Yamaha Emblem Restoration?

[wolfman]

Anybody tried to restore their tank, fork, side panel or rear cover Yamaha emblems?  I'm referring to the Gold Chrome "decal" portion that always seems to flake off.  There is some Gold Chrome vinal auto trim tape available in 6" x 14' rolls for around $10 (US) from Trimbrite.  It would seem that with alot of time and some xacto knife work it "could" be done.  I'm just wondering if anyone has tried and what the results looked like.  Now that my bike is mechanically sound, it's time to get it looking better, and fresh paint with missing or ugly emblems just won't do, and the factory emblems (if you can find them) are $$$ Suggestions?  Comments?

[Humber]

OK... I don't know what's in US.. but in POland there are special shops that offer ?plastic chroming, so u can restore YICS box, emblems.. put some chrome on headlight bucket or anything u wish....

As for paints.. I don't think there are any which would give the effect of genuine chrome... but.. I saw a powder paint that shines as real gold... and I am going to paint my engine this way...


OK, your idea seems to be great... although a lot of 'exacting' involved... we don't have such things over here.. but certainly the final result will be OK....

and... I think there might be some paints/powders for restoring picture frames.... this may also work... but frames are made of wood.. so... any more ideas???

[Lucky]

I have my tank & fairing badges off now as a matter of fact because i'm repainting my fairing.  They are made of plastic & are plated.  

there are 2 ways to go about this. first you can go to a high auto end dealer and talk to the sales manager.  They often use a service from a plating company. these guys come out to the dealers & gold plate the emblems on some of the more expensive cars, & the results are impressive, see if they can give you the name & number of the guy who does it, or possably when they expect to see him next. but this is likely to be expensive. (or look in the phone book)

The other option is to gold paint the badges yourself & wet sand in between coats, using super fine grit.  I'm probably the worst at body work, so don't ask me for examples lol

--Lucky

[squid]

dont forget to clear coat after it will bring the shine right into the paint ;D

[Rick G]

I've painted a couple  and there not bad ,certainly not chrome , but  there presentable.

[Cdnlouie]

I ordered two new tank emblems last summer and got them from Yamaha Canada. They were not that expensive.  They sure look nice new.

Figured it was not worth the pain and suffering of masking the  letters off.

Louie  :-/

[Rick G]

Here they are 35.00 , a copy.  I didn't mask them , I used a brush to fill in between the letters.

[Cdnlouie]

Hey I got a smoking deal here then.  $24 each.  They must have some old stock in Montreal.

Louie  :D

[Humber]

yea... I was told this price some time ago at my shop... but damn.. it is too high for me...