1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

[Bill M.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

The reason used they say origional ones were white on the sides which I do not think is correct.

My original checkered flags are white on the edge.

[Thomas H.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

Thomas, that is an interesting observation that no apparent gold on the edge of the checkered flag, but along the vertical edge of the red flag. I hope the macro photos turn out.

Maybe others will dust off their original emblems and see what is present on the vertical edges of the two flags.

I'll get the pics up tonight.

[Joe M.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

Thank you Thomas.

[Thomas H.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

Joe,

I was able to get some pictures tonight. It is amazing how close you can get with a $150 camera.

Anyway, it turns out that there is white paint on the edges of the checkered flag.

Tom

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[Joe M.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

Thank you Thomas. Your photos provided a visual representation of what I had been told by the National Team Leader, but was too stubborn to believe it. I am a visual person and just needed to see it. My case is closed on this topic.

[Roger W.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

I also have a new re-issue silver version that I purchased from GM in the 70's

[Donald H.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

Does anyone know why the GM service replacements were Silver instead of Gold?

[Joe M.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

It was most likely a financial decision. GM decided to stop paying for the real gold that was being applied to the emblems and switched to silver. The original emblems had a layer of silver behind the gold. That saved a step in the manufacturing process. The gold application part of the process was very slow compared to the process to apply silver.

[Joe M.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

The attached photos are before and after photos of emblems that I have been experimenting with. Emblem on the left is a GM NOS replacement part out of the box. The restored emblem on the right is what I believe the emblem looked like fresh from the factory. The two emblems are the same. I inserted a couple of emblems into trim pieces for a different look.

[Thomas H.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

Joe,

They look real nice.

Tom

[Donald H.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

Joe, let us know how your restoired one judges if you are taking it through the process

[Greg M.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

I was able to purchase two of these Harrison Mold emblems a few years ago on EBay. I have not seen any available since that purchase. I hope to put them to use on my 1960 someday when I am able to finish it!
Greg

[Joe M.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

I will be showing one of the restored NOS emblems to two C1 Master Judges this weekend. I will have my car judged on May 19th.

[Joe M.]

Re: 1958-1960 Hood and Trunk Emblems

Based on the excellent photos previously posted of the painted edges of the flags, I thought that was the end of discussion. On Saturday, I purchased an original 6 ounce emblem at a swap meet and the edges were not painted white or red. They are silver; would have originally been gold if not for deterioration. That made me reflect on the first original 6 ounce that I restored. The flag edges were not painted white or red, but silver (again deterioration of gold layer), so I restored them with gold. A high level NCRS judge informed me that the edges should be painted, not gold; so I went back and changed the edges to paint.

I am now puzzled as to why the majority of the original emblems had had painted edges and others had gold edges. I own an example of unpainted edges and photos have been posted on this thread of an emblem that is clearly painted on the flag edges. My theory is this, if the person doing the original hand painting did not paint the edges for what ever reason, gold would have been present on the edges. I will post closeup photos on Sunday.