Topic: Restoring/freshening old badges?

[Nicklopic]

I have some tank badges from a cb360 that are in pretty decent shape but I’m wondering about ways I could go about making them look a little nicer. They’re going on a freshly painted tank so they might not fit as well as they would on an original tank.
Attached is some photos. The black is faded and chipped in a few places and the chrome is a little dull but they’re in decent shape overall I think.

[carnivorous chicken]

Enamel model paint and a fine brush.

[RAFster122s]

They are plated, so don't get too aggressive when polishing them up...last thing you want to do is burn through the thin plating. Repainting the black after cleaning them thoroughly would be my approach. Depends on how full or bad the bright work is if I would start saving my pennies to buy a new set. Fresh paint willake them look worse. Repainting the black might help lessen that. Before painting the black. See what cleaning up and clearing  over the chrome does for them. You can wipe them down with some paint stripper after testing it.  Whatever you would clear them with is going to yellow unless it is a urethane or it is one of the few clears that doesn't yellow. Eastwood carries one with a good rep for not yellowing. Thinking part of the name is Diamond something.

[RAFster122s]

Is that white or bright work? Or merely bright work trimmed letters? Was thinking they were silver/chrome but opening an image on my phone I am seeing they are white now....

[Nicklopic]

Clearing over sounds like a good idea. I used model paint on an endings cover to fill in some lettering and I wasn’t too much of a fan on how it came out. Not as smooth as I liked. Maybe I’ll do a test on something actually smooth and see how the paint comes out. Definitely doesn’t need to be perfect but I’d like them to be just a little nicer looking

The Honda letters are white, the outline looks to be chrome or atleast shinny, with a black backdrop. New would be great but it doesn’t seem like they exist from my searching. (CB360 twin badges)

[RAFster122s]

You will have to repaint it all if you are going to paint them or touch them up. Thin your paint and it will lay down and level better. Polish the bright work before painting...you will affect the paint finish if you try to do it afterwards. I have seen guys carefully sand with 8000 grit some brightwork to give it a uniform finish, but like I said, it is plated so you really really have to be careful because it is plated. Don't recommend you sand it, use polishing compound and buff wheel and see if green or blue will bring up the luster you want. Then wipe it down with a good thinner a couple times to strip any wax residue from buffing before you repaint.
If green or blue won't bring a luster drop back to white and then go to green or blue compounds.

Repaintsupply.com carries SprayMax 2K in a urethane gloss clear that is excellent for paintwork and it is fuel proof. It is a 2part activated isocyanate type urethane and requires it to be used withing 36 hours at most from when activated and it requires proper protective mask and skin protection. The paint has lethal chemicals and can/ will kill you if you don't take precautions.
But it is great stuff if not a little spendy at 18-19 a spray can last time I priced it a few years ago. It has limited shelf life unactivated and an expiration date on the can for use by...