[Cat Woman]

Hi,

I know this has been asked before inc me and I think someone was going to look into getting some made up but now its critical. Both my Ford Racing badghes are kaput and I need some new ones, anyone got any ideas to help a female in distress

[Big Boy Al]

i had some made up by the company who originally made the tickford badges for me but they were not right

they were domed instead of square edged.

looked the same apart from the actual gel doming itself.

ive asked a couple more companies too but they said they cant make them either

the man asked a contact of his if they would make them and they said yes but would be at a minimum order of 2000 lol.

[Dogsbody]

They come up on Ebay occasionally.
I bought mine a few months ago, and paid about £36 for the pair which were new.

[Pnthrblkzs]

I desperately need new badges for mine, the racing lettering on mine is so faded their barely pink, lol

I've bought 2 gel badges from DMB graphics as a temporary measure, even though they won't look genuine i feel they'll still look better than my faded badges.

Sad thing is in my youth and ignorance i had a new genuine set a few years ago which i stuck on my Fiesta, i still have one in my drawer but some of the Ford logo has snapped :-(

2000 is an excessive amount for a manafacturer to request to be ordered, i reckon 500 sets could be shifted easily on here and other ford forums though.

[Cat Woman]

I aint bothered about how much it costs, I just gotta get some original badges. Just thinking when hubby had his st170 a few yr ago they were plentiful and he had a few....Talk about kicking ourselves now.

Any ideas guys just give us a shout

[warrenpenalver]

I remember when i pulled one apart a couple of years back the problem with making them is the fact that the plastic bit is injection moulded clear plastic so youd need to make new mould to produce them then attach the lettering and backing to rear.

[racingpuma1982]

i got some domed ones off ebay and stuck them on top of the original squared ones. looks good imo.

[warrenpenalver]

Yes but its not original spec which is the point of trying to have copies made. We need someone who works in plastics who wouldnt mind small scale moulding for us!! The lettering is probably do-able.

[Pnthrblkzs]

i got some domed ones off ebay and stuck them on top of the original squared ones. looks good imo.

Thats my plan too, i can then always peel them back to reveal the originals.

[happy-kat]

the badges ran out of stock a time back because they were bought up and stuck on other Fords

a scrappy may be an option if they are breaking an FRP. They do come up on Ebay from time to time and not always for sill silly money.

a few years back I had a set ordered and the first lot never got to me, the Dealer had to order again..

[racingpuma1982]

Yes but its not original spec which is the point of trying to have copies made. We need someone who works in plastics who wouldnt mind small scale moulding for us!! The lettering is probably do-able.

yeah but they can easily be peeled off and they protect the originals from damage and fading. it would be nice to have some replicas made though, although they are probably gonna be quite expensive as no one seems to want to reproduce them

This post has been edited by racingpuma1982: 14 September 2008 - 09:51 PM

[warrenpenalver]

The problemalso is the logos are not simply made either. The silver ford logo is proper shiney silver rather than just coloured print and the black and red seem layered with the red being applied from the rear.

Its hard to see the shineyness in a photo:


You can see the layered nature of the "racing" from the rear:

[Pnthrblkzs]

Looking at the above pictures does anyone think it's possible to refurb the badges, the red 'racing' part is the only problem with mine. I'm thinking it may be possible to remove the red then pe-paint somehow.

I'll have a look at my broken badge tonight to see if its possible....

[warrenpenalver]

You'll neeed to remove the layer of glue to see if the red can be peeled off.

[shinigami]

I got some recently from Ebay and they are slightly faded. Some of the silver lettering even appears a little tarnished. I have removed all traces of glue from them and tried to use some red marker pen on the back. Unfortunately it still appears faded from the side which you view the logo from.

The lettering can't be peeled off. It looks printed in two stages, 1st is black and then the rectangle block of red print on top of the black outline.

The print could be scratched off but you would need to be so careful as if you are only trying to remove the red you are likley to scratch a lot of the black off as well.

Seeing as the logo with the domed badge appears to be the same size I am wondering if someone can get hold of the print from them badges without the gel dome. That way, we could maybe scratch off the Racing logo and stick the copy on the underside of the original plastic.

I've approached some Acrylic companies to see if copies can be made and I've given them some dimensions but I haven't heard back yet.

It seems to be one hell of a tough badge to make seeing as no one wants to make them again.

[Dezza]

the company I work for originally quoted Ford for the racing badges but those ones where rounded edges and Ford ended up going for the square edges. We did do some other bits for the FRP like the original Amourfend kits

[warrenpenalver]

Having looked at it a bit deeper earlier the badge is 3 seperate parts, the moulded plastic, graphics substrate and the Glue.

The graphics substrate with glues can be easily made from manufacturers doing the domed badges although they do not appear to have the same shiney quality on the ford logo but this can be achieved if i commissioned a small batch as there is shiney silver material available for such labels.

The hard part is the injection mould. In theory its simple, but the moulds are very expensive to produce and the set up costs make it prohibitative as youd never be able to recoup the set up cost for the numbers we are talking about making.

There are two ways of going round this.....

1) try and locate the company who made originals and find out/source the original mould if it still exists. In this case its financially viable to do.

2) get it made from clear resin. similar to stuff used in paperwieghts and encapsulated insects/flowers. Its available in a hard enough and UV resistant resins that are optically clear relatively cheaply. The mould can be done DIY or by a company. diy cheapest but a company is expensive but cheaper than injection moulding.

(basically resin products cost more per unit but the set up costs are very low, where as with injection moulding the mould could cost well over a grand but the unit cost per plastic item is pennies.)

I will have a look in town later today for the componants and ask for some advice on if i can achieve a bubble free finish with DIY temperatures or if its better off being done at high temperature in an industrial factory.

[warrenpenalver]

Having looked at this further today the substrate badges are relatively cheap and can be had from between £1-2 each dependant on quantity and quality. The fancy silver rather than the cheap silver colour as found on gel badges costs slightly more and i thinks worth it if your trying to accurately replicate the badge.

Materials to make the resins are not too expensive as about a kilo of resin and kilo of mould making silicone is about £15 each and that would make several moulds and a kilo of resin would make shed loads of badges.

There is a more expensive resin I can use too. The resin above is polyester based resin and has a high UV resistance but will eventually begin to yellow slightly in about 5 years (according to manufacturer) for continual outdoor exposure. The more expensive polyurethane based resin does not yellow with UV light at all and is easier to work with to be bubble free too coming in thin or thick versions depending on thickness of item being casted (in our case we need the thin resin). The only disadvantage is its £40 for a kilo.

Im not sure if its worth the extra money if i can achieve bubble free finish using polyester resin as the life of the substrate logo will probably see red fading in 5-6 years anyway (as with current original badges) and in all cases fading will take longer for a car in a garage etc.

The craft shop will be able to order me in the resins so i will probably experiment with the cheaper resin for now.

[Cat Woman]

Well I would be up for at least 3 sets (6 badges) if it can be done as near to the originals as possible, let me know if you need any cash up front.

Cheers

[Pnthrblkzs]

Well I would be up for at least 3 sets (6 badges) if it can be done as near to the originals as possible, let me know if you need any cash up front.

Cheers

Same here, 2 sets for me, poss 3 dependant on the price!

Got my Domed gel ones from DMB graphics today to temporarily stick over the originals. They just look cheap, not right at all.