Anyone live in/near Palo Alto in the 80's?

[rockfan4]

Long shot, but here it goes.
It's going to rain tomorrow, so I'm messing around with vinyl.
I have a few shots of the 944 from the 1985 IMSA Firehawk race at Sears Point.
The latest project is the decal on the front bumper. I imagine it was something you could buy at a souvenir shop.

Here's what I have to work with, a scan of a 35mm slide.


Close up.



Where I'm at. I know the P is still wrong, but I'm tempted to let it go. I used to have Inkscape loaded, but swapped computers.



Thoughts? Anyone have a better photo of the real thing?

[masraum]

To me, the background looks black, not gray.
That looks super close (other than the black/gray thing) and I think the P and L need to be pregnant.

The top of the P in the photo looks shorter and like it sticks out a bit farther. And the bottom of the L looks like it's longer. You've gotten amazingly close!

[Steve Carlton]

Can you make the letters relatively shorter and thicker?

[rockfan4]

The background is grey in that shot to differentiate the layer. It will be black in the final.

I can make the letters shorter, but not much thicker. At least not easily. I'll poke around at it again tomorrow.

Funny thing I noticed in the pre-internet decals. Several of them explain what they're selling, not just the brand.

Not Bilstein - Bilstein shock absorbers.
Not Momo - Momo steering and road wheels.
Not Heuer - Heuer Sport Watch & Timers (Didn't say Chronograph, like most decals I see).
Not Kendall - Kendall motor oil.

That's not all, but I just thought that was interesting.

[70SATMan]

The L looks OK. Everything else, noticeably off. Making a little squatter and a little wider overall will help some..

Take one straight segment from the blown up picture and use it to develop a scale to measure the rest of the elements in the picture. Then transfer that scale to the letters in your file.

[masraum]

What sort of file do you need for the vinyl? Can it just be a flat image? Can you edit the lettering as if it were an image? If so, you take the Lettering, transform it by stretching them side to side. Once you've stretched them so they are a bit wider, move the P closer to the ALO and then move the AL closer to the TO.

Obviously, if you need vector graphics or something more sophisticated, ^that's^ not going to work.

[rockfan4]

I'm using the wife's Cricut, which has its own software, Cricut Design Space.
She bought it a couple years ago when it was the hot new toy for the designing moms, and she made a few etched wine glasses with it, but that's about it. Now it just sits, gathering dust. I'm just messing around with it, trying to recreate some of the decals from the car's original livery. I can't make the numbers, or anything larger than about 11.5 x 23 without splitting it into multiple pieces, so I can't cut the numbers, the Automotion or the Carlsen Porsche, but I'm trying my hand at some of the smaller stuff.

Since I don't have a good original for this one, I'm on my own. My best guess at the font was a variant of Grotesk. I just figured out how to separate the letters last night so that I can move them closer together or farther apart, but I haven't figured out how to move or stretch elements of the individual letters. It's cold and rainy today, so it's this or try to get a guitar rewired. The guitar is frustrating me, so I'm going to work on this before I pull a Pete Townshend.

[rwest]

Those Cricuts are crazy popular, have you done a Google or YouTube search on doing what you are trying to get it to do? I bet there is a tutorial somewhere.

[rockfan4]

Try number two.
Still raining. Glad I mowed yesterday after work.



Edit: I went back and made the white outline just a little bit thicker. I also moved the A in PALO a little bit to the right. Not going to printscreen it again, you'll have to use your imagination.

[Steve Carlton]

Looks excellent!

[sugarwood]

P should not overlap with the A, but just touch it

[Chino]

You might research from that time period, a PCA Golden Gate Region newsletter The Nugget, for a Carlsen Porsche Palo Alto advertisement.

[rockfan4]

Originally Posted by Chino

You might research from that time period, a PCA Golden Gate Region newsletter The Nugget, for a Carlsen Porsche Palo Alto advertisement.

The Carlsen ad in the Nugget featured the car for most of 1985.



It came from this photo




It does have a slightly better image of the sticker

[Steve Carlton]

Are you able to sharpen the image at all? It looks like the the white parts of the letters are thicker than the black parts in the original, so if you could make the letters a little thicker and/or the black center sections a little thinner, you'd be there. Can you remove the black outline of the letters where they intersect the letters next to them? Maybe fine-tune the spacing just a bit.

[rockfan4]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

It looks like the the white parts of the letters are thicker than the black parts in the original, so if you could make the letters a little thicker and/or the black center sections a little thinner, you'd be there. Can you remove the black outline of the letters where they intersect the letters next to them? Maybe fine-tune the spacing just a bit.

That's what I saw too, after seeing this other photo.

Since I don't have a tool that allows me to easily modify a letter, I've been looking at different fonts to see if I can figure out the right one. The one above is with a free HK Grotesk, with the P and L modified. I could modify all the letters and make them a little thinner, but I have to remove the font from my PC, modify it, then reinstall it. I think I could modify them before in Inkscape, I might have to install that again.

Font exploration. Looking for a font with a fat P.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by rockfan4

Try number two.
Still raining. Glad I mowed yesterday after work.

the A & L interface, where they connect should be more alike.


and yes, i grew up about 6 miles from PA. used to get $10 fat packs of brown weed on the streets of East PA... Yikes!

[rockfan4]

Originally Posted by juanbenae

the A & L interface, where they connect should be more alike.


and yes, i grew up about 6 miles from PA. used to get $10 fat packs of brown weed on the streets of East PA... Yikes!

This is what I'm looking for. I'm sure you know a guy who still lives in PA, and has a old VW Van with this exact sticker on the back. All I need you to do is to snap a clear picture of it, while declaring "I'm not a narc, I just need to take a picture of this for a guy on a car forum", and then run.

Cleaned up try #2



Try #3, Helvetica font. Not right either.



Need a font with a consistent stroke on all the letters, large bowl on the P, lower cross bar on the A, A a little narrower than usual, round O. I might have to resort to hand drawing it.

[Steve Carlton]

In case this helps. I looks like the letters need to be narrowed in the horizontal direction.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by rockfan4

This is what I'm looking for. I'm sure you know a guy who still lives in PA, and has a old VW Van with this exact sticker on the back. All I need you to do is to snap a clear picture of it, while declaring "I'm not a narc, I just need to take a picture of this for a guy on a car forum", and then run.

Cleaned up try #2



Try #3, Helvetica font. Not right either.



Need a font with a consistent stroke on all the letters, large bowl on the P, lower cross bar on the A, A a little narrower than usual, round O. I might have to resort to hand drawing it.

the L touches the O in Palo, yet in Alto the L does not touch the T. either have all the letters touch a bit, or leave the sight black divider between the letters.

[Steve Viegas]

I think the company is still around (Calrson, not Porsche). You might be able to reach out to them.