Round tank badges

78jotadave

78jotadave

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Location
Palm Desert, California. (near Palm Springs)
The paint on my original tank badges has pretty much worn off anyone got any tips on repainting them?  I have a set of new badges that I bought many years ago from Wolfgang and have had them stored in a drawer all these years.

The new badges do not screw on like the original but have a soft rubber backing on them and a peel off plastic cover where a sticky adhesive used to be. They were suppose to be 'peel and stick' but as I said I bought them years ago and now there no stick after the peel. Anyone had experience with these, any tips on getting them to stick? The rubber backing is a little bulky and getting them to sit flush on the tank seems like the rubber needs to be removed/trimmed, any tips? Thanks Dave
 
Dave,
I went the other way and replaced my stick on badges with the screw on types. The screw on types I had were unpainted and an article in a Oldtimer mag inspired me to paint the badges with insulin syringes/needles. Worked quite well, especially the center field with the raised Laverda logo got a good white coverage without touching the embossed letters. You can apply the paint in very small and controlled applications. Worth a try I'd say!

My original badges (stick on type that came with the bike when I got it) were stuck on with RTV.

HTH
Gerald
 
(RTV) room temperature vulcanising, the stuff used to caulk expansion joints in bathroom tiling.
Silicone compound or I've heard Brits call it mastic.

Gerald
 
If you can get it, there's a double sided "tape" replacement marketed in the US as "uGlu" which is truly remarkable. Sticks like crazy and doesn't seem to dry out or even creep like a lot of non-drying adhesives tend to do.
But if you can't get it, actual Mastic would be my choice. It's not the same thing as RTV, it actually is a water-based gap filling adhesive that does dry and hardens, but it's pretty tough stuff. It's commonly used to seal heating/air conditioning duct junctions. RTV is silicon-based, also dries and hardens, but not as sticky as Mastic. Epoxy will never fall off, but you'll never be able to get the badges off again if you ever want to repaint the tank, although even epoxy does soften with heat from a hot air gun.

Ken
 
Most any body shop will have a good quality double sided tape as the moldings and emblems are held on like that nowdays.I restored the badges on my "free" 3CL by masking,painting,dabbing,and scraping carefully while going cross eyed trying to see what I was doing. I used some enamel spray from the hardware store and the colors came really close to what is on the sidecover badges I got from Wolfgang.
 
i use model paints, thinned
and do the letters first
using a small syringe favoured by diabetics
different syringe for each color
throw away after use
any paint that goes over the edging can simply be scraped off with a sharp blade

for stick on style use double sided tape used to keep trim on autos
lay a stripe along each side of the screw on tab fixed to the tank
gets the badge closer to the tank
 
Dave, it's been awhile since I last brought model paint, there was 2 types available I'd use,
 
Tamiya, is a water based paint, quick drying but may need some sort of clear coat for weather protection.

Humbrol is an enamel paint and probably turps based,  6 hours between coats.

I'd probably go with the Humbrol enamel paint given that it'll be subject to all weather conditions, not that it rains in Palm Springs!!
As I said, it's been awhile since I've used it so maybe there are better/new paints on the market.

The way I'd do it would be to air brush the white, mask, then green, mask, then red, mask, then use the syringe method for the black lettering.
Once done, sand the raised edges with 600 grade wet/dry stuck to a sanding stick for a nice ally finish.

Obviously you'd need a air brush, you probably don't have one so just use the syringe with needle.
I think a sprayed finish would look better on the larger surfaces, IMHO.
I just dug out my box of model paints from 20 years ago, most of the Tamiyas have dried up and the Humbrols are still good.

 
dave, the only model paints i can put my hands on are testor's enamel
thinned with their thinner or any enamel reducer (which eats the rubber in the syringe)
so the paint flows through the needle
first bit of paint will create a blob at the tip so tip should be laid onto badge
do the black, then the white until well practiced
it is hard to flow the red and green sections smooth with a syringe
spraying these would be a tidier solution
might take a time or two to get it down
then, when it gets scratched from a tank bag
you have the laid back surfer karma
knowing it is only pennies to make right
instead of fuck there went 25 bucks

 
I've achieved excellent results with Humbrol, applied thinned with a fine brush.  Their colours match the originals almost 100%.

piet
 
I am with Piet.....couldn't be arsed with all the syringe stuff.  Painted with a brush, you would never know....

and last time I looked, they were only about ?20 each from Oz (although now the exchange rate has changed, maybe they are ?200  :P )

Pete
 
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