Build Log - Blemish

I wasn't going to say anything due to if you can't say something nice and so on, but I gotta agree with the detractors on the signs. I don't like the painted tag cover, but that's all part of that customization stuff so I don't have to like it. The quality of the work can be appreciated even if the work itself is not something I would want for myself.

But the emblems... they look like something a 6 year old would do with tooth picks glued to a roughly whittled piece of wood and painted with model car paint. Not a good look at all, and they detract badly from the black paintwork making it look just as crappy (and I mean crappy quality, not crappy I don't care for it). Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should and in this case it shouldn't be done. It would be better to go back to the factory emblems. It might look nice if the pieces were made at a professional level, but as-is they look right up there with someone adding racing stripes to their car with a roll of duct tape.

What I would recommend is take the home-made emblem to someone who can do custom molding or CNC work and have them make an emblem using the homemade emblem as a general template like this is the size and shape you want but you want the lines cleaned up and smoothed out and the edges better defined. You can also have the thing powder coated red and the cross gold-plated although on that particular car I think it would look better to perhaps go with a black chrome star on a white background. A glinting black star would be very unique.
 
2002 lincolnls I get what you're saying, but I tend to agree with the others. Even if some cars around here do have a lot of similar mods, that doesn't mean they look bad. Also, there obviously isn't a lot of aftermarket so we are all kinda stuck with similar setups. I'm all for creativity and truly custom parts and I give them props for trying something knew, but simply because they tried something knew doesn't mean we can't have an opinion and say they don't look good or are poorly done. His emblems are poorly done and he should stick with the factory emblems...does everyone have factory emblems? Yes. Do they look better than what he has? Yes.

*New

But well said ;)
 
Telco you actually saw where I'm heading with the custom emblem. I plan to have better ones cast in that general shape. Know of any places in the Des Moines, IA area that do such work?
 
Sorry, no, as I'm in Oklahoma. It won't be an easy thing to do either. Last time I wanted a custom part made I was installing electric fans on a 96 Chevy Tahoe. Took me close to 3 months of hunting around on my days off before I found a place that was willing to do what I wanted, and all I wanted was a piece of aluminum bent in a couple of places, with two large holes for the fans to sit in and a ring around the back side of the holes welded on. Once I did find a place they did a great job. The fans fit perfectly and kept the Tahoe cool on even the hottest August days in stop-and-go traffic. I would suggest checking the phone book for CNC machine work and go from there. If the place you call can't help they can probably direct you to someone who can.
 
I have a '98 Bridgeport CNC VMC sitting behind me..

Made some bits for my '71 F-350
DSCF0283.jpg


Sold about 600 of these over the last couple years.
P6040006.jpg


I think your emblems are a interesting design but are constructed poorly. I could make out of aluminum them but it'll run you around $100 for a set. I'll need decent dimensions on a detailed drawing. You will have to get them anodized or they will corrode and look like crap pretty quickly.
 
Nice work, Ranchero50. Now I'm gonna threadjack for a moment. I'm not interested in this myself, but how much would it cost to make something like this? There are some guys looking to lower their noses but not eat tires every 20K miles from the suspension being bent over sideways.

main.jpg


It's the steering knuckle to an LS. And, the intent behind having one CNC'd would be to move the large hole area up one inch, with the intent of lowering the front. The upper and lower ball joint mounts and the steering rack mount point would need to remain in the same spot, just the large piece in the middle would need to move up.

Hagarstown, eh? My last duty station when I was in the Army was Fort Detrick, in Frederick. I liked that area a lot, except winter was for the most part 3 months of 33 degree rain.
 
Honestly? Probably around $2-3k for a one off. You have to move the spindle mount and the caliper mount as well. Are you going to have wheel interference with the lower A arm lower?

It's a lot of basic engineering, CAD/CAM programming and fixturing to build each side. Since it's suspension on a street vehicle there is limits of liability insurance to deal with as well. Crap ain't cheap to make, even more expensive to sell to the public.

With the stuff I do I can not put Ford or Lincoln on the item without copyright issues as well. So I keep it simple and stay off the radar.

With all the bad crap stored at Ft Detrick it makes me glad the wind blows from the west here...

Jamie
 
wow

for your own good, remove the custom badges. everybody that pulls up behind you, or sees your car in a parking lot is making fun of you.
 
Cool thanks. Was just curious as it was something I mentioned as a possibility on another thread. I have no interest in it as I like going over speed bumps without leaving pieces of the car behind :D, but someone else might as it wouldn't take more than a couple of sets of expensive tires ruined by too much camber plus time and risk to wheel damage from install/removal to pay for them.

You aren't kidding. Our commander used to have us run PT past the incinerator. I very quickly learned that it was possible to jog for a full 5 minutes without taking a single breath. Something that you do not want to smell is wet burning monkey.

For those that don't know, Fort Detrick has a large "cancer research facility." They regularly burn their test animals.
 
"cancer research facility."

Read that as former biological warfare research facility... There's more deadly bad stuff buried there from way back than anyone want to admit.
 
Well today was a bad day. My TID-580 has a bad front right channel and Line-out RCA pair. What's weird is when I tested it a few weeks ago everything was fine. So I will have to wait till i have more money to get a different HU. :mad:
 
Two good things did come from this though.
1: Found out just how little room there is in the LS's dash
2: Due to the battery being disconnected it unlearned all of the bad shifts from the previous owner. (I normally drive in SST)
 
The Noble stuff will be coming off once i have the stereo fully installed. This is actually the longest I have ever left the dealership thing on a car.

JROC? I should know this abbreviation but its slipping my mind. And no the original emblems are fine, i just wanted to try something different. Obviously it has a polarizing effect on people. It's just too bad i can bottle the flames up and use them for heat in the winter.

Eventually I'm planning to make a McLaren grille clone.

JROC:

J-Roc's Scrilla Villa - YouTube
 
Last edited:
Well thank you for defining jrocc. I knew i had seen it somewhere just wasn't making the connection.
At least what people haven't liked on my car is, you know, reversible.
 
Brother,
That was a good attempt or "rough draft", another good thing is you can only improve on you badges or scrap the idea. But no one really has to like it but you. I say that is a great idea. I couldn't even remotely do something like that. So on your efforts good job.
 
Well life likes to eat money. Having problems with power steering looks like the pump is going out. In addition to that non-car related my central air died at the end of summer. So no money to do anything till those things are fixed.

Guess i will be fixing that Farenheit HU I have. Been so long since I've opened an HU to repair a dead audio channel.
 
Telco you actually saw where I'm heading with the custom emblem. I plan to have better ones cast in that general shape. Know of any places in the Des Moines, IA area that do such work?

I actually like the way the emblem looks on the front, just not the colors of it and the surround. Doesn't really go together.

I'd like to see more pictures of the front emblem if you have any, mounted of course.
 
Wish i would have taken more pictures. Unfortunately the front emblem was broken while I was driving on the interstate this weekend. Atleast the rock hit the emblem rather than the windshield. The adhesive I used on the rear emblem is already giving away so i will be removing both this week.

Well time to get to work on version 2.
 

Members online

Back
Top