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Reproduction Nose emblem... Who has bought them and from where...

PhillyTurboSix

PhillyTurboSix

Administrator
Staff member
I just picked up a set of badges from a board member here and all of them look great (other then the cheap tape they came with) but the nose emblem. The color is lighter then the OEM one and the stud on the back don't even line up! As you can see in the pic below... it's way off no less! Did you drill a new hole in the nose of your car? If I mount it in the oem hole it looks way to high and there is a slight slight yellowing around where my old badge was.

My badges are ok but they are showing some wear so I figured a fresh set would be nice (considering I got them cheap too! :) ) and put the originals away before they get worse. The "TURBO" and Indy wheel seem fine but this nose badge is like the place people first look so why would someone reproduce something and not make it perfect?! I'm pretty sure they are from gtaemblems.com I think someone else was reproducing these as well. Let me know what you guys did!


Shitty camera phone pics but OEM on the right. Repro on the left...

IMG00320.jpg
 
I got mine from Carmotorsports way back but as far as I can remember they were correct compared to my OEM emblem and for the stud hole I might have drilled that one as my front bumper cover was brand new OEM to replace my cracked one that where on the car when I bought it.

Can you measure the distance from the top edge of the emblem to the edge on the bumper cover (close to the hood) and I'll have a look at mine and also compare with a brand new GM OEM emblem I got.

I take it the ones you have are from down under (GTAemblems.com) based on the comment you made about the double sided tape on the emblems.
 
I'll have to measure that and let you know Jan. I guess I'll try the carmotorsports one next. I was shocked to see the stud was'nt in the same place. I can see the color being off but there is no excuse for that stud not being in the same place! Here is another shot.... yes they are gtaemblems.com

IMG00319.jpg
 
The carmotorsports emblems use 3M automotive tape on them with orange protective film.

The carmotorsports emblems looked really good only thing is the rear tail light white bird emblem is (or at least was) too curved so needed flattening somewhat but besides that I was pleased with them.
 
Jan another question for you. When I was taking the front turnlamps off trying to put this nose badge on, one of those little plastic inserts that the 2 screws hold the turnsignal lends on broke. Any idea on where to get those?
 
I bought a NOS nose badge on Ebay a couple of months ago...only way to go! The "fake" badge is completely flat (at least mine is) and it doesn't conform to the nose well at all. One side was in the air while the other was sticking flat to the nose.
 
PhillyTurboSix said:
Jan another question for you. When I was taking the front turnlamps off trying to put this nose badge on, one of those little plastic inserts that the 2 screws hold the turnsignal lends on broke. Any idea on where to get those?
Click to expand...

They break as soon as you put the screw back in there, anyway GM got them I can dig out the part number for you as I bought some when I put my car back together
 
fast400 said:
I bought a NOS nose badge on Ebay a couple of months ago...only way to go! The "fake" badge is completely flat (at least mine is) and it doesn't conform to the nose well at all. One side was in the air while the other was sticking flat to the nose.
Click to expand...

The carmotorsport nose emblem is correctly curved like the OEM emblem, not sure about the gtaemblems one, Jim?
 
The GTAemblems one is flat as a pancake! :disgust: Being the ones I got were already cracked when I tryed to bend it a little tiny bit it cracked even worse!

Jan looks like the part number for those clips is 3999700 but coming up bad with GM. Just double check for me that's the number you ordered if you get the chance. I'll check with the local GM dealer I use as well. Thanks! :)
 
Jan,
Don't know where mine came from...but it was flat too!
Here's pics of the original:yes:
 

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PhillyTurboSix said:
Jan another question for you. When I was taking the front turnlamps off trying to put this nose badge on, one of those little plastic inserts that the 2 screws hold the turnsignal lends on broke. Any idea on where to get those?
Click to expand...

GM part number is 3999700 Group 1.269 listed as Nut. Got a brand new in the GM bag infront of me. Comes 1 per bag so you would need 2 for each front turn/park signal/lamp unit.
 
fast400 said:
Jan,
Don't know where mine came from...but it was flat too!
Here's pics of the original:yes:
Click to expand...

Good reason not to get the stuff from gtaemblems.com sounds like it ... as I said the carmotorsports.com nose emblem is correctly shaped as the NOS one pictured.
 
PhillyTurboSix said:
Jan looks like the part number for those clips is 3999700 but coming up bad with GM. Just double check for me that's the number you ordered if you get the chance. I'll check with the local GM dealer I use as well. Thanks! :)
Click to expand...

Yep discontinued looks like, however VPI shows 176 in stock so get some while you can :-) $4.98 each .... if you do order some maybe you can get me 4 more?
 
Jan Larsson said:
Yep discontinued looks like, however VPI shows 176 in stock so get some while you can :-) $4.98 each .... if you do order some maybe you can get me 4 more?
Click to expand...

Jan, do you have a website for VPI or a phone number ?
Many thanks

Never mind, just found it. thanks anyway
 
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Were the Turbo tags from gtaemblems.com as well? How did the white ceramic match the cars paint? The set I bought from them wasnt even a close match....I sent mine back to them. I will agree on the crappy 3m tape on the badges too......quite a dissapointment actually.
 
The white ceramic in the emblems I don't think where ever intended to match the white paint work of the TTA but I could be wrong?
 
The white on the gtaemblems.com is good. It's a brite white. Like Jan said that was never made to match the car. It was like an off white on the OEM ones. The turbo and Indy badge are good just the nose badge was horrible. The one from Carmotorsports should be here any day now I'll take pics of all 3 and post them..
 
Yeah thats why I returned them...the white was wayyy off. The originals I have match perfectly...unfortunately one of mine is chipped. Im going to try a set from Carmotorsports next.
 
The TTA nose emblem from Gtaemblems.com has been pulled for retooling.. Thanks to the observations about 10 days ago .. it averted a bad batch getting out too far... More will be made.. and priced right ... & better again. The person with the bad pin one was refunded within minutes of the observation report being made.. No bad blood there.. and appreciated the common sense. Unfortunately GM's emblems were not perfect either.. GTAemblems produce around 100 emblems now + other excellent 3rd gen parts you don't know about.. but rejecting production samples & even full end production runs for various reasons is endless.. we've box's and box's of 2nd's that will never see the light of day.. be it a plastic letter emblem or metal.. its also difficult.. to Reverse Engineer.. perfectly everytime to people (like me) who sit and study an emblem/compare.. within 12 inches off our eyes... but that's also what it takes.
 
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Thanks for being on top of it and showing a true interest oz. I picked up a nose badge from carmotorsports.com after getting the ones from the board member from you and it seems while the pin location was fine on the carmotorsports one the color of the gold is still off! I guess at this point only nos is the real deal. Oz if your going to retool them you might as well get the color right on the gold and you'll have ALL the sales on this badge. While the carmotorsports one looks beautiful as did yours a dead match on that gold would be the key. Here is a few pictures of my findings...

OEM on the left.. GTAemblems in the middle... and Carmotorsports on the right...

IMG_1354.jpg


While the carmotorsports is close.. it's not a dead match to OEM. Also the GTAemblems.com 20th Anniversary font is a much better match to the OEM one. That's like I said.. get the tooling correct and color Oz and you'll have us all! Please keep us up to date when they are done as I'll be the first one to buy one from you!! :)

Oz the turbo badge and indy badge were a beautiful match other then the double sided tape was a little weak looking. We'll see how it holds up. But then again water never actually touches my TTA :)

IMG_1359.jpg

IMG_1382.jpg

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.. here's a pick we want to see... the destruction of the recent TTA nose emblems..... but I'll do it again .. if need be. The next one we'll make a little darker again as close to the original as we can get. BUT .. we also have some NOS ones that have different shadings by about 3 % at least..and surface consistancy of originals .. or bumps where the pin is on the other side when you hold them up to the sun real close to your face etc... as do many more of the original gta nose emblems too .. was not good. and they were twice what we charged for them too. NOT the other way around....... but no doubt if a NOS one comes along at say $500 or more.. they ware still PROBABLY worth it .. but subject to it not being a reject...(just an NOS reject.. what is better??).
Anyway .. have fun.. these are the least selling emblem we have.. bit like the 84 Fiero Indy we did .. .. lovely emblem and all round respected by critics..but .. what do you call it.. a "LOSS LEADER" ... You have to be an enthusiast to do this sorta stuff.. not a businessman if you know what I mean. anyway we'll get on with it..
 
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OZ I must say you're a great man, I bought a set of your emblems from someone on one of the boards and lost one of them. I emailed you about it because I thought I didn't get it and if I remember right you offered to send it to me plus another emblem that you started including with the kit for the cost of shipping, or maybe you were just going to include the extra emblem free, but either way it was a nice gesture. Then I found the emblem and never took you up on it haha.

The emblems that I have fit fine, the bump and the pin seemed to line up just fine from what I remember too.
 
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