Automotive Silhouette and Paper Road Map Shadow Box.

Hello, I found metal automotive silhouettes online and I purchased two. One is a 1976 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, which was my first car. And a 1992 Chevrolet Silverado Sportside, which was my favorite truck. I wanted to display them in my garage. In order to make them stand out against the dark walls, I chose to light them from behind. I also thought that using a roadmap as the background would add interest, pattern and color. It also reminds me of some of the places I visited with these vehicles.

The main parts of this project included:

The 2 metal automotive silhouettes

2 pieces of glass

1 inch by 2 inch pine boards for the frame around the glass

1 inch by 4 inch pine boards for the body of the shadowbox

Plywood for the backing

5volt rope lighting

2 switched USB power cords

2 paper road maps

Black and grey spray paint

The biggest tools that I used were a table saw and an electric miter saw.

The first part of the project was to determine the size of the glass. The pine boards would then be cut accordingly. I added two and a half inches to the dimensions of the metal silhouettes. This allowed a one inch space around the vehicle, and room for a quarter inch of glass to fit into a grove cut into the wood frame.

The silhouettes are 16 inches across, so the glass is 18.5 inches wide. I cut the 1x2 board into pieces about 6 inches too long for the sides of the glass. I deliberately made all of the first cuts a few inches larger than needed. This allows plenty of room to cut the 45 degree angles for the corners, and room to trim them down to the proper size. I then used a table saw to cut a 1/4 inch grove into the middle of the inside edge of the boards to accept the glass. The wood was then painted black and glued around the glass.

The outside edge of the framed glass was used to determine the outer dimensions of the shadowbox side walls which are made from the 1 x 4s. These were glued and nailed together to form a box. The outside was painted black, and the inside was painted a light grey. I had originally painted the interior black. But I found that you could not see parts of the silhouette if you were looking at the shadowbox from an angle.

The outer dimension of the boxes were used to determine what size to cut the plywood for the backs. They were also painted black.

One of the reasons for making the frame around the glass wider than the wood of the side walls was to have room to hide the interior lighting from view. I used masking tape to mark off the distance needed for the light to clear the side wall. I then cut a piece of the rope lighting to fit. The rope light is self adhesive, so the plastic was just pealed off the back and it was pressed down. The USB power cord was then soldered to the light strip.

Hot glue was used to secure the cord to the wood frame. This keeps the cord out of sight, and protects the cord from being pulled away from the light.

The silhouette was centered on the inside of the glass and temporarily held down by a piece of tape along the straight bottom edge. This tape acted like a hinge and allowed the silhouette to be rotated downward without losing its place on the glass. A little superglue was applied to several places on the back of the vehicle, and it was rotated back up onto the glass. Use the glue very sparingly, as it will be visible from the front, but not noticeable when the light is on.

A piece of scrap wood and a few improvised weights kept the pieces in place while the glue dried.

The map was unfolded and the wood box was used to determine where to cut. The outer edge was marked with masking tape. The map was then cut about 3/8 inch inside the taped boarder. A small drop of wood glue was put on each corner of the map securing it to the plywood backing. The box forming the sides was then glued to the plywood back covering both the edge of the map and the exposed part of the wood.

I then cut a small grove into the wood where I wanted the power cord to exit the inside of the box. This allowed the front to fit evenly against the sides of the shadow box.

The front with the glass was then secured to the sides by 4 wood screws. I did not glue the front down in case I ever need to open the shadowbox up for repair. The screw heads were painted black, and two metal hangers were installed on the back so the shadowbox can be attached to a wall.

Here they are with the lights on. I'm pretty happy with the results. I believe you could use other silhouettes and other maps for this project. Such as boats and maps of lakes, or aircraft and aviation charts. Thanks for looking.