Door lettering initials

[RB]

Recalling in my early years a fad of lettering the upper door area just below where one might rest his arm with his initials & the passenger door with your significant others initials as well....anyone have some examples they have recreated ?

[alanwoodieman]

no pictures but we used navy signal flag decals. saw a lot of beach wagons in NE with these on the doors

[G.M.]

Large letters and ads down on the large panel will
cause the metal to raise and has to be sanded good
or they will show through the new paint. G.M.

[51 MERC-CT]

I believe what is being referred to is what some wealthy and important people used to put on their cars to personalize them.
I don't remember it ever being a fad and if it was, it was a local thing and was extremely short lived.

[cmbrucew]

Cruiser fender skirts were the choice for that kind of advertising. Easier to delete bad choices.
Bruce

[RB]

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Never had the thought to do the initial thing until word got around at the car events that everyone was calling me "Uncle Ron" thanks to my three Nephews, everyone else picked up on it now I'm being prodded to do the door thing...it was rather common place in the 50's probably like the girl friends name tattoo on an arm or shoulder I would suppose.....

[TonyM]

Here is an example as seen on a 1941 Norman Rockwell painting.

[fordwife]

I remember these from the 1950s. As I recall, they were stick on chrome letters about 1/2" by 1".Most parts stores sold them.

[ReggieK]

Got mine at Western Auto. 3/4 " square Gold with Black Letters, or Chrome with Black Letters. Mine stayed on the drivers side of 1935 Tudor, passengers side got changed a couple of times.

[1931 flamingo]

Any "striper" can do it for you. My boss has it on his 36 Auburn Speedster (plastic car).
Paul in CT

[Oakhurst]

In the late 50s it was popular in So Cal to have a name on your ride, usually white script on the rear quarter panels, some times only on the deck lid. I remember "Bloody Mary" on a red 40 Ford coupe, "Patty Wagon" on a green 50 Chev 4dr (Girlfriends name was Patty),
"Va Va Voom on a red 47 Chev. Hadn't thought about that for a while.

[Shu47]

I was not born until 1957 so didn't know anything about what happened then but I did have my wife's VW Beetle painted and pinstriped in the early 90s and had the pinstripe guy put a nickname on the door. Thought it looked cool but did not know I was bringing back a 50's thing.

[GB SISSON]

I lived in Massachusetts in the late '60s and early '70s. I loved seeing the beautifully maintained dump trucks, often Macks, Sterlings and Brockways owned by local contractors with the company name in gold leaf on the door. Often you would see the owner's name on his door and his wife's on the 'helper side' door. The large construction type front bumper would sometimes have their kid's names at both ends. They always seemed to be a dark Brewster green, red wheels and frame, white pinstriping and lots of chrome. Two years ago I bought this '47 tonner from the nephew of the original owners in Silverdale Wa. The seller said they always called the truck 'Uncle Oscar'. Oscar and his brother George had farmed in that area. Trouble was Oscar had a 'hunchback' and could never comfortably drive it even though he owned it, so His brother George did all the driving. When I got it home and was cleaning it up I took one of those yellow junkyard paint markers and wrote Uncle George on the driver's door and Uncle Oscar on the helper side.

[barnstuf]

Back in the 1960's I bought a Model A with the sellers initials on the drivers door and his wife's initials on the passenger door. All done in small letters very neatly. By coincidence his wife's initials on the passenger door were the same as mine and his initials on the drivers door were the same as my wife's. This was a problem of course as my wife was always the passenger as she did not have a drivers license. Our solution? We left it alone and just explained to the few folks who noticed.

[RB]

I recall too the fad of song names on cars, my brothers 52 Chevy business coupe was tagged on the left quarter by an individual running a red light, while still drivable be adorned the damaged fender area with a popular song of the time "Tragedy" by a group I believe called the Delon's. This was 1959 if memory serves me well.

[klawockvet]

Originally Posted by Oakhurst

In the late 50s it was popular in So Cal to have a name on your ride, usually white script on the rear quarter panels, some times only on the deck lid. I remember "Bloody Mary" on a red 40 Ford coupe, "Patty Wagon" on a green 50 Chev 4dr (Girlfriends name was Patty),
"Va Va Voom on a red 47 Chev. Hadn't thought about that for a while.

How about "Midnight" on a beautiful midnight blue 56 Bel Air, or "Nite Shift" on a green 55 Ford. Many more that I don't remember but there were lots of them in the Henry's on the Hill>Bobs Glendale>VandeKamp>Henry's San Gabriel route.