2021-04-26

Custom Speaker Badges!

The BOSE speaker badges in my car are in bad shape. One is missing and the other three are corroded. This is not a good look.

These badges are peculiar items. It appears that they are stamped out of copper, plated, etched and then glued to a plastic backing. They seem to be rather fragile and don't hold up very well over time as you can see in the picture below:

I went looking for replacement badges and found that they range in price from around $20 to $40 each!!! And they are reproductions, not OEM. It would cost me anywhere from $80.00 to $160.00 to replace all four badges!

Since the sound system in my car has evolved away from the original BOSE sound system towards a hybrid "Comvette head-unit + BOSE amplified speakers" combination, I thought this might be the time to re-brand the system with custom speaker badges.

I went to Ponoko.com and looked at the materials they offer and found a 0.06" thick 'Brushed Silver on Black Two Color Acrylic' which looked like a good choice. I then took some measurements from the speaker grilles and drew up a "COMVETTE" speaker badge using the "Grand Sport" font I found on the internet. I then had Ponoko laser engrave 16 of the badges. The laser engraving process removes just enough of the top (silver) layer of the acrylic to expose the black bottom layer.

As usual Ponoko processed my order quickly and this is what I received:

I used a small piece of 3M Scotch brand Double Sided Tape to affix the badges to the speaker grilles. As you can see, the final product looks similar in fit and finish to the original speaker badges and it only cost a fraction of what it would have cost to order reproduction badges. And you have the option of having the badges say anything you want.