11c Badge Touch Up

[Matt_12c]

Hi, I have an 11c with a badge where the silver(?) paint has essentially been rubbed away (70%). Is there a paint pen or some other way to refurbish it to look good? I also have some chrome paint but it's a spray so I'd probably have to find a way to blot it on. What has worked for you? Is this a heat gun/remove and touch up procedure or is it something to do in place? It is a mid/late '80s model.

I did a search but most badge content was related to replacement and not touching up rubbed away finish.

Thanks.
Matt

[Dallas Osborne]

That stuff isn't paint I am sorry to say. It is a very thin layer of metal across the top of the plastic logos. Early logos were metallic; those will last forever. But, if you aren't going for the like-new look and don't mind if it looks painted, the "silver leaf" paint pen at your local hobby store will be the best compromise in ease of application and look. It will not be reflectively smooth, though.

I have tried nearly everything from aluminum leaf, silver laquer paint, to paint pens.
I even tried electro-plating. (It wasn't cool at all.) (I don't have access to the equipment to try milling, but that could work.)
No die maker would machine a die set to strike new ones from aluminum sheet stock. So I did the only thing I could imagine after that and started casting them in silver. That was moderately successful and I had to justify the entire endeavor as entertainment so I wouldn't have to face the massively embarrassing history of my quest. I am sure I could have bought a spanking new 11c and 15c for what I put into trying to restore my logo.

But it was fun.

I have a few of the poorer 11c logos if you want me to send you a couple photos. I have eight investments of 15c logos with 5 waxes each in the kiln right now and will cast them tomorrow.

Edited: 14 Apr 2011, 7:35 p.m.

[robert rozee]

has anyone ever tried this stuff :

http://www.krylon.com/products/looking_glass_mirror_like_paint/

i've been thinking about it for making reflectors for LED torches. some of the torches you can buy do have aluminium reflectors with a mirror paint applied, in particular the ones with an 'orange peel' finish (think of a cross between the old-fashioned 'hammered finish' paint and the above mirror paint).

another option i'm surprised nobody has tried is simply a small square of aluminium with the logo silk screened on in black. it would be non-original, but where a logo is missing would fill the space. in many circumstances a restoration with obviously non-original parts is considered quite acceptable, sometimes more so than a near-identical-to-original fake.

[Martin Pinckney]

Haven't tried that particular product, but every other spray paint that claims to produce a metallic mirror finish, doesn't.

[Dallas Osborne]

I have to agree with Martin on this one. This type of product is designed to work with glass so that it uses the very plane surface to keep the viewing side mirror smooth. To get this stuff to work, you would spray it at the back side of a piece of glass. The mirror finish is then the surface as viewed through the glass.

The only way I know of to get a true mirror finish is to use a process called vacuum metallization. Not. Cheap.

[HAL9000]

Hello: I have an HP15C calculator with a missing logo, could you please tell me if you have an extra logo you could sell me, and if so, for how much? Thanks.

PS: I tried to contact you directly but I just got an account and the system would not allow me (you probably can and if so please do). By the way, I am in Colorado, at 9000ft, on firm ground.

[aj04062]

I've been thinking about trying to make some using a waterjet. I am pretty sure it could be done.

Once I had the metal blank it could even be chrome plated.