Today’s the last day of the year, so let’s go out in style with Alaska Paul’s placard progress. Paul understands that his one-of-a-kind electrically and mechanically designed jeep will require information assistance just in case any of us lesser mortals attempt to drive it. So, he spend some time over the holidays playing with placards.

Paul writes, “It’s been a while, so I figured I’d send some Willys progress photos your way. This photo is of the fuel valves between the front seats with an engraved placard sitting on the metal cover. A local sign shop (Alaska Laminated Signs) made up some test placards so I could see how different colors would look with the stainless, gray and blue interior of the Willys.  While this placard has all the necessary information and the correct shape to fit the metal cover plate I wasn’t too happy with the black background and the white lettering.  I wanted something with more visual appeal so Dave (the sign shop owner) duplicated this placard using a brushed aluminum outer layer over a black base.(see next pic)”

“This aluminum/black combination looks good by itself but I didn’t feel it looked good when it was placed next to the stainless steel parts so Dave made a third placard using a dark blue upper layer and a white base (see next pic).”

“Now this is what I was looking for.  While the blue on the placard isn’t a perfect match to the blue on the seats they’re close enough so they look good together and the contrast between the white letters and the blue background makes it bright and easy to see.  Now that we had a color selected I gave Dave my metal full size patterns for the five placards needed for the little Willys and he began the cutting and engraving process.”

“Here’s the finished product. From left to right we have the overhead switch placard, the circuit breaker placard and below that is the fuel tank selector placard and the final two placards are for the 12 Bosch relays (two rows of six each) in the electrical bay just aft of the passenger seat.

The placards fit perfectly which made installing them a fast and simple task.”

“The electrical bay with the placards installed.  It’s hard to see but just below the row of number 1 thru 6 relays is another row of 7 thru 12 relays but not all are in use right now.  I wired in some extra relays and extra circuit breakers incase someone wanted to install additional electrical equipment in the future.”

“I was attempting to lay on my back to get a better quality picture of the overhead switches with the new placard installed but there isn’t enough room for me to get anywhere near horizontal in the little Willys so that’s why this photo is kind of crooked looking.  Also the fabric on the headliner has stretched a bit so that’s why it’s wrinkled.  When the Willys is finally finished I’ll have the upholstery wizards perform their magic with a steamer and the wrinkles will disappear.”

“The correct placard for the fuel tank selector valves is now installed (the previous blue placard was only a test placard) so I think that takes care of anything that needs either a label or operating instructions.  The overdrive, four wheel drive and the high/low range shift levers all have stainless steel tea cups from an oriental restaurant that I converted into knobs with the embossed ring on what used to be the bottom of each cup is now the perfect size to hold a 1936 buffalo nickel.  Just another doo dad on this silly Willys project.”