The reason the Jets wear green is because their first owner, Sonny Werblin, was born on St. Patrick's Day, 1910. As a not so subtle way to commemorate his birthday during football season if not year 'round, he had his team wear Irish or "Kelly" green. The Jets wore that shade of green from 1963 - 1997 and that included the uniform and logo change in 1978. Prior to the 1998 season, Bill Parcells changed the Jets uniform back to their "classic" look. He went back to everything except the "Kelly" green. Apparently, "Mr. Tuna" was not a fan of the pale shade of green and insisted the Jets wear a darker, "hunter" green. They've worn that shade of green and their current uniforms with minor modifications since then.
I ran into several challenges with making our Jets logo out of plywood that I didn't have with making our Yankees "sign" (as Janet refers to it). First, unlike with the construction of our Yankees logo, I don't have a gigantic Fathead to use as a template. Second, the Jets logo is a lot more complicated than the elegantly simple, interlocking NY of the Yankees insignia and building it would push my modest wood working abilities and (debatable) critical thinking skills to the limit. However, in the past, not having a clue as to what I was doing and having less than ideal resources never stopped me from doing something so why would it stop me now? It wouldn't. And, he says as he kisses his bicep, it didn't.
First things first. I had to make a template. I started with this "classic" Jets logo I blew up on the conference room screen room at the radio station. This "blow up" being as large as the final, finished product which, not coincidentally, would be just large enough to fit between the two sconces above our Man Cave sofa. I traced this onto packing paper I hung with duct tape from the frame of the screen. What do people do in radio stations after hours? Well, there's one answer for you.
Next, I traced the logo onto the packing paper using a Papermate Flair. Now, ideally, I would've used a Sharpie but Sharpie's bleed. A lot. Especially on this kind of paper. That would've meant bleed through on to the soft, spongy screen behind it. That would've been painfully expensive and a tough one to explain to Janet as to why we had to shell out, oh, say...five, six hundred bucks...if not more to replace the screen in the conference room at the office.
Cutting out J-E-T-S was super fun. A heavier gage paper or cardboard would've been the way to go but beggars can't be choosers. Paper, even heavy paper like his, tends to have a mind of its own as it moved all over the place as I cut with fresh blade. It took time, a lot of time to cut these letters out. Then I traced the outline of the letters onto a board. After multiple tries I got reasonably close to results that made me fairly happy.
Armed with my trusty, dusty, Black and Decker variable speed jig saw we got to work cutting. Cutting and cutting anddddd cutting. Oh, so much cutting. And going through blade after blade after blade. 3/4 inch plywood eats blades like I eat corn chips. Worth it in the end, though. I knew we were onto something when the first letter we cut out came out as nice as it did. Chip approved. Start strong, finish strong!
Laying J-E-T-S over N-Y would take a little more than just a steady hand on the old jig saw. Wanting a 3D look like we got with the Yankees NY, getting the overlay right was key to making the whole thing look right. To make the N-Y, I started with "repairing" the original stencil that I made back at the radio station that got cut up pretty good from making the J-E-T-S stencil. I attached fresh packing paper under the original stencil so I could extend the N-Y that's under the J-E-T-S.
I used the same stencil for the NY as I used for J-E-T-S because I felt making another stencil separate from the original would mean the two stencils might not be the same size. Why risk it? Better safe than sorry and besides, it was easier than tracing another stencil. Work smart! Grab the masking tape, son. Let's get to work.
After I finished "fixing" the N-Y, I transferred it to the board just like I had done with the
J-E-T-S. The actual cutting of the NY, which took forever, was a two step process. First, I got out the insides of the N-Y...
Then I cut out around the outside of the NY. This was easier than cutting the outside first. Careful attention to detail here; disaster was possible at every turn. I could've easily cut part of this that I didn't want to or, worse, this could've broken apart. I wanted the NY to be one continuous piece of wood. Score.
Constant "dry fitting" of left me pleasantly surprised if not quite pleased. It was this point that my family realized that I wasn't some crazed, grayed haired Bob Villa wannabee jig sawing his Sunday afternoon away.
You may never have noticed or cared to notice that the Jets logo has two footballs in it. Well, actually, that big oval I think is a football. The littler oval is definitely a football. And a tough one to cut given its size and, again, my humble abilities and tools. It also had to be cut into two sections and hollowed out. This is the first of two tries. Then there were the laces for the "small" football and a backer board made from quarter inch plywood so the little football could lay over the bottom of the N and Y. This alone took an entire weekend.
After weeks fearing that the cutting of the "big" football or oval was going to be the most difficult part of this entre project, I finally got right down to it and (surprise) was no big deal. Any imperfections I was able to smooth out with my mighty belt sander.
One last dry fit before we get to the fun part of painting and mounting. We liked this look so much that we thought for a minute or two of not painting it.
The white paint is exterior white. It's very thick. Actually, quite hard to work on small pieces like this but it covers in one coat what most interior paints would take three to do.
The green is as close to that "Jets green" as we could find at Lowes. They will not scan in a jersey or hat to color match so we got as close as we could from their sample rack. BTW, Lowe's and Home Depot will not sell you a quart size of custom samples. Might be just here. Don't know about other places.
It's either a gallon or multiple samples. At $2.98 a sample I couldn't go wrong. I got two and it covered the big oval beautifully. Hold onto an empty sample so you know what you used if you want to use it again. Lowes also keeps a record of what you bought.
Badabing!
