Restoring fender emblem

[TomoHawk]

How can you restore the GOLD part ( around the Z) on the 280Z fender emblem?

thx

[hls30.com]

What Gold part? Chrome, black and red as I recall.

Did your red Jell fade to yellow?

Will

[GunnerRob]

The plastic fill around the "Z" on the emblem on my '75 280z was red. It has since faded to almost white.

[TomoHawk]

To be sure, I'm referring to the emblem near the bottom of the fender behind the front wheels.

All the 280Zs in my area are chrome letters "280" on black, and on the end, is a Z in a 'box' with a gold background, which is faded or dirty.

thx

[MikeW]

Even a new emblem doesn't always look red so I can understand the confusion:

http://www.zparts.com/events/wczn20/images/00r08f20.jpg

http://www.datsunrestore.com/images/280z_fender_emblem.jpg

http://www.courtesyparts.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/s30/98811-280ZF.jpg

[TomoHawk]

That last one is what we have with the gold.

[Alan Pugh]

This will either help clear things up or confuse it more.

My car is a 260 Australian delivered 1977.

The original fender (front guard for aussies) emblem had the burnt orange jell around the Z section.

I bought new emblems from Chloe NOS and they have the yellow jell around the Z section.

So in 1974 in the US your 260's would have had yellow around the Z and I dare say our 260's would have had yellow untill the 280 came out over their and would have then changed to orange.

Is that right?

[1 Bravo 6]

G'Day there Alan,

My "Precious" is a 8/74 260Z.

The mudguard/fender emblem is the burnt orange colour. As I am only the 2nd owner and the emblems were on the car when I bought it, I assume them to be correct.

Rick.

:devious: :devious:

[hls30.com]

I have always thought(looks like I was wrong) that the jell in emblems in question were red/orange and faded to yellow. then white, and then fell out because they were completely dried out

I have suspected that the jell in the emblems was actually the same resin used in the steeringwheel-but without the fiber/wood. I would try some red oak or mahogany urethane in a used emblem, and see how it works-spar varnish is more UV resistant.

Will

[TomoHawk]

OK, now that we're all agreed about the color ( or range of), the original question was about how it can be restored. Not knowing what it looked like new, I am up for ideas from y'all. A friend in the local Z clun told me it was easy to restore.

I'm headed to the copy center later to get my Wick book rebound. Maybe there's some help in there.

thx

[Alan Pugh]

Tomohawk, the jell substance in the badges is like a hot melt glue, but not glue, if you get what i mean. You heat it, it softens to a honey like consistancy, pour it in the badge and it hardens. There are companies (few and far between) in Aus that still carry this stuff and restore badges. I am sure that there would have been emblems on older US cars with the same jell substance in them and there must be someone who sells it over there.

Or just use expoxy resin with a pigment in it.

Thanks Rick for the colour confirmation. What month in 74 was the 280Z introduced into the US?

[TomoHawk]

I think the epoxy coating would work, after either scraping the top layer off to get to the layer with good color or just add some more colored epoxy on top. Either way, you'll need to scuff the top to get the epoxy to adhere.

thx