Hello everyone, not sure if this is the right place to post it but I have a small guide on how to prepare your MK3 front GTI grill badges for a repaint.
This is for people who want to paint there GTI badges any other colour apart from black or renew the chrome paint rather than shell out £20+ for a new badge. Typically this would be a hard job because you have to spend an age covering up the black areas so that you only paint the lettering, I have come up with a way of doing it which is granted only marginally easier but will give you a much better coverage of the areas you dont want to paint than trying to stick on masking tape every which way
You will need:The JPEG below
A Printer
Craft Knife (or penknife)
Scissors
Masking tape
Double sided / sticky tape (optional)
Your chosen paint
PATIENCE AND A STEADY HAND. The longer you spend working on this and the more patient you are, the better this will be!
1) Download this image and print it out from your computer, make sure that you do not enlarge / decrease the size of the image - its the correct size and matches the badge perfectly (you might have to print it from word as windows image print seems to scale the image):
2) One you get your image out of the printer, flip the paper over to look at the back and apply a layer or two of masking tape directly over the underside of the image - this strengthens the paper up
3) Flip it back over and draw yourself some tabs like I have done below (make sure they are taped over on the back too):
4) Now break out your scissors and get cutting, you want to cut out the black parts around the GTI letters to create two separate sections, one for the left by the GT and one on the right by the I. (I would recommend using a craft knife or a penknife to cut the tiny section by the G as its rather fiddly)
5) Once you have both the separate parts, cut some strips of masking tape or sellotape if your masking tape is not very tacky and fold it over to make a loop so that it it is sticky on both sides, these then need to be stuck on the open parts of your cutouts, so that they stay stuck down on your badge.
6) Place the cutouts on your badge, they may need cutting here and there to ensure a proper fit.
7) Stick the two tabs you made together on the rear side of the badge, this will keep the sections in place.
8 ) Your done, now its all covered go out and blast it with paint, once dry remove the covers and you should still have clear black sections. (I am hoping this chrome enamel paint will do the job, found it in the shed so who knows!)
9) Keep hold of the GTI letters you also cut out, if the paint gets on the black sections, you can use the GTI letters to cover you newly painted badge and respray the black sections, or be daring and paint them something different!
Thanks for reading and I hope I save some of you some money! (Also I am aware my badge is broken, but for 99p its worth fixing it
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