Emblems and badges restoration

[bigdon-70blazer]

Anybody remember if there are any threads about how to paint the black letters and such on our emblems? I searched but did not have time to sit for hours looking thought one of you may remember. I am trying to freshen up the Blazer emblems and the "4 wheel drive" badge form it's faded past.

[71blksuper4x4]

Here is a very quick way to help you out. Clean your emblems very well with soap and water with a brush. Get you some black laquer spray paint. Then, spray the emblem unmasked. Then after the paint drys, wipe the chrome edges off with a rag soaked in laquer thinner, and for corners and hard to rich spots, get out q-tips with laquer thinner. Hope this helps, Trevor

[71blksuper4x4]

It would be better yet, if you used a q-tip with a touch of 400 grit sandpaper around it and sand in the letter a little bit before cleaning. That way your paint has something to bite onto the chrome. Then to shine up your emblems, I use steel wool and windex lightly rubbing the surface. Really works to get tarnish off of chrome, but do that after your paint has fully dried as steel wool will leave bits of it's self until you wash it off. Trevor

[JJanzen]

I get the piece all cleaned up, then put it on a level surface. I then drop in lacquer thinner so that the entire bottom(area to be painted) is "wet". Then, take an eyedropper and fill it with "unthinned" enamel paint, drop it into the wet lacquer thinner and watch it spread out to where you want it to fill. The lacquer thinner then evaporates off and your are left with a perfect fill and no paint on the interior sides of the emblem....just the bottom where you want it.

[71blksuper4x4]

Joel, do you use scale model paint? or like Rustoleum pint paint?

[JJanzen]

I have used both your garden variety enamels you find at the hardware store but my favorite is One Shot Bulletin Enamel. It comes in a wider variety of colors. It is the same paint that oldtime sign painters use and can be found at some automotive paint suppliers and sign material distributors. Here is their website:
http://www.1shot.com/home.html

['68 C-20]

Originally Posted by JJanzen

I have used both your garden variety enamels you find at the hardware store but my favorite is One Shot Bulletin Enamel. It comes in a wider variety of colors. It is the same paint that oldtime sign painters use and can be found at some automotive paint suppliers and sign material distributors. Here is their website:
http://www.1shot.com/home.html

Are you refering to model paint or 1/2 pints of enamal? I would like to play with this a bit before I order the good stuff.

I see the one shot is owned by Spraylat, they make a pretty good line of customer Powders.

[JJanzen]

I think any enamel (suitable for exterior use) would work. My only concern about model paint is its' durability in an exterior application. The exterior enamels will have UV inhibitors that will keep it from fading and I don't know if model paints have that. If you have to thin it to get it to flow, use lacquer thinner, it will evaporate off the fastest. Also, I don't know how long this has been a Spraylat product...One Shot has been around for about 50 years or more. Like anything, you will have to play around with it to get it to work perfectly. Good luck.

['68 C-20]

JJanzen,
awesome idea. It would work well for restoring the old wheel covers as well!

[dan42]

Ditto that - killer idea. I have always wondered what the best way to do that is. Thanks for the input.

[72BlckButy]

Awesome idea JJanzen!

Filed that one away for future reference...

[rambler]

subscribing to this post, and hoping for pics later of your progress!

[tcb-1]

too bad we can't give rep points jjanzen, you'd receive some from me!

post up some progress pics on the emblems, big bro.....

['68 C-20]

Will be monitorin' please post pics as soon as you can. I want to use this process on my hubcaps.

[bigdon-70blazer]

I got gloss black because the area is so small...

['68 C-20]

Experiment with it on a scrap piece but I have found that a little Toluene available at all hardware stores will dull down the gloss a little. I stumbled upon it when I used a brush cleaned in it when I changed colors while painting steel patio furnature. I noticed that area that I started with was duller then the end I finished with. Then the light dawned and I realized my brush was still wet from the Toluene when I started to paint.

by itself It evaporates quickly and might just work as well as the Lacquer Thinner on enamel paints.

[gcburdic]

Good stuff!!...Thanks Guys!!

[rockc]

Great tread and those came out nice.

[tcb-1]

looks like a 25cc Monojet leurlok? Beautiful work!!!!

Don is a anesthetist, so getting a syringe/needle to play with is easy. for the lay person, check with your doctor, nurse, medical supply store, or pharmacy.

[UltraBlue71]

thats alot neater way of doing that than i have done, I just spray em and wipe the high spots off with laquer thinner, good idea!

['68 C-20]

Looks good, did you put any thinner under the paint first to help it spread, or just put the laquer in?

[bigdon-70blazer]

I tried at first to put the laquer thinner in it first but the paint seemed to swarm on me so I just tried the paint out of the can and seemed to work just fine if I went slow and did not try to rush it. The paint was so viscous that as soon as I held the needle down, paint flowed out of it nice and slow. I did have to use two different syringes because after the first one was done, the paint seemed to get a little thicker and would not flow as well, but in a new syringe, paint flowed nicely. Be sure and fill the 3cc syringe up with 2cc of paint to give you a little pressure behind the paint flow in the needle.

[71blksuper4x4]

Looks good Don, I have been thinking about Joel's way, and to me, if you use thinner to pool into the emblem, it will break down the paint quite a bit, leaving less durability, but I don't know since I haven't tried that method. Trevor