Chrome Badges

Some of the badges on my 2000 Tacoma have lost their chrome. Can these be re-chromed or repainted with something like 3M chrome paint? Have any of you tried this?

 

https://www.chromeemblems.com/

 

Care to elaborate? As best as I can see from that site, you'd have to get something custom ordered, or you'd have to choose "Letters & Numbers" and pick from one of the 11 text styles. Which wouldn't match the OEM badges... Which, fine, if you don't care about that, might be a solution. They also have a 300 piece minimum for custom badges...

 

I saw the 300 piece minimum, too. Yikes!

 

your best bet is to snag a full set of these from this seller on ebay while they have them available. They're not exactly the same but they're pretty dang close. Since the originals are NLA and going for stupid money on ebay, this is probably the only way to get "original" emblems. Yes, you could carefully peel them off or mask them off and try and use chrome spray paint or something but I doubt they'll look anywhere near as good.

I have them and they seem to be great quality. I haven't installed yet so I can't speak to longevity.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/286238248197?itmmeta=01JNEQHK2MG0HXD5HBZMNYTRSD

EDIT: these are brighter chrome compared to the original emblems

 

Here's a guy that tried chrome spray paint with a bad result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8x_iHqilqU

 

HBere's a guy who used so nail polish type product with a good result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ninpBuzNSxQ

 

I think you might be right.

 

If you MUST have OEM, for some plastic letters that say toyota, fine, waste your $$ on ebay. That site has easy chrome letters you can apply yourself. this is my 3rd tailgate for this 2002 so i'm not picky. these were slightly smaller than the oem size.

 

When I get around to building my new swing out bumper / tailgate I'm going to 3d print some new badges... Just gotta figure out how to chrome them after that

 

put some vinyl decals. Almost anyone on etsy can custom make those in vinyl whatever color including chrome. Only thing they will be flat as appose to the original decals that are kind of a 3D style.
Theres a guy on here that does decals. Cant remember his name

 

I see what you're saying now. Thanks.

 

I can make those, whatever color you want. Been making a trd version for a little while

 

Plus 1 for vinyl vendor
Like my man OldGreen

they won’t be thick but will be better than faded and the EBay OE price(if found)

now another “more intensive search” option would be getting similar and available OE emblem
Tons of X-referencing needed
Might not be exact font/size/color but thick
Might luck out thou
GL

 

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I kinda want to keep it close to original if I can.

 

I plastdipped mine. I like the black look better than the chrome. Reminds me I need to touch them up or redo. Went about 5 years until starting to peal off in some places.

 

James Dean Creations?

Wouldn't bother painting them. They're made of vinyl and can't be reattached once removed.

I'd recommend the eBay replicas linked above though. I got the full set of tailgate and C-pillar ones for ~$150. They came aligned on a peelable plastic sheet, but if you're concerned about spacing being 1000% correct you could always put a piece of paper along the bottoms of your existing emblems and mark off the points for alignment. They're chromed plastic, not vinyl like the OEM ones so shouldn't have the same issue with deteriorating. I was very happy with the results

 

Thanks for your reply

 

HoneyBadger,

Interested in your results. How long since you applied them? If possible would you mind sharing some photos of them installed? Thanks.

 

I put them on around August of last year. The place that painted the car put on the "TACOMA" emblem but didn't put it on correctly so I had to redo it without the help of the peelable plastic - hence the skewed "C".