I have a 2003 Thunderbird. I removed the engine cover and used some Rub and Buff Silver leaf to touch up the silver stripes on top of the engine cover. The engine cover has two balls in the back that the engine cover snaps over and in the front there are two plastic nuts that secure the cover. Over time one of the nuts was lost. So during the refurb of the cover I decided to make new cover nuts. I turned the nuts on my Jet 12-21 lathe and used the same Silver Leaf Rub and Buff to paint them. They are made of Red oak. I thought the nuts looked a little plain so I decided to vcarve the Thunderbird logo on top.
I made a holding jig to vcarve the nuts. This is the underside of the holding jig and I used some MDF to make spacers because the nuts are taller then the 3/4 inch MDF.
These were the nuts after turning and applying the rub and buff.
I used the Easy Shelf Adhesive liner to mask the vcarve.
I thought the nuts turned out pretty good for a rainy Sunday afternoon goof off.
The black object is the original nut from Ford. It has a slot you need to turn with a screwdriver to get the cover off. I made the knobs big enough to turn by hand. Unfortunately the pictures do not do the carving justice. But after all they are just nuts.
Here is the holding jig for vcarving.
