Thoro your recondition badges look great,could you share your process on how you made them look sooooo perfect?Looking good----kroll
Thank you. Of course I can share what I did.
Mind you, I saw or read this technique somewhere else, so it's not mine, but the concept is simple and I just kind of adapted it how I saw fit.
First, my badges had no paint except for where someone got a bit happy with a paint brush and they were just a bit dingy, so cleaning the up wasn't too difficult.
Then I carefully hammered out a few dents in them that were on the edge with a rubber faced hammer.
Then I buffed them up by hand with a scotchbrite pad.
Once it was clean to my liking I layed them flat, face up and sprayed them with gloss black rustoleum professional. (I wanted to do red on the sliding gear badge, cause I think it would have been more "warningish" but I didn't have any red and i didn't want to go out just for that)
I found that there was a sweet spot for drying time, because obviously if I didn't wait long enough, it made the process really hard to wipe off the embossed letters without bunging up the background, but if I waited too long, it got more and more difficult to get off the letters. I would suggest just feeling it out for yourself, but wait a bit for it to dry at least. Either way, you can't ruin it. If you end up totally messing up, get a rag with some mineral spirits, wipe the paint off and respray, or just spray over the first coat.
On to technique. I like old cotton t-shirts as rags for almost everything because they don't leave a lot of lint. So try to find yourself one to use. Little bit of mineral spirits in a cup (doesn't take much) dip a small corner of the rag, then kind of press the rag against it's self to make an area just damp. I was just kind of folding up the rag to make a "sharp" edge with it and just started gently wiping the letters. I found that if you wipe a bit and it wasn't coming off, the mineral spirits would work to soften up the paint and you could come back over it shortly and it would come off easier. I liked the rag better when it was more dry, as it seemed easier to control.
You'll notice that it's nearly impossible to avoid touching the background and that it will also change the sheen.
If you have any areas of the background that are showing brass, spray some paint into the cap of the paint can and use a small brush to touch up those areas.
Last step is to very carefully wipe the entire badge, background and all, with the rag dampened with mineral spirits to even the sheen on the background.
Hope that's a clear enough explanation. Let me know if you have any questions
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I agree, the badges look great. I did not do so well with mine so I just left them raw. You did great with yours!
Thank you. I replied to Kroll with my technique, if you care to read how it was done by me. I debated on doing it, but I am very happy I did.