Repainting a Sand Blasted Sign

 In my years of sign painting I've learned that business owners often develop a relationship with their sign. Running a business can be tough and the ups and downs take them on an emotional roller coaster. Often they think of their sign as an old friend and reliable employee, who's been with them since the beginning. Customers form emotional bonds with signs as well; how many times have you seen a familiar sign and felt transported back to all the memories of times spent patronizing that particular business? Because of this, businesses in need of a new sign are often reluctant to replace the one they already have, even though it may be faded, chipping away, and damaged. Any sign that sees constant exposure will sustain a lot of wear and I recommend a repaint a minimum of every ten years.

Once you start thinking about repaint opportunities, you will begin to see them everywhere. Offering a repaint is a good way to introduce yourself to a customer and has a higher conversion rate than selling a brand new sign. Once they have your number they'll call you for more. And for sign painters just starting out, it's a great way to gain sales experience and learn some different techniques. Most experienced tradespeople probably take the repaint process for granted as it is relatively straightforward, but I'd like to run through it and share some techniques that will increase speed, and therefore make you mo' money!

The project was to repaint a sandblasted high density urethane (HDU) foam sign. Graffiti aside, it had taken a beating and was losing paint chips - a repaint was overdue. Sandblasted signs become high rise condos for spiders so the first step is to use a stiff bristle cleaning brush to remove the dust and debris from all the crevices and faces. Then, sand the face of all the letters with medium grit sand paper (100-200 grit) to remove loose paint and roughness. 

Next it's time to coat the entire board with background latex paint. First, mask off anything adjacent to the sign so you can work fast and not worry about stray paint getting anywhere you don't want it. Then, thoroughly coat the entire sign with your choice of background paint. I use exterior water based paint through a Graco airless electric hand sprayer but you can do it almost as fast with a decent three-inch cutter brush (see Wooster, Purdy, etc). Don't worry about avoiding the face of the letters, you just want everything to have an even coat.  

The next step is to put a coat of oil-based enamel on the letters. This sign has a medium-dark background so I used 1 Shot Chromatic Fast-dry block out enamel, which only comes in white. Using a 3-inch cotton roller for smooth surfaces, carefully coat the letters with vertical strokes and then diagonal strokes. It's okay if the coat seems transparent. Once all the raised areas have a first coat go back to where you began and immediately start applying a second coat the same way. If you see the first coat lifting off it's too tacky, wait fifteen minutes then try applying the second coat again. Go slow, you will probably hit the background accidentally with the roller once or twice but just keep going, you will clean that up at the end. I also needed a 1/4" fitch to paint white in gaps where the foam had broken away.

The fast dry chromatic only needs 1-2 hours to dry, so that gives you time to paint the border using a slightly darker shade of water based latex than the background. Use a decent two inch cutter and give it two coats; make sure you jam the loaded brush into any dents and chips in the substrate. You want to seal it really well.

Lettering and outlining is done with 1 Shot enamel and a fitch. Since we primed all the raised surfaces with white block out enamel the colors will go on smooth and appear very vibrant. A single coat was sufficient for the lemon yellow and fire red I used. Once that's done, return to the background: using a rag with a little bit of mineral spirits, wipe away stray block out enamel and then with your 2" cutter touch those up and wherever else needs it. Give the whole sign a thorough inspection because once you walk away it probably won't be touched for another 10 years. I'm going to come back and apply some vinyl decals to the round panels at the bottom but the repaint process is complete. Remove all the masking material and clean up.

If you're a beginner some of these tools may not be in your repertoire but if you want to be able to tackle any job with the ease and speed of a traveling snapper then a gallon of block out enamel and an airless hand sprayer are a worthy investment. You'll sell repaint jobs when walk-ins are slow and you'll surely find other uses that will speed your process when working on-site. I like to think of repaint jobs as giving you good sign karma - that one day someone will repaint one of your original signs and extend its life for the good of its owners and their customers.

  

Augie’s List: BxR - Sadie ‘23

 ‘Clout circus’ is a term I heard for the first time this week, written by Urbyn of Hot Fire on a post related to the clothing/designer convention Complex Con. From a certain perspective, LA social society could be seen as one clout circus event after another. The idea of going out with the intention of meeting and networking with popular, powerful or otherwise visually stimulating individuals has long been associated with Los Angeles and often contributes to a negative stigma, i.e. “LA people are all fake.” Like all stereotypes, arguments can be made that this is true however the annual Born x Raised winter formal does not offer those much support. 

You have to be invited to attend the event - wristbands are required and good luck getting one if you don’t know anyone who’s been before. I was invited by my friend, a photographer and model who has worked with the brand and is personal friends with one of the founders. I did not receive a wristband so I showed up with mixed expectations; either I would be turned away or, if the universe favored, I’d glide past the security checkpoints with a smile and a nod. The latter is what happened. Once inside we felt comfortable and happy. My friends joined a line for drinks while I opted to check out the queue for the infamous photo booth. It wrapped around the floor of the Palladium ballroom and led to the stage, the same stage the Rolling Stones caused a riot from in ‘72. There was an altar with an airbrushed backdrop of clouds in a blue sky, faux marble pedestals topped with bouquets of red roses, framed by a twisting archway of black and white balloons. Everyone in line waited patiently for their moment to vogue for the professional photographer and this continued the entire evening. 

I saw a lot of friends throughout the night. As the party filled up it became impossible to coordinate any sort of rendezvous and I resorted to floating through the crowd, greeting and mingling with the friends I encountered and meeting new characters along the way. Each person was genuine and happy, no trace of ego or networking motives in the air. It was a celebration of life for the late great Spanto, Born x Raised’s father and founder. The DJs played the hits, a mariachi band led the crowd in singing ‘Volver’in chorus, the Palladium staff poured $30 cocktails for 5 hours straight. My plan was to leave early but I was having too much fun. Eventually the lights came on, which I think took everyone by surprise. It felt like the night was going to go on forever until that moment. I’ll keep the memories, here’s some flicks.

 

Augie's List - Los Angeles Events; 11/10/23: HELL BOUND BOYS

     

Last Friday I went to Sergio Hernandez's Hell Bound Boys Los Angeles premier at Braindead Theater on Fairfax, formerly the home of Cinefamily, in West Hollywood. I've known Surge for a while from visiting friends in San Diego, where Surge owns Pop's Tattoo shop, the de facto clubhouse for the community of artists I've gotten to know over the past few years. I heard about his plan to make a feature length movie a couple years ago, during the Covid-19 Pandemic and have been following the progress updates ever since. I was expecting to see a lot of familiar faces onscreen, knowing that Surge had cast many of his fellow San Diegans to play the main characters in the film. I knew it would revolve around graffiti and otherwise I had no idea what to expect.

    The doors were open and people were everywhere when I arrived at 7:30pm, the listed start time on my event ticket. No one asked to see my ticket and I walked right in. There were people lined up to buy concessions and I turned toward the restroom, wanting to settle into a seat as soon as possible. I saw my buddy Joe Garlic using a urinal and we greeted each other with a hug. Joe works at Pop's and I knew he'd done a bunch of the graffiti that was featured in the movie. Joe and I grabbed a beer then filed into the packed theater. I searched for an empty seat and finally found one right in the middle, next to my buddy Pat who runs Gas Station Vintage, a used custom clothing retail co.  Just as I sat the lights went out and the opening credits started, bright two-color graffiti letters announcing the production company with a rolling backdrop of San Diego landmarks. I was fucking psyched! 

    The movie was awesome. I'm not a film critic so I'll just say that knowing this was a first film (Surge wrote and directed, the actors had no formal training or theater background as far as I know), I can't wait to see what Surge and co. do next. The story was tight and believable, the characters felt real, the visuals were more than fun, and the music kicked ass. It felt like we were all a big family in that theater and the pride in our friends combined with the heartfelt themes in the movie brought a tear to almost everyone I'm sure. We piled out into the street and everyone was hugging and high fiving and congratulating. It felt nice to have that sunny San Diego energy in the usually cool and aloof Los Angeles night. I had to find Ian and Jazmyn because Ian was the one to notify me of the event and I'd told them I'd see them at the premier. Finally I spotted them in the crowd and as I walked up Jazie greeted me with a hug and a brown paper gift bag. Inside was a ballcap with an embroidered graphic of a cartoon cat riding a shooting star. "You remembered, yes!" She had promised me the last of the batch but that was almost a month prior and I hadn't reminded her to bring it. When I spoke to Surge briefly after the film he was wearing the same cap so getting my own was the icing on the cake. The crowd pressed around us and carried me in its current. I left on an Irish goodbye and hopped in a car to my next destination.

Montreal Sep’23