Smoked badges experiment

Looking at all the Plastidipped emblems gave me an idea, but since I hate flat black (and Plastidip - sorry ) I wanted to kind of make them darker without losing the shiny-ness.

I took a trip to my local O'Reilley's and found some interesting stuff by Duplicolor called "Shadow" that is supposed to give chrome-like surfaces a tinted effect while still being durable enough to use on trim and wheels. I picked up the Shadow, clear coat, and adhesion promoter for about $25.

Now onto the pictures:

What I used

Duplicolor Shadow kit, Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter, Grip Solvent (the key to debadging in 30 seconds with no hair dryer ), Goo Gone to clean up the rest of the adhesive, and some fishing wire for the debadging. Finally, 3M Nameplate Repair tape and a razor blade to cut it.

Step 1

Since I'm not sure how this is gonna turn out, I'm only doing the PreRunner badge today. If it looks like crap, I'll take the V6 off and throw them both away! Masked off the badge so I know where to put it back on.

Step 2

Pour some solvent down the back of the badge, wait about 30 seconds for it to soak in, and slice the badge right off with fishing wire.

Step 3

Removed excess tape from the truck with Goo Gone and my finger.

Step 4

Did one light and one thick coat of adhesion promoter, then waited about 10 minutes. Laid on one light coat, and one thick coat of the Shadow waiting about 10 minutes in between each coat. The can recommends 20 minutes, but since this is Arizona in the summer, paint dries about twice as fast

Step 5



The paint needs to dry, and it's 100 degrees outside. Run errands in air conditioned truck and pick up a large Dr. Pepper from BK on the way back.

Note that in order to bond properly, the clear coat needs to be applied within 20 minutes to an hour after the last coat of paint. Hurry home.

Step 6

Three coats of clear, waiting 10 minutes in between. Make the last one nice and thick. Set it inside the garage to dry and go out to dinner.

Step 7

Put your pictures up on TW after dinner so everyone can criticize my idea. Decide that it needs another layer of clear coat, which I'll put on in a day or two once the paint has cured. This gives you a couple days to decide whether or not you want to do the rest of the badges the same way.

Step 8

I waited overnight and applied a final, thick coat of clear the next day. Let that dry for a few hours.

Step 9

Put a bunch of 3M tape on the back of the badges, I think this is the most time consuming part of the whole process.

Results




So far I like it. It's not quite as black in person, it actually matches the smoked out reverse light/turn signal pretty well (if you have the 09+ tails). After it cures for a couple days I'll see how it holds up on the truck

 

Looks good. I was thinking about trying that a while ago. Unique look.

I used that same stuff for my headlights:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/135935-smoked-headlight-mod-my-experiment-results.html

 

sub'd. I like this idea...I want to see how it looks on the truck and with the other badges done too if you do them, I think I might have to try this. Looks good

 

Nice! I can't imagine trying to make this stuff even when you have to spray around all those angles. It seemed pretty splotchy when I was putting it on.

 

So, did the Smoke go on non-splotchy? In your Step 4 pic it looks a bit splotchy. I'd tried something like this some time ago with some modelling black chrome paint and could not get it to go on and spread out nicely, SPLOTCHY. Step 4 pic looks a bit like what I experienced, but your end pic looks smooth. Was there any splotchy look in the end on your's?

 

I love this idea, but when I tried it with my front emblem it didn't turn out like I would have liked. I was going for the smoked look that keeps some shine and mine came out flat (no shine whatsoever). Yours looks great to me though, it definitely retains some of the shine. I'm curious also how it holds up. I may have to give this another go.

 

nice job!

 

subbed

 

Was trying to figure out a way to do this as well. Tried just buying them but that was a dead end

 

Looks good. Hit it with more clearcoat though - can't have too much shiny!

 

looks good

 

I'll try to take a close up pic with my DSLR today so you can see the detail better. It's still a little speckled, but it looks more like Magnetic Gray than splotchy paint. It's a nice effect. I definitely want to add some more clear coat though to shine it up and protect it.

 

If it's almost magnetic gray instead of black, do you think it would look good on a MGM truck or would it be too much of a match?

 

I think it's a little bit darker, but I'd have to compare side-by-side. Here's a pic of it after I added another layer of clear today:

 

Looks good. I experimeted with mine a while back but I used VHT nightshades instead. It looked awesome but didn't bond very well. I'm sure I could have got it to work with a couple layers of clear over it though.

 

I did this today and it came out great! Did exactly how you did. Great write up

 

I gotcha, well it looks real good! I like it a lot (finally something other than plasti-dip haha)

 

I was at my friend's paint shop today and I held it up next to a Toyota swatch - this paint would NOT look good on MGM. It's about the same darkness, but it's very green compared to MGM. Different hues, same shade of gray.

The emblems are going back on the truck tomorrow! I'll be sure to update the thread with the final pics. The Toyota Tacoma and V6 emblems turned out way smoother than the Prerunner one, because I laid the paint down better. It's all in the technique.

 

Added the last two steps

Step 9

Put a bunch of 3M tape on the back of the badges, I think this is the most time consuming part of the whole process.

Results




It's hard to tell in the pictures but it is very reflective, like chrome. Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but we'll see how well the paint holds up. I'm a little skeptical about painting over chrome.

 

Looks great on your truck, I like it on the silver