I decided to manufacture some Black Pearl Emblems for the back of my car...my first mod.

I took the original chrome emblems off and used VHT smoked tint spray to give them an antique, black pearl finish. Finished it off with three coats of clearcoat.


You can see in this second image the difference between painting black and tinting - the tinting leaves some areas of the Nissan Badge chrome and gives it the black pearl look.




Next will be window tint.

Thank you all for your wonderful cars.

Joshua

 

That looks HOT!!!

 

Looks good.

 

Wow, looks nice. Very unique.

 

This is all you need:



I also bought some 3M Emblem Adhesive for 2.99 at Advanced Auto.

I had to do the Nissan Emblem twice because of the high surface area, the tint didn't like it too much. Multiple coats got it to where I wanted it.

Joshua

 

looks nice.

 

hmmmm..... could be used on.... tails??? Led ones....

 

Very nice Joshua! She's definately unique...... Way to get your feet wet!

 

Yes they can.

VHT also has a product called "Nightshades" which is a darker tint and less "watery" than Spray Tint.

The product worked well, I had my reservations but my first comment from my wife (who was against the whole thing) was "Well, You outdid yourself, and I'm sorry."

Hah! How often do I hear that??? (Never)

Joshua

 

Good woman, giving kudos where it is deserved. Keep her Joshua.......

Still loving it! Good job, I agree with your bride.

 

If ur gonna have logos on ur car, this is the way to go. Looks very nice!

 

looks good!!! that's cool b/c it seems relatively simple but has a pretty noticeable effect.

 

looks good man. I always liked the black pearl emblem but refuse to pay $50 for one. I painted mine metallic silver before I removed it altogether. JMO but I think it would look even better if you remove the other emblems. Congrats on the 1st mod. Keep em coming!

 

If it weren't such a pain to take them off, paint them and reattach them I would like to do that to my Onyx Max, it would look really good.

Nice job.

 

Black pearl emblems look good!


I with you on that. I really dislike the chrome look to the stock emblems, but the pia to remove and replace!

 

Excellent, sometimes it's the simple things that work best!!!

 

That is really nice! I've been wanting to get black pearl emblems on my car since I bought it, but don't think they're worth the $$$$. I was thinking of trying to do the exact same thing as you did, but working with emblems on my former car, didn't want to go through the hassle. I think it would look badass on a smoke maxima.

How did you go about removing the emblems? Any special technique?

 

That looks really good. Nice Job...

 

Thank you for all your kind comments.

I went about removing the emblems by wiggling them as much as I could in the hot sun, buying adhesive disolver and finally using a piece of paper and a screwdriver. The end method was pretty hard core but if you are delicate you can prevent any damage - the adhesive is very, very strong on some of the letters (and the Nissan emblem). This is a modification that just requires time and detail, but not a lot of money. Once you get them off you give them a spray, then another - the first one is very liquid-like and multiple sprays will give you the desired effect. I taped them off before I peeled them off, but it wasn't really necessary - the emblems left an outline that was easily discernible.

Joshua

 

Very nice...
A few weeks ago I removed the maxima and 3.5 se logo from the trunk lid. I placed a 5" NISMO emblem where the 3.5 SE logo was but I felt that something was missing... or there was too much there. Its definitely the chrome hamburger in the middle of the trunk. I was thinking about peeling that sucker off and spraying it black. Then it hit me....I think I could paint the NISSAN letters chrome. It would be inverted, and much more subtle.

 

Looking good. To the recent posters: how hard is it to remove?

 

Looks great! I've been looking for a method to somewhat duplicate black chrome for the burgers. Questions: Did you sand lightly at all and/or use clear primer before the window tint spray?

 

all emblems are easily removed w/dental floss or fishing line. If it's not sitting in the sun, heat it up w/ a hair dryer first.

 

No, sanding is not needed. The spray is watery so you have to do multiple coats to get the desired effect - you actually want it to run off to give you a chrome look.

Joshua

 

LOL......u read my mind...but i was going to used a flat black or swap for 2k3 titanium ed. emblems....loooks good though.