Ok, so upon some advice I received here at EC , I decided that I would find some Plasti- Dip and use that material to paint my emblems on my car. Plasti-Dip is really a spray on rubberized coating that people use to rubberize handles of tools and so forth. The great thing about Plasti-Dip is that you don't need to be really precise in masking off the area which you intend to paint. The reason you don't need to do this is, when the stuff dries, you can pull up the Plasti-Dip around the emblem, and it will peel off perfectly fine, AROUND the emblem. Bear in mind, that in order for plasti-Dip to work in this manner, the edges of whatever you are painting generally need to be raised above the surface, in order for it to work. I decided I was going to do my rear emblem, and the chrome on my rear trunk lid. After I did that, I decided I should also to the front grill/emblem, to give the car a uniform appearance. So, here is my how to DIY for this mod.
Step 1:
Gather all materials needed. Some blue painters tape, and the Plasti-Dip (as well as a beverage of your choice). I found the Plasti-Dip at Home Depot in the Spray Paint Section, for $6 per can, and it has proved to be more than enough to do the front and rear chrome areas of my HD:
Step 2:
Next, be sure that the area that you are planning on using the Plasti-Dip on is clean, for this, I simply used some windex and a rag, and it proved to work just fine:
Step 3:
Next, you will use your blue painters tape to roughly mask the area you are painting. This part is not crucial, as the Plasti-Dip will come off of your car's paint with just a little rub of your finger, but I did the masking in order to try and reduce the amount of clean up I would have later:
Step 4:
Apply your first coat. Shake the can of Plasti-Dip vigorously for 1 minute. Stand 6-8" away from what you are trying to spray, and use long even strokes to get the best appearance. Here is what it looked like after the first coat on the rear emblem and trunk strip:
Step 5:
Let the first coat dry for about 15 minutes. After that coat is dry, apply a second coat in the same manner that you did the first coat. You will notice that it is starting to fill in nicely now. Here is what the trunk area looked like after the second coat:
Step 6:
As I let the second coat on the rear dry, I moved to the front of the vehicle, and decided to start masking off the area, so I could make cleanup a little easier. Here is what I ended up with. If you feel inclined, you can certainly spend more time masking. I did not feel it was needed, since the Plasti-Dip will peel right off of the areas I don't want it.
Step 7:
After 15 minutes of letting the second coat dry on the rear, apply the third coat. After another 15 minutes of drying, peel away the masking and the areas that have Plasti-Dip on them, that you do not want covered in Plasti-Dip. Your final product should look a little like this:
Repeat the above procedure for the front grill if desired. I was going to ONLY do the chrome on the front grill, but after stepping back and looking, I decided I liked the way the entire grill looked black, so I left it alone, and the entire front grill is black The great thing about this is anyone can do whatever they want in Plasti-Dip. Some people paint their entire vehicles with it!
Overall, for me, this mod was worth it. It made my little HD stand out as my own, and only cost me $6 for the can of Plasti-Dip, since I already had some blue painters tape at home. If you're looking for an easy cheap mod to do to your car, I'd highly recommend it!
Here are pics of the finished product, front and rear: