The Official 356Talk Forum

Well, Since I have 14K gold, I will plate some onto my "Speedster" emblem today and tell you what I get: a match; or mismatch. If somebody can tell me how to upload a picture, I'll show you the difference.
Ben Sherman

Anyone have any new information regarding gold plating original emblems? Experiences either good or bad? Seems a shame to toss out the originals.

As I understand it it's more of matching the color. I've got a jewelry shop casting and plating some Spyder emblems for me and I had also provided a good original Porsche emblem for them to match the gold finish. The plater told me the original gold came in at 18 carat and this is the finish he'll be doing on the Spyder emblems. I have a copy of the original factory drawing for the Spyder emblem ( thanks Joris) and while they do specify the surface finish before plating there is no call-out for the actual plating other than " bright gold" on the face. The sides are listed as "matt finish " and the backs are ground flat after casting.

Here’s a link to an old thread about gold plating.
I had a great experience with the company I used,...as my post in the thread reflects.
I have no idea if they are still doing this level of work or even if they are still around.
But at the time, it was the best work around, and the emblems are still as bright and perfect as the day they were returned to me.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36870&hilit=Gold+pl ... ontinental

All of the emblems on my Convertible D are plated in two colors. I thought it was silver and gold, but silver tarnishes and the silver colored plating is still bright after 60 years. Perhaps it is chrome and gold? OTOH, all of the reproduction badges I have found have a bright gold plating and most are missing the stippled background in the connector bars. Is the two metal plating something I can get redone? Or perhaps the chrome is in good condition and I can just have the gold replated? Has anyone done this and would comment?

As I mentioned years ago, if you are going to plate gold onto a brass or other copper alloy base material, you need a so-called barrier plate of typically nickel. I don't have any experience with chrome. You do NOT want to plate the gold directly onto the copper alloy base metal nor do you want to use silver (for whatever reason) as an underplate. After that, be very careful cleaning your emblems as gold is a very soft material so don't get too aggressive with your cleaning processes. Good luck!!!

So perhaps the chrome or nickel layer is what is showing on these emblems? Do you think they were originally all gold but the gold wore off the letters? My experience with nickel plated items is that they tarnish after a few years, but whatever the silver color is, it shows no sign of tarnish.

I grew up in the jewelry business. My father was a watchmaker and hand engraver. I began learning to design and make jewelry at age 15.
While I pretty much worked only with gold and platinum, I believe that manufacturers of non-karat gold jewelry nickel plated the item before gold plating it. Most jewelers can gold plate an item, but it will be a thin coat. It takes different (expensive) equipment to deposit a really heavy plate. (like "SWANK" products) The final color & tone can be manipulated by the plating solution producer to mimic different karat gold alloys, just as one can alter the final color of any karat gold alloy. All gold alloys, white, yellow, rose, green, etc. have a percentage of 24 karat gold by weight. I.E: 10 karat = 41.67%. 14 karat = 58.33%, 18 karat = 75%. Alloys make up the difference to 100%.