Name and logo trim piece.

Hello list,
Where could I get for my Ariel, the Pearson logo and Ariel name plate that is mounted on the coaming wood sides?
Thanks,
Eckie Prater
Hull number 304
Oklahoma City

eckieprater@earthlink.net

Not exactly sure of what you speak of (probably because #66 has no such thing on her coamings), but I do know that you can get the Pearson builder's plate, in bronze, from Bristol Bronze (www.bristolbronze.com).

Just do a search for "pearson" and it will come up, or else look under "B" in the online catalog.

You will have to get your hull number engraved on it.

Here are the ones for the Commander from #105;

This looks like and original stem fitting also on #105

Bristol Bronze sells a copy of the Pearson oval number plate in bronze (natch) for about $40. The other castings are not available unless someone is willing to loan one for a pattern.

Kent Davis (Ariel # 376) worked with Bristol Bronze and come up with a bronze reproduction of the Ariel logo plate that Pearson affixed to the outside of the cockpit coamings. Here are a couple of photos of it. The first is of new logo plate affixed to Kent?s boat

This photo is of the two logo plates taken together:

Here is the information you will need if you want to purchase a set of logo plates for your Ariel:

Bristol Bronze
PO Box 101
Tiverton, RI 02878

BB4902 Ariel Logo Plate $55.00 ea

2@$55 = $110.00
S&H = 11.00

Total = $121.00

On Line Ordering with a credit card is available at:

http://www.bristolbronze.com/order_form.htm

We now need someone with a good Commander logo plate to contact Bristol Bronze and have it duplicated. Let me know if you have one and are interested.

Are there any thoughts about how to turn the Bristol Bronze casting into the original Ariel plate? As I recall the original was chrome with a blue piece in the center.

I recognize that you could get the Bristol Bronze pieces chromed ($$$$$), but what about a silver paint, and a blue paint (assuming it was blue. Maybe it was white). Does anyone have an example of what the original looked like as to a coloring scheme?

It seems to me that Pearson did not use paint. More than likely it was porcelain. Like the number plate.

Bill: I think the plate was made with a process called silk screening. It leaves a slightly raised surface. They can use epoxy paint for the purpose (or any of a variety of specially designed paints) . It does look like "porcelain" but it most likely is a painted surface. To the best of my knowledge, generic silk screening is only suitable for flat surfaces. Today (I don't think the technology was available then), powdered metal may also be an alternative coating).

On the original Ariel casting, if they did chrome it, and the area to be colored is flat, that area could have been silk screened (You can silk screen over chrome as I recall).

All this is fine if you are making 1,000 peices. But for two, conventional paint may be the only alternative. Do you recall or can you find out what the original colors were, and where? Are there any metal finishing experts in the crowd?

Bristol Bronze told me that most of the original Pearson logo's were made of something called Pot Metal, which I inferred was cheap. They chromed over it (you can see remaining chrome on the original plate in the photo a couple of posts above). Bristol said that these plates deteriorated fairly rapidlyand are very brittle. Mine was in the Great Lakes for all but the last 8 years, so lasted pretty well. However, I don't recall, even as a kid, seeing the blue or white enamel or paint colors you mentioned, Theis. Not to say they weren't there earlier, but by 1971 or so, when my dad bought our boat, the colors were already gone, if they existed. Doesn't seem plausible that a hard finish would have disappeared that quickly--- paint could have.

The "pot metal" was probably the zinc stuff you find in inexpensive fittings for power boats.

Peter, go for chrome and forget the colors. :p

In the picture a few bits above, it does look like the parallelogram flag is a different color/not chromed, but that the finish has worn off. My recollection is that there was a highlight color in that flag

If the group conclusion was that there were no colors, maybe I'll paint the logo to go along with the color pattern of my halyards so they all blend: pink, periwinkle, mauve and chartreuse.