Color Matching the Hood Emblem Lettering

[JakeHagg25]

So, to start off, let me explain why I did it. I purchased the Reflective Concepts stickers for the front emblems, and they didnt have the color to match the Delmonico Red of my truck so I ordered red and thought the worst case scenario, It looks like garbage. To no surprise to me the bright red lettering looked awful next to my dark red paint, so I removed it, as I was removing them I noticed that the '0' in '1500' was wiggling independent of the rest of the emblem I took a look at my spare emblems and noticed that they definitely are an independent entity to the rest of the emblem, and so I got thinking.

Here is a picture of the emblem stock.

The little pin near the head of the screw driver is what holds the numbers in place, I just took a larger flat head and push the peened end until it snapped off, then I could use the small
screw driver to easily pry the numbers off.

I used my spare hood emblem to test the painting because if it didn't work I still had the Emblems still on the truck. But thankfully all the pins are the same so once I painted the chrome numbers I could throw them onto the black emblem.

Started off by sanding with 150 grit to rough up the surface and make sure I got good adhesion.
I used a sanding block and a piece of sand paper rolled up to get the nooks and crannies of the pieces.

Next came the primer, two light coats to completely cover the part but without getting runs.

I had to paint the numbers twice because the first color I chose was not as close of a match as I thought, of course this was after I had already painted it and cleared it, so I was a bit bummed. This is the color I had to work with since no auto parts store carried Delmonico Red spray cans, I originally tried " Dark Garnet Red Metallic", THAT IS NOT THE CORRECT COLOR, pictured below is the final color I ended up using. "Medium Garnet Red Metallic", Its a GM color but it was pretty close.

Continue...

 

[JakeHagg25]

I dont have access to a paint booth or something equivalent to bake the paint onto the pieces, but I have a couple of cardboard boxes and a blow dryer, cut a hole for the blow dryer, add a divider in the box about half the height of the box to prevent the blow dryer from blowing directly onto the parts.

Here you can see the setup inside of the box, after each coat I would throw it into the box with the heat on high and the fan on low for 10-15 minutes. of course close the box up after you put the part in to minimize escaping heat.

This is a picture of the parts before I changed the color but the process is the same, 2 coats of gray primer, 3 coats of red, wet sand with 2000 grit, 2 more coats of red, 2 coats of clear. wet sand 2000, 1 more coat of clear.

Here is what it looks like after all the painting and fully dried.

Continued...

 

[JakeHagg25]

Here is a picture of the parts dry fit onto its final resting place, which is the black Emblem. I removed the rivets exactly the same and put the letters in place to check the fit.

I used the super fine tip gel super glue to minimize the mess, cant stress this enough, you truly do NOT need that much super glue. I thought I was being safe and using a good amount but I still had some seep out. Use small daps in the holes and that should be plenty.

Here is a look at my glue application:

Now here is a look at the final product on the truck, I will have to take a picture in the morning before work because its obviously night time.

Well, that is all I've got for you, If you have any more questions dont hesitate to ask!

 

[Livinfast85]

Step one cut a hole in the box.....HAHA on a serious note the emblems came out awesome!

 

[JakeHagg25]

Step one cut a whole in the box.....HAHA on a serious note the emblems came out awesome!

View attachment 17077

Wow, I completely forgot this even existed. Thank you for the compliment and also bringing this meme back into my memories.

 

[JakeHagg25]

As promised, here it is in the day time, it isnt perfect, but looks alot better than it did all black.
I'll have to experiment with the amount of coats and see how close I can get to the factory match.

 

[Maric550]

As promised, here it is in the day time, it isnt perfect, but looks alot better than it did all black.
I'll have to experiment with the amount of coats and see how close I can get to the factory match.

Looks great man!

 

[Nails]

Great write up, looks great and thanks for sharing

 

[Gtbrown]

Nice write, great results! Thank you for sharing, much appreciated.