Ok chassis plates. Some folks are happy to spend oodles of pounds to get plates engraved and all fancy like. Not me. Piece of ally, some stamps and job done. It is not as if a nice looking plate makes the car handle better or go faster

I have removed my chassis plate and the "make" box was left blank (chassis plate is screen printed which I got with the car). Now that I know if it "YKC SPORTS" I got the 4 mm MMart stamp set out and stamped it in. Smearing black paint over the letters then wiping it off leaves the numbers nicely painted.

Now doing it fee hand meant the spacing and alignment was all cock so I got thinking about making a template.

I drilled 4 holes in a strip of stainless just big enough for the punches to go through and tried it out.

The result much better alignment.

Wish I had tried this eariler

You would need to make two passes doing alternative letters since you cannot drill the holes close enough for close spacing.

I should forward your suggestion to Tiger...

they supply the plate already stamped with the chassis number they have issued.... unfortunatley it's a right mess so I will have another made up

Manufacturers have no excuse - they should use a stamp holder. At home we have a bit of an excuse as its a waste to buy one for a one off job.

Other way is to lightly scribe a line in the plate, punch, then polish up afterwards. Paint in the lettering is a good idea - ive done this before. Also when punched lettering is hard to see (like on a block) rubbing some chalk over or pressing blue tack (and obviously removing it carefully for reading in more convenient place) in can help it to be read.

I stamp them starting at the end and working backwards, it's a lot easier to line them up and space them closer. Rub them over with fine emery then clear lacquer them to make them show up better.

I just clamped a piece of Ali angle below where I was stamping and then they were all in perfect alignment.

Steve