All,
I am putting this out there for anyone interested in redoing their tank emblems. Couple things to remember, 1) This isn’t the best approach is you are looking for showroom / original restoration type emblems. Due to light sanding of the gold color, you can’t restrip and return to original condition. 2) The raised aspect of the letters is covered unlike the original condition of only the background being black. While mine aren’t perfect, they are a lot better than when I started. It wasn’t too hard and didn’t take too long, outside of waiting on paint to dry.
I looked around the net and I couldn’t find anything for the raised gold emblems with black back ground. I found plenty for the white inlaid style emblems. In any case I decided to see what I could do. I don’t have the hand eye coordination to create a tape mask or to hand paint only the background area. I opted to paint them completely black and sand the letter tops to aluminum. I guess you could use this technique and “wipe” the top but I was afraid the solvent would run and I would never be able to keep it out of the painted area.
After removing from the emblems from the tank, and stripping with air craft remover,
- Clean them with soapy water and then alcohol.
- Paint gloss black. I originally tried flat black but with a gloss clear coat. It left the background gray in sun light. * Note paint from multiple angles to better fill in the raised areas.
- Once dry, secure 400 grit sand paper on flat surface (I just held by hand). Lightly rub the emblem on the sand paper surface until the paint is removed.
- Suggestion - Stay in one direction to prevent "cross grain" appearance.
- Observation, Using a flat surface helps prevent contact with background better than holding paper in hand. You may need to do some minimal hand sanding to get areas like the interior edges of the “O” and ”D”.
- When sanding, roll the emblems to get outer edges of the letters. To prevent excessive aluminum removal, I wouldn't recommend using a mechanical sander but that's your call
- After the tops are clean of paint take 2500 grit and very lightly and fast, polish. Again stay in one direction.
- Once the tops are shining and most all of the previous sand marks are gone, cleaned emblems again with soapy water with a hot water rinse to make sure the dust and aluminum is gone. I may have also wipe with alcohol though I’m can't remember.
- Spray a couple of coats of clear coat from rattle a can and let dry.
Mine didn’t turn out too bad. Has kind of a brushed aluminum look. It even took out the impact gouges I had in one of the emblems. Again I stress, it will remove the original gold coating and the aluminum look will have some slight imperfections if looked at too long but if you aren’t one to let best stand in the way of better, it’s a rattle can low budget improvement.
Looking back you could probably use the same approach with a damp mineral spirits cloth on a flat surface and not remove the gold coating. Just a thought
Take it for what it's worth.
Ace
