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I got these from a buddy in exchange for some tattoo work (gotta love the barter system). The first is an old (not sure hold old, exactly) metal New York State highway sign, embossed. The second pic is a pair of OEM chevy embossed metal license plates, originally acquired from a guy who worked at a dealership in the 60s thru the 80s. Both are filthy, as they were hanging in a garage in the general vicinity of an old wood stove. First off, any idea of the age / time frame of any of these? Second, in terms of cleaning, anyone have any experience? I found info online but it usually is specific to whether your sign is porcelain, enamel or painted metal. Which would the highway sign be? Thanks for any info

i remember some show saying that they would rub oil on them and that alone would make them look loads better....but i have NO clue if that was specific material or some special oil or whatever.Those signs are neat tho. Especially the NY one

I did some cursory Wikipedia research and found that this sign is as old as they get. This design was used from 1927 (at the inception of the federal highway system) through 1948 (when the design was changed slightly and the font smoothed out). Pretty cool to know it's that old, I was thinking 50's or 60's era.

Cleaned it up a bit, mostly just brushed off all of the loose dirt and dust: I'm hesitant to do any more. The surface is kind of textured (porcelain maybe), and I don't want to put any chemicals on it that may destroy it. The patina's not bad anyway.

I'd be afraid to mess it up too

I would email Rick Dale http://www.facebook.com/pages/...06808 from American RestorationOr contact Mike Wolfe http://www.antiquearchaeology.com/ from American PickersTo be honest, in my eyes restoring it takes away from its sentimental/historical value. I would not be surprised if Mike Wolfe may offer you something for that road sign maybe.

Quote, originally posted by ou.grizzly »I would email Rick Dale http://www.facebook.com/pages/...06808 from American RestorationOr contact Mike Wolfe http://www.antiquearchaeology.com/ from American PickersTo be honest, in my eyes restoring it takes away from its sentimental/historical value. I would not be surprised if Mike Wolfe may offer you something for that road sign maybe. I love that show.. and the first guy you mentioned is on Pawn Stars pretty often if I'm not mistaken. I was able to find out a good bit about this sign with some basic Wikipedia research and decided not to do anything else in terms of "restoration". Thanks for the iinks though, I'm a fan I listed the NY sign on ebay last night, link's in my sig if anyone's curious to see where it goes.

Quote, originally posted by bodhi_tree777 »I love that show.. and the first guy you mentioned is on Pawn Stars pretty often if I'm not mistaken. I was able to find out a good bit about this sign with some basic Wikipedia research and decided not to do anything else in terms of "restoration". Thanks for the iinks though, I'm a fan I listed the NY sign on ebay last night, link's in my sig if anyone's curious to see where it goes. Rick Dale is on Pawn Stars, but he got his own show now called "American Restoration" I see the sign already has a bid for $250.00

I used to have the Chevrolet USA1 plate in my '63 Impala. I'm not sure what ever happened to it.

Quote, originally posted by bodhi_tree777 »I listed the NY sign on ebay last night, link's in my sig if anyone's curious to see where it goes. Quote, originally posted by ebayListing »We are not experts at grading sings like thishow do I enable the audio on the ebay listing?I have an old sign

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Quote, originally posted by joatmon »how do I enable the audio on the ebay listing?I have an old signwisenheimer I saw that typo too, but only after there was a bid on the listing. Can't make changes after that That Hood Tires piece is very cool. Looks like porcelain also. I'm starting to take a shine to old advertising pieces like this, keeping my eyes peeled for more for sure.

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »I used to have the Chevrolet USA1 plate in my '63 Impala. I'm not sure what ever happened to it. Do you still have the Impala?