship all the glass & risk getting damaged. I know I read a post somewhere in the past that a member of one of the sites made some. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[midlife]

Here's a link for etching headlight glass (not quite what you want, but useful nevertheless):  http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=4960.0
And here's one for windshields:  http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=1651.msg8447#msg8447

[Bossbill]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KiWnCoqu4G1fz1ej7

You could do the windows with a spot media blaster.
Email me and we can discuss how to create your own masks onsite. I assume you want to do "a few", so with a little additional equipment you can make your own on demand.

[J_Speegle]

One of the challenges for doing window glass is that there are multiple dates if your going to do an volume rather than just one car.

Haven't looked but one would think that someone was still making the stamps (for use with putty) since they were selling DYI kits back 4 or more decades ago. But then again we have less and less owners doing their own work on cars

[69bossnut]

Yes sir they are original glass that I had polished & removed the date codes on a couple of them due to scratches close to date codes. Wouldn’t mind buying whatever equipment I needed (already have a spot blaster) to do this as I have several original glasses to do & always note the dates so I can re-use them as correct for he car I’m doing. Not looking to do it commercially just to do the ones I have. But would be willing to share anything I learned from doing them with others.
Boss I’ll I will shoot you an email.

[RocketScientist]

I recently got mine done and the trick with sand etching is that you have to use a special adhesive template to get a nice clear pattern. I created the artwork myself from examples of Carlite logos I found on the web and modified it to give me the date codes I wanted. It isn't hard but just time consuming (like most things). Then I tracked down a local that specializes in art-glass/ sand engraving/crafty stuff and they had the special printer to make the templates and they were able to do the engraving as well. Unfortunately I live in Australia, so I am not of immediate use but the result is well worth the effort.
Brad

[jwc66k]

There is another method of "etching", acid etching. I tried taking a picture of a glass my neighbor acid etched for me but the curved glass and reflected light didn't photograph well. I'll try later with the high dollar camera.
Jim

[CharlesTurner]

I bought stencils from a guy in Washington state a few years back.  He had some made for his car and was able to hook me up. 

I used etching cream, which can be bought at any craft store.  Came out nice.

[Bossbill]

I believe RocketScientist used what I used for my headlights. It's a chemical emulsion type of media.
A positive is created digitally.  A laser printer prints the image onto plastic film. The plastic positive is used on top of the special emulsion media and a UV light is shown through the positive.
This is almost exactly like how an image is placed onto silk screen (T-shirts).

The vendor I used to have an emulsion media that was open and could be used with acid. Lack of sales meant he only carries the closed carrier that can only be used with sand blast. It might be available through other vendors.

An interesting DIY method I've seen lately is rubber stamp ink embossing. A special sticky ink is applied to a stamp. The item is stamped. A fine plastic media is sprinkled on and a specialty, small, direct heat gun is used to melt the plastic embossing to the surface. You've seen business cars use this method.
Now, instead of a stamp of the image, you do the reverse image. It would be like taking the GT350 letters out of your vinyl stripe so the car color shows through.
Dam off any other areas and apply your etch. When done remove the etch and scrape off the plastic.
It's a very cheap system.
I have not tried this.