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The method was nothing special but I was wondering about the paint. I have never tried any transparent paint on the emblems so that may be the secret. In another post customclipper55 mentioned a friend had told him some emblems used something reflective behind the paint. Silver or gold paint was mentioned and maybe that is behind the gray stuff on our emblems. I don't know if ordinary metallic paint would be very reflective but I wonder if something like silver or aluminum foil molded to the back side of the emblem after the transparent paint had dried would provide a little extra brilliance to the paint.

Here is where I am now...I painted the rear of the grill emblem and was disappointed by the dullness of the paint showing through. I Googled plastic restoration and came across a site that mentioned mixing baking soda and Murphy's Oil. I did that and polished for about 15 minutes and there was a definite improvement. I think my emblems are too far gone for such fine polishing. I might have to resort to more aggressive 600-1000 grit sandpaper first...

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On the emblem I have it is gray on the back. I wonder if they used some sort of red translucent paint on the inside with a mirrored type coating over that.

John

Here is what I ended up with. I did not put a final layer of gray over everything. Not sure if I will or not. I'm disappointed but had nothing to lose. The silver Testers paint became too gray when shining through the plastic which doesn't make sense to me. I put some aluminum foil behind the plastic and it came through shiny. Maybe they did use a special paint or mine was just plain wrong. Oh well, no harm, no foul and better than a blank emblem with no color at all. I still have some polishing to do on the grill emblem to clean up the white blotches. I also have some silver overpaint in some spots. I got a little sloppy when I realized it was not working as planed. For polishing the plastic I went as aggressive at 320 sandpaper first to get out as many scratches as possible. Most were too deep to get out though.

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The trunk emblem looks pretty good, though I think it was in better shape to start with too. What red did you end up using?

The grille emblem is pretty yellowed, tough to make it clear again. At least you have one! :o)

Thanks! Yes at least I have something on the grill. I used Testors 1605 gloss custom red translucent in a small spray can.

now for some high gloss clear on the outside!

Tried putting clear coat on today (from a rattle can) and it was a disaster! It made the silver details blurry so I wiped it off. Maybe from a paint gun it would be better? I don't know.