Rustic Wood Wall Art - Part 1

The last project I have to complete for Con-Man's new Big-Boy room is some wall art. There is a large wall with nothing on it that is screaming for some personality.

I was stuck for a while but inspiration came from this image from Pottery Barn Kids:

I really like the simplicity of the wood anchor. And I thought it would be a nice tie in with Con-Man's vintage desk. Since his room is "Transportation Theme" I thought a car instead of an anchor would be cool.

To get started I scavenged some pallets from the back of an old warehouse and set out to take it apart.

I used a circular saw to cut my pieces off. I've found that trying to pull the boards out with a crow bar is pretty tough; and since I didn't need the full length of the wood this works well. I've also seen people use a Sawz All to cut through the nails if you did need a full board.

Once I got all my pieces cut off I had to even them out. The circular saw was not very accurate. I took the shortest board and traced it to get the measurement for the rest of them. Then used a jig saw to cut them down.

Since the wood is from old pallets I sanded my boards down some to get rod of any splinters, rough edges and dirt. 

Now that I have all my pieces prepped and ready, my next question is how to decorate them? I'm debating on trying to cut out a race car silhouette like the anchor in my inspiration or try to paint it on the wood like this art work was done:

I'm hesitant about cutting the silhouette because my art work is 3 separate pieces instead of 2; how will I attach all my boards together after I cut out the middle? I'm also worried about painting something and having it not come out looking all that great.

See the final product here!!

What do you think? What would you do?