Ever try fixing faded "GMC" logo on body trim?

[shifty]

Originally Posted by special-K

I bought a pair of 2500 emblems off of Ebay for my Suburban and they were very inexpensive. A fraction of what Brothers sells them for. Are there's N.O.S.? I'm not sure what mine are, but might be GM. Doesn't matter, GM ones look like crap in a few years so probably no better than replacements.

It looks like GM is still making the body emblems for the side trim. Part is still listed in their catalogs. I think that's what everyone is selling for $60-100/ea logo. Seems steep as can be to me! Especially when it appears it only takes a few years for the signature red on the "GMC" part to fade and start looking old and gnarly.

That said... my badge itself is fine, it's just the darn insert that's fading out. I wanted to have something I could hand off to a capable person so I went to the JY yesterday to get some EVAP parts to tinker with, score misc trim pieces and hardware I lack, and I grabbed a couple of emblems.

Posting pics for reference in case someone stumbles across this thread later.

You can see how the GMC logo fits into the molding. In a nutshell, it's a clear lens that's embossed on the back side with the GMC outline, which is filled with chrome, painted red in the lettering, looks as if the letter interior is sprayed with silver which is dyed red (when the red dye fades all you see is silver), then all surrounding letters is painted black. Then they use a silicone adhesive to glue it into the slot on the larger "1500" portion of the badge. Rear of the larger badge pic attached below - they're holding that in with a 1x1 square of adhesive and the ovular stubs fit into provisions on the body trim.

GM could've maybe prevented this by fully sealing the rear of the GMC emblem or using proper paint, or a better plastic/poly lens.

I'm going to explore a couple avenues this year as time permits. I'll see what a vinyl shop can do, then reach out to a friend who CNCs billet to see what he thinks, then try to find someone who is familiar with molding and casting to see what they think. I'm sure vinyl will probably be cheapest, CNC most expensive and robust, mold/cast somewhere in between.