UK rather than GB

John Murch · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 3:02 pm Post subject: UK rather than GB

When travelling abroad we are now supposed to display a "UK" plate rather than a "GB".

I rather liked my old cast GB, does anyone happen to know of a source of cast UK plates? (I could go with a stick on one, but it looks a bit out of place on a vintage car).

Nicholas Simons · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:32 am Post subject:

You'd probably find that a cast plate would be illegal. You can buy magnetic black and white ones for a couple of quid, which doesn't help if you have an aluminium bodied Bentley.

John Murch · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:44 am Post subject:

Interesting! I hadn’t considered that a cast plate might be illegal.
I thought that provided the letters were of the correct size and colour all would be well.

Nicholas Simons · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:48 am Post subject:

I was just thinking that a cast one usually has a polished metal finish to the raised letters rather than paint. Some French jobsworth would probably find fault.

John Murch · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 10:29 am Post subject:

Very true, I could paint the raised letters in black with the background in white. Even the French couldn’t grumble.
I noted while clearing out junk from the back of the car that I still have a breath test kit, which was past its best before date 5 years ago, I’m not inclined to replace it!

Paul Bennett · Joined: 05 Mar 2014 Posts: 90

Vintage Supplies Ltd. do them.
Have sent you an e-mail as quicker than trying to post an image.
Regards Paul

John Robins · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:13 pm Post subject:

Can I just mention the priceless juxtaposition of two phrases in the above conversation?

“Even the French couldn’t grumble.” John

“Some French Jobsworth would probably find fault.” Nicholas

In view of the huge queues of trucks waiting to get into Dover and the reputed 26 page form necessary to permit the export of processed meats and fishes to Europe one starts to wonder.

Cheers
John

Stephen Blakey · Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:37 pm Post subject:

John,

Should you fancy specifying your own, I'd be happy to print the casting pattern for you. I seem to have become the go-to source of such things for the local steam buffs, possibly because I don't charge them (although that connection did come in handy when the main bearing on our bread maker wore out).

Here's the latest. This is a screen dump. The actual pattern went in the post yesterday and the novelty has worn off so I've stopped photographing them.

Of course you could just paint the plastic version and attach that to your car.

I think we could do something prettier than the Vintage one.

Kind regards,

Stephen

John Murch · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:44 am Post subject:

Stephen, what a kind offer, what a super facility you have.
I'm in no great rush at present as I think I've put my overseas plans on hold.
Greatly appreciated and I will get back to you if my plans change!
John.

Stephen Blakey · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 12:12 pm Post subject:

John,

As you were kind enough to show an interest, here's the end result. Harry the steam buffer posted the plastic patterns to the foundry in Nottinghamshire, where they were cast in brass (short "a"s please, as it was Notts).

I input the size at the printer driver stage so it's easy to change it, hence we were able to do a smaller one for Harry's pal's smaller scale engine.

I thought the foundry did well to pick up all the detail, but then I suppose that's their job.

The UK badges I have seen have been plain ugly. The lack of curves in the utilitarian fonts used don't help. Out of interest, I'm going to see if I can design something prettier with a softer font to see if that helps.

John Murch · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 6:02 am Post subject:

Stephen, Those are beautiful, a real credit to your design skill. Easy to think that something apparently so simple actually involves a lot of skill, time and effort.