Trying to get one of the emblems out the door and it looks like it's in good shape now. The emblems were sanded out and then Nason 2 part clear was used with a Harbor Freight spray gun. The clear is close to 200 dollars, but I wasn't really happy with the 2 part spray cans because they were 35 bucks while offering very little UV protection. Using the spray gun is the long term solution because it appears I am going to need to do some parts for my car when the time comes. I'm planning on wrapping up the part today and tomorrow so that I can get the emblem out to the owner. I'm hoping he does a quick video blurb about what he thinks.
At this point, I'm really happy with the results so far. The carbon part is not perfect because it has very minor flaws. I don't necessarily like that... but I will not keep changing the mold to get a perfect replica either. I have technical fixes for most all the problem areas; with many being resolved during implementation. Other fixes would require a new casting of the mold to make things "easier". Seeking perfection is fantastic, and it hurts when it isn't, but that's not my ultimate goal with this project. That being said... I'm also not trying to make something so homegrown that it looks garbage on the car.
The goal is to work with carbon to learn techniques while making something useful for someone/something. That's it. I feel like I've accomplished that here. I'm also open airing out my learning and fails here because it's quite valuable to learn from the failures in a productive way.
Hopefully I can show the final product in a few days, but this is where I landed. Please feel free to ask any questions.
First four pictures are the first coat of clear. Second to the last is an overview of what the prep looked like. Last picture is the second coat of clear. I need to wet sand and test fit the emblem one last time and then cut out some two sided tape for the back side.
Rear Emblem close up, wet clear.
Front Emblem close up, wet clear.
First coat dried and shown... in the sun somewhat. Better view would be on my IG reel below. Including the picture if you don't want to go to IG
Link to my IG (worth the view IMO):
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9c4t...RlODBiNWFlZA==
Wet sanded and preparing for spray.
2nd coat of clear. I tried to get the glare of the sun on the emblem so you could see the clear on the part. I laid the clear thick, too thick if I were spraying a car panel. I wanted to have material to sand so I didn't sand through to the part.
