Aging Signs

So we decided to do this video for two reasons:

There’s obviously some folks out there that would love to have some signs distressed and rusted to make it look like it is an original piece of equipment.

We also want you to be very aware of what’s being sold out there. So we don’t want you to accidentally buy one of these reproduction signs and think it’s original.

We just saw one go on eBay the other day for 10 times what they’re being sold for as reproductions, but it was said to be an original sign. It wasn’t.

So what we’re going to do is I’m going to show you guys some of the tools that you can use to distress these signs. The best tool that you can get is a Dremel tool. If you have one of these, it’s going to be the easiest tool that you use to make these things distressed. Some of the attachments that you can use are:

This is an 80 grit sandpaper. It’s kind of a little fan type sandpaper.

They have these stone type attachments.

This is another stone attachment. This works really well getting into those holes.

So if you’re going to distress these signs, the first thing you want to do is get in and get the enamel or the porcelain out of these holes. That’s where they were going to rust back in the day because these were screwed to the front of a gas pump. And so that would always crack the porcelain and that’s where they would start rusting.

Another really good attachment is this little file. And that’s what I would use if you have one inside these holes. And the other one is this little wire wheel. These wire wheels will take some of this enamel off and it will also soften it a little bit. So it won’t look like sharp jagged edges.

Some other things that you could use:

I would use like an awl or a punch.

A flathead screwdriver is going to work really well to help chip some of that paint off.

You can get, if you want to do a lot of rust or a lot of chip, you can use a set of pliers. You can bend it a little bit, crack it.

You can also use a hammer or some bigger type tools, which we’ll go outside and show you how to use some of those as well.

Now the first thing you’re going to see is in all of our reproductions, just like the originals, we have rivets in these because this is how they were originally manufactured. Now over time, the originals from the 20s and 30s, those rivets usually didn’t make it. They would rust out. They would get smashed as they would put screws in them and so forth. So you’re probably going to want to take these out or we can really distress them as well with some vinegar, which we will show you later.

But the big thing before you take this out, you might want to hit them with a hammer. It’s going to give a real nice cracking effect. It’s also going to chip off some of the paint. Then when you’re ready to take them out, you can just take a drill bit and you can drill them out real easy.

Now the first thing that I would suggest doing is if you haven’t done any of this distressing type work before, I would start and practice on the back because most likely this back is going to be up against a wall or something like that. And this is the same enamel on the back that’s on the front. Now there are a couple more layers on the front, but it’s not going to make that big of a difference.

We’re going to switch this bit out for a sandpaper bit. Now these are real aggressive, so you want to be very ginger with it. But when you’re working around these rivet holes, just lightly start kind of stroking at it. Don’t push it down real hard or it’ll start biting right through the sign.

Now the next thing I’m going to do is I’m going to take my awl and I’m going to push a couple of littlebumps in these signs just so I can chip out a little bit of the enamel so we can get something more than just around the rivet holes for rust. Now as soon as you get down and you see a little bit of metal, get you a flathead screwdriver and you can just start chipping away at this. Now when you do those, it’s going to leave a real rough edge. So what you want to do is take and switch your attachments to this wire attachment. And the wire attachment is going to smooth that out a little bit so it looks like it’s been slowly wearing away over time. And it’s going to give you a much better effect in the end.

We’re going to take this sign outside and we’re going to do a couple more things to it. One thing that you can do is take like on a piece of concrete, put a couple pieces of gravel on there, lay it face down and step on it. And you can – don’t try and push because it will give you scrape marks all the way across it. But if you push down on it with your foot, put some weight on it, just kind of twist that pressure back and forth, it will work in some real nice rock chips into this.

A few other things we’re going to do is:

We’re going to hit these rivets with a hammer and show you what that chipping effect will do.

And then we’ll drill it out.

The last thing I’m going to show you is this is a different style of reproduction sign. These types of signs are more authentic type porcelain sign. So these are actually going to chip just like an original porcelain sign will. And this is something where you can see I’ve started a little bit. But if you grab a pair of pliers, you can actually hear this cracking as the paint will start chipping off.

A couple of other things you might want to try and do is: You can take an awl. You can take a razor blade and just put a couple of little dings in these.

So when we put that rusting agent on there, it will bubble that paint up just a little bit and make it look a lot more authentic. So when you do it, just put the edge in and push it just a tiny little bit.

Now that your sign’s been distressed, it’s time to start the rusting process. A couple of things that you’re going to need:

You’re going to need some salt. Peroxide. And some vinegar. And you’re also going to want just an old plastic tub to set these in to start the rusting process.

So first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to get our tub and we’re going to put our signs inside of it. So put your signs in here. The next thing you’re going to want to do is get some of your vinegar and pour it over the signs. Just make sure that you get them covered a little bit. After this has soaked a minimum of 10 minutes, and you can let it soak for an hour or two hours, it doesn’t really matter, but let it soak for at least 10 minutes. Once you’ve done that, drain off a lot of this vinegar. And the next thing you’re going to want to do is take your hydrogen peroxide and you’re going to want to pour it on top of this metal as well. Go ahead and swirl it around a little bit. Make sure everything gets good and coated. And then you’re going to want to let it sit and soak for about another 10 minutes.

Then take your salt and put a good coat of salt right on top of all the spots on the sign that you’re going to have rusted. When you put your signs inside the solution, don’t be afraid to pour a lot of salt directly on that raw metal. That’s what’s really going to give you the rust effect. So we let these soak overnight about 12 hours. I would probably do it 24 hours, maybe even more. When you’re done, swish the solution around a little bit before pulling the sign out. It’ll help get a lot of that heavy stuff off. And then go ahead and rinse it with some warm water. You don’t want to take a towel or anything and wipe it because this rust is still pretty soft and you will wipe a lot of the rust off. And then just let it air dry.

So as you can tell, these signs, they really turned out good. They look original. They look like they were hanging on a gas pump probably 60 or 70 years ago, which is why we wanted to show you this video because we see so many of these signs that are showing up on eBay that are being sold as original signs and they’re not. So we just want you to be real cautious out there. And if you’re looking for that antique look, it’s really easy to do it yourself.

As always, if you have any questions, give us a call at 402-592-1710.You can send us an email to diane at gaspumpheaven.com. And make sure you like us on Facebook and check out our YouTube channel. Thanks again.And make sure you like us on Facebook and check out our YouTube channel.

Thanks again for watching.