Replacement Door Plate

[Mike]

Hi all, for some reason the door plate for my car was never found after the restoration.  I have the engine plate, but am now looking to replace the door plate.  Any of you have experience replacing the plate on your projects?  If so, how did you go about stamping the VIN and production date on it?  Looks like Zcar Depot has a plate I can buy, but, it doesn't seem to come with the custom stamp.

https://zcardepot.com/collections/door-parts/products/data-plate-set-engine-and-year-240z-70-73?variant=19278798422129

[SteveJ]

http://zzxdatsun.com/catDecals.php

@zspert

[grannyknot]

Mike,

You are looking for 4mm punches, I got these on Amazon for $8.  Nissan's spacing is closer together than the punches so you can't just stack them side by side.  I tried making a jig so I could get the consistent look of the original but it didn't work well so I guess I will just have to free hand it.  I haven't done mine yet, still practicing on thin aluminum sheet.

I'm going to document it and include it with the cars papers so some future owner can't be accused of doing something fishy.  If you come up with a better way than free handing please let me know.

 

[Mike]

1 hour ago, SteveJ said:

http://zzxdatsun.com/catDecals.php

@zspert

Ah, completely forgot to check Banzai..   it looks like he's got just the door plate, which is the only one I need.

41 minutes ago, grannyknot said:

Mike,

You are looking for 4mm punches, I got these on Amazon for $8.  Nissan's spacing is closer together than the punches so you can't just stack them side by side.  I tried making a jig so I could get the consistent look of the original but it didn't work well so I guess I will just have to free hand it.  I haven't done mine yet, still practicing on thin aluminum sheet.

I'm going to document it and include it with the cars papers so some future owner can't be accused of doing something fishy.  If you come up with a better way than free handing please let me know.

Sure, I'll let you know what I find.  it's a shame the old plate didn't turn up because this is something I'd rather use the original..  ?

Appreciate the specification on the punch size.  There's one more box I need to look in before taking the plunge -- I'll likely be doing this project over the summer.

[Patcon]

When I remove data plates, I put them in a ziplock and store them with my car titles in our firebox

[Mike]

45 minutes ago, Patcon said:

When I remove data plates, I put them in a ziplock and store them with my car titles in our firebox

Yeah, shame on me for not keeping better track of it.  I moved three times since the restoration and I thought for sure it was saved.  Maybe with the title somewhere..  I have one more box to dig through..

[Captain Obvious]

On ‎4‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 7:32 AM, grannyknot said:

a better way than free handing please let me know.

Dig around on the web for input on this. Engravers have been making indexing fixtures for this sort of thing forever. With a little creativity, I'm sure you can come up with a way to index either the stamp or the target less than the width of the punch shank.

[Patcon]

What about grinding the punches, so they are narrower?

[grannyknot]

5 hours ago, Patcon said:

What about grinding the punches, so they are narrower?

I like the way you think Charles,  just wish I had thought of it first?

[Diseazd]

Hi Mike.....Mike Maginnis at Banzai has a guy that will stamp it just like the original. I bought the plate from Mike and he got the engraver to stamp it for me....didn’t cost that much either.....looks great.

Guy

[Mike]

Well, I have some EXCELLENT news!  While going through my files trying to find some other stuff, I ran into a box with my original 1971 radio and at the bottom of the box were these:

[Diseazd]

Christmas in June! Congrats....what a great surprise.