Started tinkering on the car since we got it a few weeks ago. Last week I painted my front and rear emblems satin black, having blue inserts cut for the emblem so I'll post pics of those when they're done. Today I decided to take the side emblems off and do a little detailing. It took a lot of time, about 4 hours, because it took a few goes at it before I could find the correct order of doing things. The first time I did it, I sanded and painted the emblem, then laid the vinyl down and ended up chipping the paint when I cut it. So needless to say, I had to start from scratch which sucked because I had already painted both emblems. So after using thinner to get the paint off, I had to sand every bit of both. I had to section the vinyl into 4 pieces for it lay correct, which isn't a big deal because I seamed them in the smallest area which aren't noticeable. Once I got the vinyl completely cut and finished I had to cover that with masking tape, which is very tedious and you have to have plenty of blades, I used thin box cutter blades...After all the blue was covered I cleaned the exposed part of the emblem with alcohol. With a heat gun I sprayed it with light coats and then immediately picked off the masking tape so the paint wouldn't be cool enough to crack. After that I let it sit for about 30 minutes to cool and then took touch up paint and a toothpick and filled the dimples in the Z.

Tomorrow I'm going to take the body tape off the car and reattach the emblems...tell what you think

Before


During painted and unpainted


Finished

 

How do they look on the car?

 

awesome.

 

more pics

 

Thanks, I'll have pics of them on the car tonight, I have to take the old double sided tape off when I get home from work tonight, I'll post then up after. They look pretty good holding them on the car...I was surprised the vinyl was close to the color minus the metallic

 

Looks good, I'm assuming your car is blue?

 

what paint did u use and what vinal

 

 

Take pics on the car- I have the feeling they won't look bad once mounted- these pics aren't exactly flattering.

 

Lol, yeah, they look way better in person, the painted part looks great, unfortunately there isn't a way to get the vinyl parent unless I could make a template, scan it and then have the plotter cut one piece. I can see if my vinyl guy wants to tackle something like that...and yes the car is blue.

The paint is Duplicolor high reno low gloss black, it seems to be more durable than regular paint, and the vinyl is Oracle

 

Your side emblems. Do they just come right off with a fishing line or is there any screw/hole or anything else like that under them? Or just the plain old double sided tape like the '350Z' emblem at the back?

 

Its just double sided tape...pops right off...I used a plastic panel tool

 

Finally, got home later than expected and didn't have time to wash it too, its been raining for the past few days so please excuse the filth...I'll take better pix tomorrow after I wash it

 

I like it! It looks good. I got to admit, I was a bit skeptical at first when I just saw the badges on their own, but it actually looks good. Well done.

 

yeah that does look pretty good. What part of TN are you in?

 

Thanks, I don't think it would have looked good if the vinyl didn't match as close as it did.

I'm in chattanooga

 

cool man, welcome to the forum

 

thank you sir...I've always loved these cars, my dad has had two and real good friend of mine, MJEdens on here, has a twin turbo Z that is just sick. Glad we got a hold of one finally

 

I like. Nice job.

 

Agreed, nice job and write up. Props for trying something different!