Decepticon Badges for UK Ford Fusion

thingiverse

This started as a lighthearted project, but it quickly turned into no fun at all! It began when I noticed my car's grille badge was looking its age. The clear vinyl covering the Ford emblem had lifted off, making it look pretty gross (see picture 3). What I should have done was either replace the entire badge (totally expensive) or find a way to re-lacquer it. But I wanted to add some humor to my otherwise dull vehicle. I'd seen the cool decepticon badge designed by klhpip (Thing number 3155671), and I thought printing one for my car would be fun. So, I printed it out - making sure to change filament at the right time so I wouldn't have to paint it - and was pleased with how it turned out (see blue badge in my 5th picture). However, when I tried to put it on my car, it ended up being too small for the existing badges. This meant I had to design my own badge. But it was still fun, so I grabbed my trusty caliper and measured the dimensions of my car's grille. I then used SketchUp to draw a design that I thought would work. I printed out two of them (changing filament again) and waited for a dry day to install them. That's when things started going wrong. The rear badge wasn't too complicated, but it had three pins on it, and my flat design didn't have any. I could fix that with some threaded rod and nuts and washers. But the front badge was another story; it was just a stamped shell that fit over a boss molded into the grille (see pic 7). My flat badge wouldn't fit without an adapter. So, I took new measurements and spent the next week printing and testing different badge holders. None of them worked! Day after day, I'd measure and try again, only to return disappointed. Finally, I decided to take drastic action. I removed the grille from my car (in the pouring rain, of course) and used a stepper drill, scroll saw, and Dremel with a sanding sleeve to remove the central part of the badge mount. This left me with a rectangular hole and two flat areas on either side. I could now screw through these into the back of my printed badge. I refitted the grille (still in the pouring rain) and admired my handiwork (just as it stopped raining for the first time). The story of the rear badge is too long to tell here, so I'll just say that's a tale for another day! Anyway, it's all done now, so I can sit back and wait for the local schoolkids to spot it and try to steal my grille!