Painting raised letters on cars

That always works well.

    I used to dry brush with a 000 brush that you could hardly see on a good day and specifically used TESTORS chrome Silver.

    For many years I didn't know about clear coat and so I have had to do touch-ups over the years, Yes , using that same brush ! You take care of your tools, they'll take care of you!

I use silver paint with a toothpick. Not fancy, but it works fine and is very easy to control.

Hi ;

Car modelers also do this .

  Put Foil Chrome on the letters, trim  as close as you can , Before , you paint the car . Then when the paint is dry , use a toothpick soaked in thinner ( not dripping ) and rub gently over those pesky letters .They will pop and look great .

  Then clear-coat the body . Polish and Viola ! one fine looking set of wheels .  Good Luck      Tanker - Builder

If you use this technique, don't forget to paint your base color early in your build!  

Otherwise, I'm finding wooden toothpicks sharpened to various points and blunted in various ways can be useful.  It's still a lot of fine detail work under the magnifier, though, but when you get a clean finish, it's nice.

Gene Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

TarnShip

you can do it with sandpaper, also

spray paint the area with the color you want to show raised in color, a silver Ford lettering on a blue cover, for example

after your overall silver dries,,,,,,spray the valve cover with Blue

after that dries, gently wet sand the raised letters, removing the Blue and popping the silver up through,,,,,,then seal the whole thing with a clear

Rex

I have used this technique, but used a fresh pencil with eraser rather than sandpaper.  I find it easier to use without rubbing against adjacent paint.

you can do it with sandpaper, also

as a test, get a spare valve cover or something with raised lettering

spray paint the area with the color you want to show raised in color, a silver Ford lettering on a blue cover, for example

after your overall silver dries,,,,,,spray the valve cover with Blue

after that dries, gently wet sand the raised letters, removing the Blue and popping the silver up through,,,,,,then seal the whole thing with a clear

This works so well, that I used to use in on real life car parts,,,,,,,and even 1/72 PSP plates can be "steel and mud" painted with this method

Rex

You might try this question in the Auto forum, but I do like you do (marker) and then seal. I have also done it with bare metal foil, but it takes a lot of trimming with a good #11 blade.

i have not built a car in a few yrs  but i used to  a point of a sewing needle