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ORIGINAL: wineye

Virgin, I think there must be something in common among us mazda 3 owners......thanks for your quick note. I just did a quick experiment, using reflective tape, cut to shape, just to see what it looks like. First did it on the MPV, V is bit easy, the "3" is hard since there's no straight lines......anyway, here are the pix, I patched the two groves in the letter Z as well, not sure if I like it though. (just hope to have something unique on the car, so I can identify it in the parking lot)...........Oh, virgin, what kind of paint did you use?

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ORIGINAL: icspots

The trick to painting is preparation.  Many people will either just paint over the shiney silver on the emblem or scuff it up with sandpaper and then paint it.  The best way to prepare the surface is to completely remove the metal plating.  This can be done by soaking the emblem in bleach for several days.  It takes time (and will turn the bleach black) but you'll end up with a piece of white plastic ready for painting.  Primer it, and then with some careful taping you should be able to get the two tone look you're looking for.  Give it a couple coats of clear coat to help prevent fading.

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Ok I tried the painting the emblems black ... the first time I sanded and roughed up the chrome like finish....  Looked good for a day came home saw a little nick, ran my finger across it to see the damage and the paint came off quiet easy .... damn  :?

I did a lot of web searches and found out that Mazda and most car manufactures use a 2 step electro plating base copper and the chrome like finish is electro plated aluminum.  After finding this info out I did a search for chemicals that would strip the 2 different platings but not melt the abs plastic.  After many hours and emailing many different chrome refinishers and chemical manufactures a search found that caustic soda will strip the plating .... hmmmm caustic sodas ..... will Pepsi work?  OK OK it wasn't funny ..... most of the chemicals were not easy to get my hands on so I email 1 more place and they stated to try BLEACH.  after reading the label it states that it will promote corrosion.  I tries it and this is my results ........

We all know what the chrome emblems look like ... so here it goes.

this is what bleach will do to the finish .... it takes a long time (the 3 took 2.5 days).  you will notice that the chrome turns black .... either use your fingers or an old brush to rub it away and soak in bleach again until you can not get any more copper/chrome off. 

If you want to get all the black off soak the emblem in a 50/50 mix of ammonia/hydrogen peroxide ***WARNING ****DO NOT MIX BLEACH AND AMMONIA ... THE CHEMICAL REACTION WILL PRODUCE A GAS THAT WILL BURN YOUR LUNGS AND CAN POSSIBLY CAUSE DEATH***WARNING***  THIS MEANS WASH THE PARTS VERY GOOD, THEN 1 MORE TIME TO MAKE SURE.  ***Disclaimer***www.mazda3forums.com and myself are not held responsible for the unsafe mixing and or handling of any of these chemicals.  This write up is from information I used in my personal experience.  Use at your own risk.  I am in no was telling you to mix these.  This is only a suggestion. ***Disclaimer***

The small amounts of copper left you can take an exacto knife #11 and slowly scrap it off and then sand the ABS in prep for paint.

After Bleach bath you can see how much chrome is gone and see the remaining copper


Here is the front emblem after bleach bath ... aprox 4 days / couple hour ammonia/peroxide bath and lightly scraping off remaining copper and sanded


And here is the finished product .... used black Krylon Fusion spray paint.  1 light\baked flash (in oven, i think fiance was going to kill me) 2nd light\baked, 3rd wet baked.  Baking make sure it is an even finish


It's a long thread with plenty of pictures so feel free to take a look. http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=61104.0

Hope you all like and hope it helps someone as I couldnt find a DIY write up on this ....it does take a while just remember the goal ..... sweet looking and durable emblems.