Custom door emblems - black on red

I've spent a few weeks playing with different door emblem combos. Black and chrome are both kind of boring and I didn't want the mock Pro emblems. This is my third attempt to create a door emblem I liked, and I really liked it. I'm pretty sure this setup would look killer on pretty much all colors except maybe the blues and red? Silver/White/Cement/Black for sure. Blue and red Tacos maybe with silver painted letters with black inserts? Between rattle can colors and tons of insert colors on TVDVinyldecals.com, you can do anything you want.

Step 1, buy black door emblems from eBay, MAKE SURE they are for 2016+ and measure 13.5"x1" and that they aren't the smaller ones for gen 2s. The listings will say it and they will be a little pricier. I think I paid $40 for 2.

Step 2, buy the matte black letter inserts from TVDvinyldecals.com.

Step 3, clean and paint the black door emblems red. I used rustoleum sunrise red gloss because I often have good luck with rustoleum products. Since the emblems were smooth and clean, I skipped primer. I cleaned the surface with alcohol and let it fully dry before painting 2 light and one heavier coat of red. The paint didn't lay down as completely smooth as I'm used to, so I should have probably used primer. After you paint it, try and break the paint away from the plastic backing that is stuck to the double sided tape of the emblems. I let it dry together and it made for a bit of a mess when I pulled the emblems off the backing to install them. Let the emblems FULLY dry, probably 1-2 days before putting the black inserts on. I tried after a day and the paint was still wrinkling a bit with pressure (even in 90+ temps/decent humidity).



Step 4, align and install the matte black inserts. It's super sexy, not gonna lie.



Mark your stock emblems location. Note: THESE emblems are a little shorter than the stockers, so just mark the front of the emblem and the top to make sure the new one is straight. Pull your stock emblems, clean off all residue, and plop these down.

I think these are super cool, and turned out great. These do as much for me as the mock pro emblems as far as looks, and I like that they still match the truck's trim level.

Someone should probably make these emblems. Maybe one of the paint folks or vinyl folks here on the forum? I don't have time to do it or I would consider it actually.

 

Maybe someday. Would do well with my theme.

 

I like it!

 

The red from the first pass is still a little too extra. It's very bright against the cement and lighter than the bed lettering. So, I tried another color as a base for the black inlays. This is Rust-Oleum heritage red in matte finish. It's a good match for bed decal. Once they cure I'll add black lettering.

Out of sun.



In sun

 

I never updated this, but I ended up doing one more set that I LOVE. This is Rust-Oleum carnival red with TVD graphite metallic inserts.

 

My wife painted her toenails like that once.

It took a couple of hours, lasted a week, so 1.2% of that week. I used that time to repair our microwave oven. Sucker still works two years later. True story.

 

I used a $5 can of Plasti-dip!