Repainting
Horn/Grill Badges
First, we need a decent, craze free badge. Sometimes
you can’t really see the crazing till it’s painted.
If you have a crazed/chipped badge maybe a practice
run would be good.
We need to strip the paint, but not damage the
plastic. For this I use oven cleaner. In the UK the best one is Mr Muscle.
It takes a while so spray it on and leave it an hour
or 2, then scrub with an old toothbrush. You may need to do this twice. Once
that’s done, use a sharp, thin blade to carefully remove and stuck bits of
paint. I also use a needle to pick any stuck bits out of the star points. We
need to get rid of every single trace of paint. I didn’t take any pics of this
stage unfortunately.
Next we need to paint the black. Paint the main black
section of the shield, and the black ring with the stars in, and the black
outer. I use matt black model enamel and a brush. Be careful and as neat as
possible. Keep checking from the front. Hold it up to the light to make sure
you have 100% coverage.
Notice I’ve not yet painted the lines on the crest.
One all the black is covered properly, use a blade
again to clean any edges so it’s nice and tidy.
Next stage is to paint the
silver. We want this to be as 'chrome' as possible. I use 'custom colour
chrome, designed for remote control car shells. It gives a very realistic
chrome but only works when painted on the inside of clear plastic. Just spray
the whole badge. Do 3 VERY LIGHT coats, allowing 20 mins or so to dry between
each coat.
After each coat, use a cotton bud and some brush
cleaner to remove the chrome paint from the 'red' area. Do this after each coat
rather than once all 3 coats are done.
Once cleaned and painted it should look like this.
Now, take some fine sand paper and carefully sand the
ridges on teh crest that should be black. This is to remove the silver. Then,
paint these ridges black. The chrome paint remains very transparent when held
to the light but you can’t see through it unless its back lit. Once the ridges
are painted black were starting to get somewhere
Next things start to get fun 
Time to paint the red. I use red glass paint. Its
brush on, but you need to 'blob' it on with a brush so it, self levels. I thin
it down a tiny bit to help it spread. Don’t thin it too much or you will have
to lay it on too thick. Using it un-thinned is possible but don’t put too much
on or it will be too dark. You can buy red 'tint spray' for rear lights, this
may work well/better but I’ve not tried.
This needs to be left to
dry fully. 24 hours will make sure. If it’s not FULLY dry it will react at the
next stage. If it does react at any point, or it you don’t get a nice even run
free coverage, just remove the paint with cotton buds and brush cleaner like we
did with the chrome and try again. Once the red is good, and fully dry we need
to give it a dust coat of gold. I’m using ford solar gold, because that’s what
I had. Spray on a light covering, don’t go too heavy.
Let this dry, won’t take
long. Then give it 3 more dust coats of chrome. Were only worried about covering
the 'red' section although it doesn’t
matter if we paint it all. The red is transparent, the gold gives it a
little shine and the right hue and the chrome backs it all up. Once done it
looks very original. No pics of the final chrome coat, I didn’t think they were
needed.
Here are pics of the finished badge
Hope you enjoyed it. It’s a little fiddly, and takes a
while but what are the options? I’m not a big fan of the repro's although they
are good.
Most of us have a badge in bad condition; why not give
it a go?
Disclaimer: The advice
and guidelines given in these articles are given in good faith. The owners
and managers of the Galeforce Zephyr site will take no responsibility for
any injuries or loss sustained while carrying out the described tasks and
procedures or any consequences arising. Please read the Safety First Article
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