Car Show Graphic Panels

I made up some graphic panels to park around our TR at car shows and thought I'd share them with you guys. I did the graphic work myself, scanning pix from books on my shelves, and wrote the text after doing research on the car. I e-mailed the artwork files to a local sign shop which produced the 30" wide by 20" tall digital prints mounted to black Gatorfoam board.

I used some galvanized metal IKEA shoe shelves (that were lying around in my attic) for the bases. They support the finished boards at the right angle and are heavy enough to keep from blowing over. Just flip them upside down and insert some locating pins in the bottoms. The pins are made from bolts, nuts, washers and plastic sleeve spacers. They keep the boards from sliding down. Strips of velcro keep the boards attached to the base in windy conditions.

Transporting the panels is easy because the bases nest together and the boards stack. Once at the car show you attach the boards to the bases by resting them on the locating pins and press the velcro tight.

A surprising number of people actually stood there and read the panels. The TR story is pretty amazing and it was gratifying to see so many people take the time to learn about it. Another fringe benefit is that they keep spectators from getting too close to the car.

Rob
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Making them was fun and I learned a lot about the TR. Hopefully the spectators who read the panels have a greater appreciation for our cars.

Unfortunately the IKEA shoe shelves aren't readily available anymore. Can't find them on their website or in the stores. Would have to do something different for the bases if I wanted to make more.

Rob

 

Hi Mike,

Thanks, Buddy. Yes, your black TR was right in front of us at the 5th Avenue Showcase. Here's a pic to prove it.

Will definitely bring them to Bella Italia. Maybe we can park all the TRs together and have some Jan Hammer music playing in the background. Maybe some of us could dress like Crockett and Tubbs.

Rob
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Hi Tommy,

Sure, why not? Do you have any pix of your car that you'd like to incorporate? If we use your pix there are no copyright issues. Mine were for personal / educational use, and not for profit, so using published images was fine.

How many panels would you want? PM me with the details. Thanks.

Rob

 

All over the place: TR books, magazine articles, Ferrari web sites, car reviews, parts suppliers' web sites and collector cards. Anything I could get my hands on. I'm starting to acquire a nice collection.

A lot of the info came from two books: Osprey Colour Classics - "Ferrari Testarossa: Mid-engined, Flat-12 Supercar" by David Sparrow, and "Supercars: Ferrari Testarossa" by Mark Hughes.

Rob

 

Thanks Uncle Ray. Actually I have sort of done this for a living before. Prior to my current job I designed interpretive museum displays and corporate trade show exhibits. I don't do that daily anymore so I jumped at the chance to do these panels for myself once we bought the car.

The background of the TR development is an amazing story and I wanted to get it out there for the public. The more you know about a subject, the more you can appreciate it.