Anyone have any contact or sources for custom badges for the TCH? I saw a HYBRID Highlander the other day with a "gold" kit on all the badges.

On the dark color of the Highlander the gold really looked sharp. Add the little touch of blue on the Hybrid emblem and it was really quite nice.

But then - it's all preference and taste (or lack of).

 

Don't know if the badges are the same but I saw a 2007 Camry XLE the other day and it had gold badges. Looked good!

 

Some dealers/owners do this:

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/gold-chrome.html

I do NOT recommend it because it dulls, tarnishes, peels, etc. and requires touch-up.

 

I found out (according to Toyota) they do NOT do gold badges for the Camry '07 and moving forward. Two delaers told me this. Maybe another "trustworthy" dealer offers the service or has info on it.

I agree about using something that tarnishes, peels, etc in that it looks bad after a bit. Depending on the cost (and how long it lasts) maybe get 2 sets - one for back up?

 

EBay always have people selling gold badge kits, can't tell you whether they are genuine Toyota parts or cheap aftermarket. Never saw gold kits for the HYBRID or HSD emblems though.

 

Some accessory shops do it for you. I had it done at one before. They sold rims, spoiler and other stuff. It will stay gold for about 5 years then start fading. I have had it on 2 cars. I don't see it on cars much anymore.

 

Found a place in FLA that does it. Pricing: $290 for a plated replacement set of badges, or $140 to do mine (i opted for the latter). Taking them off wasn't too tuff (since they are new) but the rear toyota emblem (trunk center) was a bit hard. Left residue of the adhesive on the plastic piece (i believe since it WAS plastic, thats why - the other locations came off pretty easy with no residue or damage to the emblems).

I'll see how they come back and post a pic ot two (if anyone is interested). If this looks okay, my next thing might be the chrome trim on the grille (or maybe a different grille). Don't want to "bling" it out too much though . Just add a few different touches.

 

I've been chatting with the folk from GoldPlated.com just today about plating the TCH badges so I'm happy to see someone else went a similar route (not sure if it's the same vendor...)

Any problems with removal / adhesion on the badges? (Or alignment, for that matter?)

I have wondered if the front gold emblem looks odd next to the front chrome grill and pondered trading it out for an LE or SE grill to avoid the clash... You've been living with yours for about six months now, did you ever swap out the grill?

 

Hi RedwoodGeorge. It was an O.K. experience with them. The plating final finish (according to them) is all dependant on the condition of what is sent to them. Overall on quality I woudl give the finished product a 9 out of 10. There is nothing really wrong with them, just not as shiney as I had thought - but that could be due to ones being plastic and others being metal. They say it is all dependant on the condition and quality of the chrome. I opted for using my existing badges (since they were new) to save $$$

Taking them off wasn't an issue IF YOU ARE CAREFUL as I mentioned earlier. The rear Toyota emblem left residue that was a bit difficult to remove but time & patience got the sticky stuff off. When I got them back, they had the 3M tape on them and putting them on was easy. I took photos before taking the old ones off to have a general reference when I got them back. The alignment of the "Camry" name was a little tricky since it is not perfectly level to begin with.

As for the front - I actually ended up taking the grill off and sending it to them and have the chrome ribbing gold plated (to offset the gold badge / chrome grille trim). Its a much better fit and balance (at least I think with my particular car color - desert sand mica). That ran about $150 I think.

I can try to get some pictures if you are interested. Don't really know how to post them here but I'll try this weekend (if interested).

Thanks and let me know if I can offer any other info.

P.S. I also added the painted spoiler on the rear, added a rear window sunsahde (roller/retractable type), HID/Xenon headlights, swapped out the orange turn signals bulbs for the "chrome" bulbs (they hide the orange glow better when not on), added the fog lights and painted out thier inserts in the front along with painting the front license plate holder and the lower air grille.