Lighted TEXACO letters - how would you do it?

[Vintage_MPG]

With the dirty cover laying on top -

While it was on, I tapped around the case with my multimeter, trying to measure some sort of voltage.. Found nothing, but again - I'm not trusting myself to know what I'm looking for. I set the meter to AC voltage and checked an outlet in my shop; that showed 122V so I know the better is reading accurately.

Maybe they just need cleaned up and wired. Who knew.

Can I plug all five of these into one surge protector, then from there hit an outlet?

A lotta questions, I realize. I appreciate your tolerance.

 

[Bert_]

Check the metal parts for voltage to ground.

 

[Vintage_MPG]

PBKN style Neon transformer will be clear red neon illumination

How'd you know this think would be red neon? PBKN - how'd you know that was what this transfer was?

Brilliant, I tell ya! OUTSTANDING!

 

[JABgj]

Red lamps help avoid hot spots white light could give, so if you retrofit to LED, get red ones. LED tape and strips are used at work. I do not do the engineering on them but the strips and tape require power supplies. The tape can be cut to length (at a designated cut line) and joined for extra length as needed. There are also channels with covers that help mounting and the covers act as diffusers to even out the light. If you do go LED, contact me if you need product information. I will see what I can find out.
Cool project, good luck.

 

[djhutt]

How'd you know this think would be red neon? PBKN - how'd you know that was what this transfer was?

Brilliant, I tell ya! OUTSTANDING!

I am a 40 year sign veteran, glass blower. Clear glass will be either red or light blue, since it had red faces the neon unit will be red. you match the illumination color to the face. when replacing with led if you go white the face will look pink. With a 4000v transformer you can touch any where on that sign and it will not kill you. When servicing neon you touch the glass when it is on and a working unit will feel peach fuzz on the glass a dead unit will not have the peach fuzz

 

[gte718p]

your Klien should be fine. 600v is the working voltage. You are concerned with low current transients. If you have a dead short and go 4k to ground the breaker should have poped. To ground you are going to see voltage but you want to see less then 60 or so volts. If you see 500 it is time for new transformers.

I'm more cautious then djhutt. To many bad experiences with high voltage transformers. I'm living proof it will not kill you, but boy can it hurt.

 

[gte718p]

With the dirty cover laying on top -

While it was on, I taped around the case with my multimeter, trying to measure some sort of voltage.. Found nothing, but again - I'm not trusting myself to know what I'm looking for. I set the meter to AC voltage and checked an outlet in my shop; that showed 122V so I know the better is reading accurately.

Maybe they just need cleaned up and wired. Who knew.

Can I plug all five of these into one surge protector, then from there hit an outlet?

A lotta questions, I realize. I appreciate your tolerance.

The transformer says it is 130 VA at 120V. That works to about 1.1 amps per letter. Assuming they are all the same, that you should be able to easily run all of them on one circuit.

 

[aggie113]

I'm of the opinion a good garage should have some Neon. I had a custom sign made from a local neon maker in the form of "Last Name's" on top line and "Garage" on bottom line. Looks great in red and blue.

https://imgur.com/DcSwsmL

 

[Vintage_MPG]

I'm of the opinion a good garage should have some Neon. I had a custom sign made from a local neon maker in the form of "Last Name's" on top line and "Garage" on bottom line. Looks great in red and blue.

I love the neon - it's stellar!

However - I'm afraid that by the time I get all six of these letters to light up with the existing neon, it's going to be TOO MUCH light. They'll dominate the entire shop mojo! That's all you'll see - T E X A C O in all her full-lit glory!

I may end up going the dimmable LED route, just to have a little better control. Full light would be awesome - some of the time. Some of the time, however.....it might be nice to have half the light. Just making a prediction here.

That being said, I'm stll thinking I'll wire them as-is just to see how awesome that might look! Hahaha!

 

[whateg01]

As an alternate, you can back light the letters by simply mounting LED tape on the back of them. You could do this pretty cheaply and even have color-changing capability.

Good luck,
CD

This is what I would probably do if I had them. Not much color changing is going to happen though since anything other than red is going to get filtered out

 

[larry4406]

The few of these I looked at sold for $5-8k range!

I would keep as much as possible to preserve investment.

 

[Vintage_MPG]

The few of these I looked at sold for $5-8k range!

I would keep as much as possible to preserve investment.

Holy smokes...

They may not be hanging around long if they're bringing that kind of loot. I have other projects that have priority! HAHAHA!

 

[Carchie]

Hey all -

So I have a set of large TEXACO letters that I've had for years; for as long as I've owned them, I have wanted to bring them back to some sort of funtional form - but I've never pulled the trigger...but now I think it's time!

I'm wondering how you experts would go about bringing light to these letters? Strip LEDs on the inside? Small directional LED spotlights that just point at the letters from the outside?

The original fluorescent tubes are all inside and in place, but I can't imagine that rewiring the original transformers/ballasts would be efficient/quick & easy, or affordable. The bulbs are likely near-impossible to find as well.

I'd love your input on how to do this. I have a little experience with strip LEDs, but not with separate letters like this; that might take 5 different power sources, wouldn't it (one for the T, one for the E, one for the XA, one for the C, and one for the O)?

Teach me your ways!

Here's a pic of the letters - right where they've been living for years and years. Time to do something with them -

Yeah don’t overcomplicate it, you don’t need 5 power supplies lol. Best move is strip LEDs inside each letter, that’s how modern channel letters are done anyway. Run all letters off one 12V or 24V driver, just parallel the wiring between letters, super standard. Skip the old fluorescents, total pain and inefficient. Use high density strips, stick them around the inner perimeter and maybe a couple runs across big letters like X and A so you don’t get dark spots. External spotlights will look cheap and uneven, inside lighting gives that clean glow you actually want.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Remember the signs were BRIGHT to attract your attention while driving down the road!! Add a stormy dark night, and yeah. To me part of the charm of these old lights was that neon intensity and the "buzz"... If I wasn't going to run the original lamps, I would leave the original neon intact, and use LED tape in the inner housing to power it to a lesser intensity brightness.

BTW - the other 2 gray boxes are neon transformers for stand alone signs ("FREE AIR" or "OPEN" or the like) - the tubes wire into the terminals on the end. And yeah, be careful, they bite. I check for transient voltage by brushing the back of my fingers across the metal housing - I've never heard it called peach fuzz until a couple minutes ago, but that describes it perfectly.
Good friend and coworker and his brother used to build Neon signs in his garage (THERE'S a rabbit hole to fall down!!) and made decent money,... fun to watch them at work. You can also use them to make a screen and glass plate ozone generator (a chapter out of my dark and dusty deep past life) to remove odors from the air...

BTW - while they're generally referred to as 'neon lights' the color they put out depends on the gas inside - Neon is red, Argon is blue, etc.

 

[Bert_]

Remember the signs were BRIGHT to attract your attention while driving down the road!! Add a stormy dark night, and yeah. To me part of the charm of these old lights was that neon intensity and the "buzz"... If I wasn't going to run the original lamps, I would leave the original neon intact, and use LED tape in the inner housing to power it to a lesser intensity brightness.

BTW - the other 2 gray boxes are neon transformers for stand alone signs ("FREE AIR" or "OPEN" or the like) - the tubes wire into the terminals on the end. And yeah, be careful, they bite. I check for transient voltage by brushing the back of my fingers across the metal housing - I've never heard it called peach fuzz until a couple minutes ago, but that describes it perfectly.
Good friend and coworker and his brother used to build Neon signs in his garage (THERE'S a rabbit hole to fall down!!) and made decent money,... fun to watch them at work. You can also use them to make a screen and glass plate ozone generator (a chapter out of my dark and dusty deep past life) to remove odors from the air...

BTW - while they're generally referred to as 'neon lights' the color they put out depends on the gas inside - Neon is red, Argon is blue, etc.

Great advice!

 

[American Locomotive]

I love the neon - it's stellar!

However - I'm afraid that by the time I get all six of these letters to light up with the existing neon, it's going to be TOO MUCH light. They'll dominate the entire shop mojo! That's all you'll see - T E X A C O in all her full-lit glory!

I may end up going the dimmable LED route, just to have a little better control. Full light would be awesome - some of the time. Some of the time, however.....it might be nice to have half the light. Just making a prediction here.

That being said, I'm stll thinking I'll wire them as-is just to see how awesome that might look! Hahaha!

If those signs had fluorescent bulbs in them, I would say whatever, get rid of the tubes and replace them with LEDs.

But the custom bent neon tubes are just way too cool. Neon is a dying art, and there are only a handful of shops around still doing real custom bent neon tubes like that. Pretty much all of the cool-factor (and collector monetary value, too, if that matters) relies on those hand-made neon shapes being in that sign, IMO.

You tested the sign with the lights in the shop off. These signs were meant to be lit up at night. It doesn't take very much light to seem "bright" in the middle of the night. I suspect if you try the letters all lit up in the day with the lights on, it really won't be all that bright.

If you really want to go LED, just get some LED tape and leave all of the neon intact.

 

[Bert_]

If those signs had fluorescent bulbs in them, I would say whatever, get rid of the tubes and replace them with LEDs.

But the custom bent neon tubes are just way too cool. Neon is a dying art, and there are only a handful of shops around still doing real custom bent neon tubes like that. Pretty much all of the cool-factor (and collector monetary value, too, if that matters) relies on those hand-made neon shapes being in that sign, IMO.

You tested the sign with the lights in the shop off. These signs were meant to be lit up at night. It doesn't take very much light to seem "bright" in the middle of the night. I suspect if you try the letters all lit up in the day with the lights on, it really won't be all that bright.

If you really want to go LED, just get some LED tape and leave all of the neon intact.

Old fluorescent is cool too.

 

[Vintage_MPG]

Just so I'm doing this correctly, if I ground one lead to this lift anchor bolt (it's buried in the concrete and drilled into the earth) then use my other lead to touch/tap/probe my letter housing, that's where I might find the transient voltage, correct?

Along with brushing the back of my fingers along the case, searching for peach fuzz (haha!) then I'll know if they're safe, am I right?

I think I may try and go down BOTH roads. I'm order the correct LED strip lights with dimmer capability, AND leave the neon faculties in place. There may be times when I just wanna see that neon work in all her glory!

From what I've read, both the neon and LED lights can live in the housing peacefully together....

 

[tyromeo55]

The NEON is great. IF it all works and your comfortable with it then great. IF not then rip it all out and install "LED SIGN MODULES". Easier then Led tape and they have integral lenses to spread the light out (can be ordered in red also but white would probably work well)

 

[gte718p]

Just so I'm doing this correctly, if I ground one lead to this lift anchor bolt (it's buried in the concrete and drilled into the earth) then use my other lead to touch/tap/probe my letter housing, that's where I might find the transient voltage, correct?

Along with brushing the back of my fingers along the case, searching for peach fuzz (haha!) then I'll know if they're safe, am I right?

I think I may try and go down BOTH roads. I'm order the correct LED strip lights with dimmer capability, AND leave the neon faculties in place. There may be times when I just wanna see that neon work in all her glory!

From what I've read, both the neon and LED lights can live in the housing peacefully together....

The tingle is entirely normal, especially in the tube. As long as it doesn’t cross into shocking you good to go.

LED and neon can coexist. In some cases the electric field from the neon is strong enough to induce current in the LEDs and makes them glow. Not an issue just weird and can mess with you aesthetic. That is a function of current, frequency, and geometry. Might happen might not.

 

[toplessHO]

Now you just need to mimic the buzz of the transformer.

and the occasional wink of Neon