Painted lower lip - part One

[WarpedOne]

Here are quick mockups of a painted lower lip:

[WarpedOne]

some more:

[WarpedOne]

If we disregard my artistic abilities, I think painting the lower lip will be a great way to personalize the Roadster.

[tonybelding]

Incidentally, I still can't view attachments in messages from this account, I have to log into another account to see them. *

A couple of caveats when it comes to painting the bumper. . .

I think it is supposed to be flexible, so if you actually bump something with it, then the paint might possibly crack or peel.

It will also be exposed to a lot of abuse from bouncing gravel near the road surface, and catch a lot of dings and chips.

This is why I suggested putting colored vinyl tape on it, because the tape would be easy to replace if it becomes scuffed, dinged, bug-and-tar stained, etc.

[malcolm]

More mock-ups.

Tony - going back to your comment about the mandatory front license plates possibly looking like buck teeth, do you feel that the painted lip exaggerates or diminishes this effect?

[tonybelding]

Tony - going back to your comment about the mandatory front license plates possibly looking like buck teeth, do you feel that the painted lip exaggerates or diminishes this effect?

Bleh. . . If anything, I guess it makes it worse. I do think you made the plates look too small in your images.

[malcolm]

I do think you made the plates look too small in your images.

Should the vertical edges of the plate just match the horizontal distance between the bolt holes just visible on the front of the Roadster? Or is the plate even wider?

[tonybelding]

[Should the vertical edges of the plate just match the horizontal distance between the bolt holes just visible on the front of the Roadster?* Or is the plate even wider?

You can't use those bolt holes as any kind of guide, because they are spaced for a British plate, which is a completely different shape from our American plates. (British and European plates are wider but not as tall.)

I just think it looks like the plate needs to be scaled up about 20-25 percent. . . and there should be a thin black outline, because there will surely be some kind of plastic mounting bracket.

[malcolm]

Too much?

[tonybelding]

That certainly looks more like it.

I wish we didn't have to put those things on our cars. There was talk last year about rescinding the requirement for a front plate in Texas, but the Department of Public Safety lobbied against that, and nothing came of it.

We also had a court ruling that forbids the use of most license plate frames. Any kind of frame that obscures any part of the plate's graphics -- even the little decorations around the edges -- is now illegal in Texas.