Today: Travel Queen Badging.
I guess it's called badging. That's what they called the fake chrome medallions saying stuff like Ram and 2500 and Dodge and Laramie when I ordered my truck back in '06.
I know it's not "gimp". It must be badging. You know, this stuff.
It was kinda cute, that day four years ago, when DSIL was looking at the two camper noses from the driveway (Queeny, and the parts Travel Queen), and we were discussing options to replace the factory original plastic pieces. That was before we got Lil' Queeny put up in the garage, even before we gave her a name - I think. He referred to it as a "Ravel Queen" and therein you see my problem.
He was looking at the top one in the above photo before I straightened - kinda - the vee in the plastic badging. You can still see signs of the bend in its center.
Yup, the front emblem had lost its "T" somewhere along the way. And their were none remaining on the parts camper.
My only full and "suitable for copy" badge was the lower one in the picture (from Queeny's back wall), and it wasn't perfect. It even still had excess (that stuff in plastic models you carefully remove from each tiny piece before painting) that I cut off here and there, around the lettering especially.
I had also used the heat gun and a pressing surface to flatten some warped areas, like indented screw holes, and lifting letters, etc.
In fact, here the other day I did even more heat and pressing (with a rounded hammer head face) against the screw hole depressions to further flatten them before making my mold.
Yup - mold. But we'll get to that. Back to the badging. Note the emblem has the words "Travel Queen" (manufacturer name, and the root of Lil' Queeny's personal name), and below that it says "Riverside, Calif." That's what we in the bidness call CA (California). Hey, those 60's were wild times out there. It's surprising it wasn't spelled something like Kalli-forny or some such.
But - apparently Travel Queen didn't build exclusively out of Riverside (funny - DW spent a few short years living in Riverside in her very young years). They apparently also had a factory in Nappanee, Indiana (as indicated through Interweb searches and on the last page of my Sales Brochure found SOMEWHERE in the early posts of this project. Maybe under Acquisition, Chapter 1).
So it's my guess the badging might say either Riverside, or Nappanee, under the words Travel Queen.
But what is the McKeesport, PA badge? I think it's a dealer location. Yeah I think the main badge is the manufacturer and the factory, and the separate addition below is the dealer added badge. Maybe. Here's the pic again, followed by pics while still on the camper.
So believe it or not, I think Lil' Queeny was originally built in CA (or Nappanee, IN, but with Riverside, CA badging), then delivered to a dealer and sold out of PA, and returned once again to the Best Coast, where we found her living in Oregon, and apparently for quite some time.
I've seen many Travel Queen Internet pictures with various dealer badging. Here's a pic of one of the cleanest units I've ever seen. And the badging is painted exactly how I'd like to do new ones on Queeny, with the beige, red and black. Note, this one must have been a Louisville, KY dealer.
Yeah - that day DSIL and I were discussing, I was kind of thinking of making some sort of wood badge (Teak? Waterproof? Because I'm a wood guy). He was thinking metal (because he's a metal guy). He was also thinking more custom/modern looking, with flames and jagged lettering, like lightning I think, because he's a Generation X'er, and they like that kind of stuff. I know - weird, but they have LOTS of weird ideas. Or maybe it's us? I don't know. :h
But I kind of wanted the same raised lettering, like you see in this picture.
Not only raised, but beveled. That would also assist the paint scheme desired. So because of that, and because I'm cheap, I bought materials to make my own.
Mold Making Stuff (left) and plastic material to pour INTO a mold (right). And a spray - for the mold - to allow the new unit to come out smoother.
That was about 300 years ago. I finally started working it the other day.
I started out by further flattening, like I said. Heat gun and pressing a hammer head into the back of the screw holes to re-shape their indented-ness closer into flat-ness. And a heated aluminum plate on top of a fully heated plastic badge on a heated bench. Then tire chains weight.
And that all did a real nice job. Next, proper surfaces, enter some old cookie sheets DW gave me years ago.
I put tape on the back to keep it from shifting.
And got my top pan ready.
Then opened up the stuff.
You mix equal parts and knead it into a consistency. You have 20 minutes of "workable" time. I grabbed the entire amounts from both containers...
And quickly "consisted" it.
Great exercise for the hands and fingers, like one of those biceps builder contraptions.
But by about 10 minutes in it was starting to set pretty quick, and became impossible to fully press around the letters. I had just SLIGHTLY too little. But I did the best I could, then left it alone and went out in the neighborhood to do some work for the association.
When I returned, I checked out my results.
Well THAT sucks!
:S
So I'm still thinking about what to do. I expect maybe a liquid pour-able stuff for making a mold. But I don't know what's available, or used, and I still haven't fully discounted metal or wood.
