Bill Wright's new ambulance lettering...

All hand painted and looks great!

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Lower case "u"

Todd: I noticed the same thing, but didn't want to "nit-pick" an otherwise beautiful period correct job. In the old days (before vinyl lettering, computerized graphics and cutters)..... most of the real sign painters back then "free hand" pre-marked the outside edge of the lettering and the archs with chalk, had wooden stick about 18 to 24" long with a ball on one end to steady their brush hand and make the archs. Most of them also had a few drinks before and after to steady their body shaking too! We still have a hand sign painter in our small town here who is about 70, and you still see them on movie sets too from time to time. MM
 
In the first Fire Dept. I worked for in my small hometown we had a local sign painter that used to letter our fire trucks and apparatus by hand. He too would have several beers to steady his hand. He did great work and it added character. It is subtle things like the "u" that make Bill's car look nice.
 
When I was in college, I was watching a sign painter work, and something looked very wrong. I just couldn't put my thoughts on what it was. This fellow was extremely large, about 6'6" or more, and every bit of 250 pounds. When he was finished, he asked me how long I had been observing him. I said about 30 minutes. He then asked me if I noticed anything strange about the way that he painted. I told him that something just didn't seem right, but he was a big guy with very large hands. That was when he held up one hand, and with the other, started to count off on his fingers. Each hand had 6 fingers on it. His hands looked perfectly normal in the finger spacing. He said that he was born that way, and his parents wouldn't allow the doctors to remove the 6 finger. He also commented that it was a good thing, since it would have made his hands grotesque with a space between fingers. He was truly a gentle giant, and a great sign painter.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TnH8NQxu_A[/ame]
 
Very nice sign job. There is a man I think his name is Jim Sturdivant ? in Dalton Pa. Does Hand painted signs and also gold leaf. My fathers door shild on his early 90's caprice Police car was ahnd painted by him. I got to watch him Hand Gold leaf a new Ambulance about 6 years ago... simply amazing.
 
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