Tiki Bar sign

been doing this the last couple weeks - for a tiki bar here in Tulsa, OK - decided to make this like a vintage sign - all hand painted and sprayed with exposed neon lettering. went so far as to use the old style magnetic transformers for the neon and porcelain bushings and glass standoffs for the glass - only difference in this and an acutal old sign will be we used .080 aluminum for the face instead of steel to save weight and rust - we had to order the material out of North Carolina, as that was the only place in the US at the time that had a 5' x 12' sheet of .080 aluminum in stock

background colors down - i actually sprayed inside detail of bamboo so that when i went back to paint it i wouldn't have to do a pounce pattern

cut the masking for the actual lettering - lettering in one shot brown sign enamel

masking removed - ready for detail color

all the neon glass bent and ready to install

i'll post more images as we get it done - it should go up this saturday (1/23/2016)

old style magnetic transformers came in today! 2 letters per unit

finished the paint on main panel this morning, and all touch ups with the striping brush

glass installed and tested

lights out with neon on

it's going up tomorrow!

[ Edited by: stevekh 2016-01-21 20:20 ]

That looks great.

Wow! Looks fantastic, and very cool to see the step by step details of how the sign was made.

thanks! it was truly a labor of love - glad I could sell them on my vision of doing it like it would have
been done back in the day and not use vinyl or LEDs - here it is on the building with the final blade portion hand lettered on the bottom and mounted with a setback for a shadow line

Such brilliant attention to detail. That is just fantastic.

Very, very nice work.

Very Cool! Nicely done.

Outstanding!

I think this is the first time I've seen this done and really enjoyed it.

There was a couple of photos that I wish were there. First, I don't know how you heated the neon lights to bend them. Second, it would have been fun to see you working too.

I hope you'll be showing off more of your work in the future.

Thank you, Wendy

I agree with Wendy above - I hope you keep on posting more of this kind of thing. I dig the way the letters on the sign pop even without the neon lit up. Great stuff.

Nice sign, does the background appear green at night like it does here?

lights out with neon on

Thanks - I'll put a more complete post on my companies facebook page once I sort through all the pics - on the neon, I just assisted a buddy - I don't have all the stuff to do that myself, and its an art form all its own - I guess I could set up a camera in the shop to get working pics, it's tough being a one man shop sometimes! As far as lightning up green, that's just the halo effect on the blue background - it really only does that in a picture - something to do with the image sensor on the camera - if you re looking at the neon in person, its really pretty clear and solid yellow - I've tried getting night shots of it on the building, but iphone can't focus at distance with that much contrast

Cool sign!

My wife took a class and did neon work.
It looks like this....
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+bend+neon+tube&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=631&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3j8yf7dHKAhUKbj4KHYWBDUkQsAQINQ