FS: Replica VR-4 Trunk Badges

[minneSNOWta]

Hey everybody. I am working with a company to reproduce the VR-4 trunk badge to exact perfection. The OEM badge has been NLA since about 2012 when I bought mine new. A lot of people have been asking me to buy one, so I have decided to do something about it. Lots and lots of emails, but I'm confident I found the right company.

The OEM badge is made out of injection molded ABS plastic, is coated with satin/brushed gold and chrome, and has automotive grade adhesive on the back. Pretty much all OEM badges are made out of ABS and must be made from a mold. Unfortunately, a new mold must be made, which costs over $1000 based on the complexity and multi-stage coating process. Making a cheap copy is simply not worth it to me. I will own the mold for as long as the company is in business. The mold will be made off of my old badge because my new one may get ruined in the process, which is a risk I am not going to take. A lot of the "noise" will be cleaned up when finalizing the mold and they will also have my new badge to design and reference off of. There is no excuse for them to not replicate it perfectly, when they have a new example in their hands.

The minimum production run that most companies require is 300 units, so it's unlikely that there will be another run after this one. <b>THIS IS NOT A GROUP BUY</b>. I am fronting the cost of everything and taking a very large financial risk in doing so. The company making these will be using higher quality materials than OEM, so the finish and durability should be very good. If everything goes well, I'm sure this thread will probably go in the sticky section with approval from the mods.

I know a lot of you have crusty old badges like mine and could use some drip in your life. The crusty badge below is what 20 years of weathering looks like when I got the car in 2011.

Production time will be about <b>10 weeks</b>. I will be moving forward with this towards the end of the month after I get all the horn buttons shipped out and get back from visiting friends in Portlandia. Expect them to be finished <b>mid-August</b>.

I see used OEM badges going for $25-50 depending on level of crust. The $50 ones usually don't even have any gold left because that finish seems to degrade very quickly. At this point, I would rather rock a replica, so I can keep my "precious" in-tact. No money is required until I get the huge box of badges and they are ready to go to their new homes.

UPDATE - 4/8/20
Badges are here and ready to ship. The material of the badges have been changed to a heavier metal than the zinc alloy. The rejection rate was very high on the zinc alloy badges, so I made the decision to opt for a stronger material. These will most definitely last longer than the OEM badges and should retain the finish longer as well. Thanks for being patient!

Price Breakdown Including Shipping and PayPal Fees
1 = $50 shipped
2-3 = $95/$140 shipped
4+ = $180 shipped(+$45 per additional unit)
QC Rejects = PM for pricing(~10 available)

PayPal = [email protected]
Please include your address in the notes. Thanks!


Top: 20+ year old OEM badge from MN / Bottom: New OEM badge


Replicas




Here’s a picture of the badge on Jacob Daily’s clean two-tone ride.


Joe Huria with a replica on his Carbonetics carbon trunk. Slight weight penalty of 50g, but well worth it for the flex. Photo by @redherringphotography from Super Street Online.


<b>YouTube video link showing finish reacting to natural light</b>

 

[gvr4ever]

Maybe offer the JDM version too?

 

[minneSNOWta]

Are you referring to the Super VR-4 badge? AFAIK, the JDM cars have the same badge unless it's a Super VR-4. I have a new one and would love to have that replicated too, but I would need to have 300 units made and foot out another $1000+ mold cost. There's a very high likelihood that I will not sell all 300 of the regular badges and will probably be sitting on some until I'm dead. If I were to have 300 Super VR-4 badges made, I'm skeptical they would sell as good as the regulars. Plus I would have to jack up the price just to break even, which I would rather not do. If this badge run goes really well, I will definitely consider it, but the idea of sitting on hundreds of badges is too risky right now. I've essentially cornered myself into being the badge plug for quite some time with this large of a production number.

 

[gvr4ever]

I'm not sure what it's called. Top right red VR-4 logo's.

web page

My car is currently out of town, so I can't take a picture, but I have the MMC logo on the left of the trunk where the Mitsubishi logo was and that red VR-4 logo where the stock one was.

BTW, I don't personally need anything, but I thought it would be nice for those to be a option. I got in on probably a one time order years ago.

 

[G]

Very cool, it looks good. That red one never came on our platform.

 

[gvr4ever]

I think they are from the later ttV6 VR-4s. So, they are not period correct for our cars, but they do look good. They are real Mitsu parts and from a Galant VR4.

 

[minneSNOWta]

Yeah, the red ones came on 8G Galant VR-4, Super VR-4, and Legnum VR-4. Looks like production ended in 2006 for those, so the badge could still be available. If they aren't available, reproducing them would not be a worthwhile effort for many reasons. Yes, they are fire and I have one too. I appreciate the idea though. The main priority right now is to take care of as many people as possible with the standard trunk badge.

G - The replicas haven't been made yet. That's a new OEM in the picture. I'm sending that in, so they reproduce the badges perfectly.

 

[G]

Oh ok, I thought that was the final product. The red are still available.

 

[strokin4dr]

I'd take one or two for sure.

 

[mooserage]

I can commit to one, possibly (probably) picking up 2.

 

[fuel]

Put me down for one.

 

[988]

Cool Man

 

[HollywoodHalo560]

I'd take one

 

[Shane007]

I would definitely take one

 

[minneSNOWta]

Alright folks... Badges have been paid for and I sent both of my badges out to begin the design/mold making process. It should take anywhere from 6-10 weeks to complete and ship to me. Stay tuned!

 

[a2vr4]

Im down for 2! Thank you for doing this!

 

[DavsR]

I will buy one thank you

 

[minneSNOWta]

Hey guys. Sorry for the lack of updates. The badge is actually made out of zinc alloy, not ABS. This makes sense because ABS plastic doesn’t oxidize like metal does. The cost went up for me, but the pricing will stay the same. Molds are almost 100% completed. The rejection rate has been high, so they’ve had to remake the mold a few times. Here’s a pic of some samples. Still a few blemishes, but almost perfect. Should be done in a few weeks.

 

[fuel]

I'm so excited and cannot wait!

 

[HollywoodHalo560]

Thank you for the update. Looking forward to the finished product