taking off this :
and replacing it with this :
So decided to do a little DIY on a Sunday. Nothing major.
I had purchased the gloss piano black rear VW emblem for my bootlid and whilst I did like how it looked, I didnt like the fact that there was no contrast. Previously the chrome emblem would stand out with the black backing but now since the badge was black, it became impossible to see the VW badge from afar. It looked like there was a massive black hole in the middle of my bootlid.
Previously, I had some nice hard plastic CF inserts which went in between the badges but since I had changed the badge, I decided to make the inserts candy white and colour matched to the rest of the car.
First, I needed to get my paint. Since I wanted this to be colour matched, I needed the paint code of my Candy White, which is LB9A. I didn't want to get this "professionally painted" as it was such a small thing and not worth the trouble of going to a professional IMO.
Enter
V&G Auto Paint. I heard about these guys through a friend who bought some paint from them for some touch up work. It came out brilliantly considering he was an amateur and the paint matched perfectly on his OEM gunmetal Evo 8 MR, which is difficult as the paint contains mettalic/pearl/flakes whatever you call it. These guys can colour match your car and get you a rattle can of any paint as long as you have the paint code. After a 15 minute wait and 35 bucks later, I got my candy white in a rattle can.
I also bought some more inserts on ebay as my current CF ones were going to be ruined once I took them off. I found some which were pre-cut but they only came in silver. Didn't matter. I bought 2 just in case I stuffed one up. Here's a not-so-great picture of the pre-cut inserts. I was trying to show the silver...
So all that was needed now was to paint. Method I used was
1) Spray 2 coats of primer and let it rest overnight.
2) Sand using 800 grit sandpaper and then finally with 1500 grit
3) Spray 3 light coats of the candy white paint allowing a 10 minute break between each coat.
4) Spray 1 medium coat and allow it to dry/rest for 24-48 hours
5) Spray 3-4 coats of clear with 1 medium coat and let it dry for 24-48 hours
6) Carefully cut around the inserts using a box cutter and remove the residual paint. It should just come off
7) Clean the rear emblem and make sure that there is no residual dirt or anything where the inserts will be coming into contact with
Carefully apply the inserts and enjoy
Result. (Please excuse the crap iphone photo and dirty car. Its been sh*t weather lately in Sydney with sunshine one day and pissing down the next)
Contrast is back and looks a lot better. Candy White is colour matched perfectly too which I'm very happy with and I think the end result came out quite well
