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New Emblems - Car Motorsports
- Thread starter rocketman
- Start date
jarredsoon
Gold Member
Double check that the nose emblem has a bend in it to fit the bumper cover. That is all I know about emblems.
I grabbed a set of the Turbo fender emblems from him off Ebay ( and yes...i read the TBuick feedback). I received them in a week and the quality is excellent, nice heavy emblem too...ordered about 1 month ago
Nose emblem can be ordered with or without the mounting stud in the back. Emblem is pretty flat compared to the OEM emblems. Also the 20th ANNIVERSARY on there is black on gold compared to the OEM version where its all gold; which is a bit odd as the sail panel emblem is correct (so just gold no black on there).
The rear bird emblem curvature is exagarated and I beleive they try to flatten them slightly before shipped but might be wrong ... anyway the fit is not very good.
All other emblems they sell (TTA) are good.
Just remember the manufacturing processes and materials used compared to the old OEM emblems makes it impossible to expect a 100% comparable emblem.
So besides the nose and the rear bird they get my vote.
The rear bird emblem curvature is exagarated and I beleive they try to flatten them slightly before shipped but might be wrong ... anyway the fit is not very good.
All other emblems they sell (TTA) are good.
Just remember the manufacturing processes and materials used compared to the old OEM emblems makes it impossible to expect a 100% comparable emblem.
So besides the nose and the rear bird they get my vote.
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This is not about car motorsports. Just repro emblems in general, but these comments do apply to the vendor in question. they just apply to others as well.
The repro nose emblems all have the orange enamel section too light in color. It is like a light gold. It doesn't match the sail panel emblems and it doesn't match the original nose emblem. I even have a NOS nose emblem where the enamel color is light gold instead of orange. So even the factory supplier made some with the wrong color. It could be that the repros were modeled after one of these wrong nos pieces. All of my TTA's had correct orange sections on their nose emblems and I haven't yet seen a replacement that looks like the original.
I don't have pictures here but I could get some soon. But there is nothing you can do anyway, unless you have your original one replated. It is possible to put new gold plating on the gold plated sections. The enamel sections usually don't go bad. And they retain their proper color.
Just be aware that people like me can spot a replacement nose emblem from about 30 feet away because of that color problem. It is not a subtle difference. Does anyone besides me care about this? I don't know. Also, the white enamel is bright refrigerator white unlike the originals. the originals have white sections that are about the shade of the paint on the car. I have originals that were never installed, so it is not a fading or dirt issue. The repros are as white as a GE refrigerator. Some of the indy 500 wings have little circle copywrite symbols in them too. That is wrong. It is easy to avoid that problem though. Just make sure you get the ones that that don't have that little circle with the c in it.
The repro nose emblems all have the orange enamel section too light in color. It is like a light gold. It doesn't match the sail panel emblems and it doesn't match the original nose emblem. I even have a NOS nose emblem where the enamel color is light gold instead of orange. So even the factory supplier made some with the wrong color. It could be that the repros were modeled after one of these wrong nos pieces. All of my TTA's had correct orange sections on their nose emblems and I haven't yet seen a replacement that looks like the original.
I don't have pictures here but I could get some soon. But there is nothing you can do anyway, unless you have your original one replated. It is possible to put new gold plating on the gold plated sections. The enamel sections usually don't go bad. And they retain their proper color.
Just be aware that people like me can spot a replacement nose emblem from about 30 feet away because of that color problem. It is not a subtle difference. Does anyone besides me care about this? I don't know. Also, the white enamel is bright refrigerator white unlike the originals. the originals have white sections that are about the shade of the paint on the car. I have originals that were never installed, so it is not a fading or dirt issue. The repros are as white as a GE refrigerator. Some of the indy 500 wings have little circle copywrite symbols in them too. That is wrong. It is easy to avoid that problem though. Just make sure you get the ones that that don't have that little circle with the c in it.
I have a number of NOS emblems and they are all slightly different in color, both the gold and the white this could be due to ageing but most likely due to the differences in the manufacturing process (mom and pop shop and all more or less handmade is my understanding).
For the winged Indy emblem, I have not seen one with the registered symbol on it. Only the GM emblems sold by the GM parts departmement had that on them at some point, all TTAs I've seend did not and many emblems sold by the GM parts departmenet did not have it either so I guess at some point in life the emblem were updated to include the registered mark on them.
Personaly for me the fit is important along with a as close as possible look ... to get them 100% perfect I would say is impossible and would take loads of $$$$ in tooling and with the limited quantity you would sell not worth it. We have 2 suppliers that done the investement and I doubt they gone break even on what they sold so far. Too bad the nose emblem still have more to wish for (and the rear bird from named supplier above).
For the winged Indy emblem, I have not seen one with the registered symbol on it. Only the GM emblems sold by the GM parts departmement had that on them at some point, all TTAs I've seend did not and many emblems sold by the GM parts departmenet did not have it either so I guess at some point in life the emblem were updated to include the registered mark on them.
Personaly for me the fit is important along with a as close as possible look ... to get them 100% perfect I would say is impossible and would take loads of $$$$ in tooling and with the limited quantity you would sell not worth it. We have 2 suppliers that done the investement and I doubt they gone break even on what they sold so far. Too bad the nose emblem still have more to wish for (and the rear bird from named supplier above).
DaveGershon
Well-Known Member
I like the quality of most of them. The only issue I had is with the rear sail panel bird. It is curved and needs to be heated and flatened.
Dave
Dave
We are very lucky that anyone is reproducing any of them. I am surprised anyone would tool up to make a few hundred emblems. And to be able to sell them for less than the GM list price too. It's just a shame about that orange color. It would not have cost any more to make the nose emblem the same color as the sail panel emblems like the originals were. It probably would have cost less, actually.
