Today's trivia. I was conversing with the owner of the company who makes these about the font or typeface used. We have been discussing how closely the original typeface can be duplicated. Here's an interesting tidbit, not just referring to the font used for the 240Z or Datsun sunshades, but all of the originals.

"...were hand cut stencils from fonts used by Pete Brock at the BRE shop."

Now that he brought that to my attention, it's obvious. Compare the '4' in the 240-Z original sunshade to the numbers (46) on Ron Carter's BRE re-creation. I wonder if Pete now has electronic versions of that font, and if so, what it would take to be able to get use of it for these?

Test fitting the pre-production mockups is underway. There will need to be some minor tweaks to the shape of the template, based on my tests. And as mentioned in the previous post, the font/typeface has not been finalized yet.

Yes - looks like they need more curve.. so they don't wrinkle.. The DATSUN needs more of a curve to it..

I thought you said the type face/font would be just like the originals...

FWIW,

Carl B.

I thought you said the type face/font would be just like the originals...

Yes, Carl, I did. That was before we found that some of the original stencils were missing. So we are working on that now. On Friday I sent a message to info@bre2.net to inquire about the use of the original BRE font. No reply yet, but it's the weekend. If you've got any influence with Peter and Gayle, it might help.

I wonder if Pete now has electronic versions of that font, and if so, what it would take to be able to get use of it for these?

Hi Arne:

There is an interview - Posted somewhere else on the site - where Peter is talking about the man that did the lettering on the BRE Cars - - originally they were hand painted. I think Adam C. was mentioning the fact that one could see the brush-marks in the lettering on one of the BRE cars...

So it might not actually be a BRE copyrighted design - but rather the hand work of the original sign painter - who is no longer with us. I doubt he ever actually released a Font in his name or intended any copy rights for an entire set of numbers/letters... More likely the sign painter used some existing font released to the public domain.

FWIW,

Carl B.

Edited December 6, 200915 yr by Carl Beck

So it might not actually be a BRE copyrighted design - but rather the hand work of the original sign painter - who is no longer with us. I doubt he ever actually released a Font in his name or intended any copy rights for an entire set of numbers/letters... More likely the sign painter used some existing font released to the public domain.

Perhaps, and I'll be researching that angle as well. But on the other hand, the current BRE website graphics make heavy use of what appears to be the same font. It will be interesting to see if I get any response, and what that response might be.

Here are some photos of the Mylar logo'd windshield sunshades that I put on my car in 1976. The letters have shrunk a little but they seem to be just under 3 inches and the over all is 4 3/4 inches.

Excellent info, Michael, thank you! I have forwarded that and a couple of the pictures to the manufacturer for additional template tweaking.

Best guess on the font at this point is that BRE and the original Bolder Tints used something very similar to "Eurostile Bold Extended #2".

Due to some late requests, I have increased the order of the 'DATSUN' sunshades from 20 to 24. We are approaching the time when no further additions will be possible, so if you are interested and haven't got on board yet, don't wait much longer.

The changes to the template size and shape have slowed the process some. I no longer think it likely that these will be shipped prior to Christmas. Possible, but not likely. Sorry for the delays, but we all want them to be right, and that is taking time.

Updated availability stats (12/7/09):

Item       |  240-Z  |  DATSUN  |  Total  |
-------------------------------------------
Ordered    |   40    |    24    |    64   |
Paid for   |   35    |    21    |    56   |
Pending    |    1    |     0    |     1   |
-------------------------------------------
Available  |    4    |     3    |     7   |

Final size of the new product will be reduced from the 5 1/8" of the test papers to 4.5-4.75" to match measurements taken from originals. The logo characters will be 3" tall.

Still working to optimize the curve of the top edge, while allowing for the fact that there will be differences from car to car depending on the condition and manufacturer of the windshield gasket. I think we're actually real close on this now.

Latest work on the font/typeface is attached.

All payments for current requests have now arrived. Updated availability stats (12/7/09):

Item       |  240-Z  |  DATSUN  |  Total  |
-------------------------------------------
Ordered    |   40    |    24    |    64   |
Paid for   |   36    |    21    |    57   |
Pending    |    0    |     0    |     0   |
-------------------------------------------
Available  |    4    |     3    |     7   |

I hope you guys can work out a decent font for these because the ones pictured just won't do.

Edit: This comment was actually based on the font design for the Datsun strip in post #98. I now see the new design in post #106 which looks much better in my opinion. See my post below for more detailed comments.

Edited December 11, 200915 yr by =Enigma=
For clarity