The sheet is brittle and has several areas of "smudge" that make it less readable. I'm interested in restoring the sheet if I can. For now I've placed it in an acid-free, archival safe plastic cover sheet. I called a local museum that restores art and documents but their price just to inspect was out of my range. Does anyone have any suggestions on safe and efficient way to restore, either by me or a third party. Not looking for perfection but am looking for less than 1% probability that the process will be more harmful than helpful. Thanks for any feedback.
Found broadcast sheet for my '70 III vert - any ideas how to restore?
- Thread starter Zippy22
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68PK21 440.6bbl
Old Man with a Hat
Post up a pic with it in the acid free so we have a idea of condition.
Best bet is to lay it out and get the best high resolution camera you have and carefully take some good HD images.
Load the images into a computer with a very large monitor and enlarge it then try to decipher what you can't read with the naked eye.
Better yet get a very good flatbed scanner and scan it jacked up to the max of the scanner. rinse & repeat as above then make a reprint.
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Best bet is to lay it out and get the best high resolution camera you have and carefully take some good HD images.
Load the images into a computer with a very large monitor and enlarge it then try to decipher what you can't read with the naked eye.
Better yet get a very good flatbed scanner and scan it jacked up to the max of the scanner. rinse & repeat as above then make a reprint.
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This is what I did with mine. The one under the passenger seat was dust but the one behind the rear seat back was in decent shape but very brittle. I scanned it using a flat bed scanner and that's the one I show to people. The original is in an archival plastic sleeve as you described and stored for the next care taker and to prove provenance if it's ever questioned.
After you get it preserved and stored, scan another 6 on good paper and place them back into the seats for future owners.
And DON'T do this: I know of a guy who proudly put his BC sheet on his dashboard at a show (but carefully protected in a plastic cover sheet!!). In an hour it was a blank, sun-bleached, brittle....nothing. He was mortified. Almost suicidal.
Point is....do not display that original in ANY kind of light. Put it away.
As for the zigzag smudges that we all have....leave it alone. Here's mine, flattened overnight with books in a humid environment, scanned, and put away.
As found:
Point is....do not display that original in ANY kind of light. Put it away.
As for the zigzag smudges that we all have....leave it alone. Here's mine, flattened overnight with books in a humid environment, scanned, and put away.
As found:
Last edited:
Thank you everyone, these are great pieces of advice!
After reading this thread, I googled some ideas spurred in part by your collective comments and came across the linked article below. It describes "lighting strategies" (such as blacklight) for recovering contrast in faded documents. Perhaps this piece can even help Trace 300 Hurst's friend safely off the ledge
Recovering Contrast in Faded Documents
This article led to my own question of whether just putting a simple bright white light behind my smudged-broadcast-sheet could "enlighten" me re: the identity of some of the covered codes (especially if more of the smudge is on the front of the sheet, vs the back.) This step helped a bit. Then I looked at the back-lit sheet with a magnifying glass, and that helped a lot more.
FWIW.....
Cheers,
Zippy22
After reading this thread, I googled some ideas spurred in part by your collective comments and came across the linked article below. It describes "lighting strategies" (such as blacklight) for recovering contrast in faded documents. Perhaps this piece can even help Trace 300 Hurst's friend safely off the ledge
Recovering Contrast in Faded Documents
This article led to my own question of whether just putting a simple bright white light behind my smudged-broadcast-sheet could "enlighten" me re: the identity of some of the covered codes (especially if more of the smudge is on the front of the sheet, vs the back.) This step helped a bit. Then I looked at the back-lit sheet with a magnifying glass, and that helped a lot more.
FWIW.....
Cheers,
Zippy22
I would suggest taking high-res photos, without flash, of your sheet before trying to scan it. Then please post them
Thanks - I'll check whether my camera and/or flat-scanner are up to the challenge and then post.I would suggest taking high-res photos, without flash, of your sheet before trying to scan it. Then please post them
I did this on some pages of a very old family Bible for documentation of relatives. Names written in pencil, probably in the 1800s or so, barely readable. So I got a 15MP Canon point & shoot camera (which had one of the largest file sizes I could find at BestBuy). Laid the pages under the chandelier-style light in the living room, on the coffee table. Positioned the camera and myself as to not cause any shadows. Then did a few shots of each page. In the back was a thick page into which some old glass plates/photographs were inserted. Although the writing was not that visible, with the 15MP image, they were much more readable, as the pictures on that back page were much more plain, also. I was surprised at how well it turned out. Copied the pictures on the memory card into a file and emailed it to the distant relative seeking to get entry into the Jamestown Society. It worked.
Years ago, one thing I did to old, dried car parts boxes to clean them up was to gently wipe/remove the dust with a rag lightly damp with ArmorAll or STP Son of a Gun protectant. In addition to cleaning, it renewed the moisture in the inks (apparently) and made it all look decades newer than it was. Might not work too well with brittle and wrinkled paper, though.
Just some thoughts,
CBODY67
polara71
Old Man with a Hat
There is a company that will replicate the sheet. I haven't used them but it may be worth a try to have a new one made if yours is that bad .
LeBaron1973
Old Man with a Hat
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I wonder whether photoshop could remove the spring smudge marks and tears/holes???
Hi Lebaron, its amazing you raised this question, I was wondering the same thing, as a possible Plan B (or "C")! I've asked someone I know who is an expert in graphics stuff and was going to post what I learn. Haven't heard back yet but I'm sure I will. Thanks!
I don't really understand why you would want to do this. The marks and holes are part and parcel to every Mopar BCS, be it a six-banger Dart or a Hemicuda. Makes more sense to get a repo made, but I kinda like a battered sheet for sleuthing. Last year I helped a friend confirm that his very cheaply-bought, worn out, garden variety 383 four-speed RoadRunner that was missing its fender tag was actually an A12 car with a junkyard engine and junkyard steel hood. Suddenly, his smudged, torn BCS was worth $125K!
I should clarify. Based on all the comments received, I'm happy to stay with the sheet as is. But I'm still interested in trying to decipher what codes are beneath the various smudge marks. With regard to the photoshop idea, I'm asking my friend if there is a way he can dissect the sheet by "layering" the dirt and the typed numbers on different planes, and then read the plane with the typed numbers. Its absolutely a long shot but I might as well ask, so I did. If the friend comes back with a no-can-do reply, I'll be trying some of the other tips others have shared in this thread.
Got it. But are there any holes?
Somehow--and I know this only because I've been fortunate enough to look at a few other Hurst sheets for comparison--the holes in my sheet didn't contain any numbers.
y
There are a few minor holes in the sheet. But dirt is by far the biggest code-blocker. There may be a few codes lost in the few holes, but I've already written those off as un-recoverable unless by some chance I were to find a 2nd sheet.
