[StorminSoCal]

Ok, so I got restless and needed to finally do something to my truck. I chose to smoke the badges, using a transluscent spray tint used on tailights.

The brand I used is some Vans spray tint brand from Japan. Fortunately, there is a pretty big import accessories place en route home who stocks it (Orange County, CA call Super Auto Toyz). The nice thing about vs. the VHT brand carried at your local autozone, kragen, or pep boys is that it goes on with a gloss finish, not a flat.

While spraying outside, a gust of wind blew it over on its face and scratched it.....boy was I bummed. So I let it dry some more then used a 3M sanding sponge like block to strip it of all the tint spray. Doing that left it with like a brsuhed aluminum look. If you look close, you can see the scuff from the sanding. I kinda like the way it looks actually!!

Here is the end result. Since I forgot to take a before pic (Though I'm sure you all know what the chrome badges look like on our trucks), I decided to pull the front one off for comparison.

I didnt use a flash, just a longer shutter speed on my (Canon) to get you a real world comparison of the colors. You can also see how it compares to the frontier and SE letters for additional visual comparison.

* I started with the front badge, but it looked a little out of place with all the chrome from the grill. So I sanded that back down and at the moment has the brushed aluminum look.

Anyhow. just wanted to pass it along. P.S. How many bikes can you spot in the 3rd image?

 

[TheOregonFront]

i am not a fan of people spraying their burgers cuz i think it looks cheezy as hell. this however is a nice touch. calms down the chrome and looks really good. i will be doing this. and do you think this stuff could be on ebay? i dig that brushed look. what grit did you use?

 

[5speed_Frontier]

hahaha. i live about 5 minutes from that super autotoyz. been in there a few times. they got some getto stuff in there. definite asian tuner car scene. hahah. but i scored my intake heat shield for 5 bucks off the display in there through the manager. and it fit my truck perfectly with some cutom modification.

 

[StorminSoCal]

i am not a fan of people spraying their burgers cuz i think it looks cheezy as hell. this however is a nice touch. calms down the chrome and looks really good. i will be doing this. and do you think this stuff could be on ebay? i dig that brushed look. what grit did you use?

I did a search on Ebay for Vans Tint Spray, and it came up, but it was $25.00 for the can!! Damn!! I think it cost me $13.00 bucks.

Regarding the grit. It was orginally a 150 grit, but the block sponge was heavily used on a wood project......so I cant say where its at for certain now. I guesstimate its closer to a 1000. You just need enough to give it that brushed look.

Note: Do really light coats, and give each a chance to dry cause as it dries, it seems to get darker. I think I ended up with about 3-4 light coats to get the level you see in the pic.

hahaha. i live about 5 minutes from that super autotoyz. been in there a few times. they got some getto stuff in there. definite asian tuner car scene. hahah. but i scored my intake heat shield for 5 bucks off the display in there through the manager. and it fit my truck perfectly with some cutom modification.

They have way less salespeople and customer traffic there now then when it was Super Autobacs, so it was actually pretty empty, I had to go find a guy to open the glass case where the spray is locked up, but he was super cool and he actually knew that this dried with a gloss instead of the VHT brand you find in any parts store. So I appreciated his knowledge.