Cord transmission cover emblem

Curtis- I recently bought an original Cord emblem which also had precious little gold left on the "knight" or the outside frame. I had a gold leaf kit my mom gave me years ago and I said "what the heck" and gold leafed these areas,with pretty good luck. The kit had a bottle of gum arabic (the binder in opaque watercolor) which I carefully painted on the areas of interest, and after about 10 min. I gently pressed the gold leaf into the sticky gum arabic and it held O.K. I burnished it later using a piece of polyethylene bag and the backside of a piece of soft leather and my fingernail. The surface looks O.K. from 2 feet, but close it is a little wrinkley in the down areas. I'll varnish these gold leaf areas so it will stand up to washing. At Auburn I looked at emblems on other 810-812's and I think I'm in the range of acceptability.

Pete Rhoads

Curtis-

The emblems are plated gold after the enameling process due to the high heat and oxidation. Even the enamel is often ground and leveled to remove any excess material and then refired and annealed. We used to have a service to restore original emblems but it became too expensive as it was so labor intensive. Right now, there is a problem with quality suppliers and quantity that the market/trade can consume. Materials are available through the proper art supply companies. Commercial grade materials are too coarse and only sold in bulk. I have not tried the internet to see if anyone does re-enameling these days. Our lady did it for the Harrah collection when it was intact.

Stan

I'm curious. Are the Cord emblems supposed to be plated after the enameling process? My emblem hasn't a trace of plating left on it, just exposed copper. Also wondering if anyone has tried re-enameling these emblems themselves. The color scheme is very simple and the process seems very close to a process I learned in Jr. high school many years ago in a crafts class. However I've had no luck locating the materials used to do this. Can anyone help? I know repro emblems are available, but I like to salvage as many original parts as possible. Also would like to locate a repairable tag light emblem if anyone has one they don't need. Thanks