Tailgait emblems for First Gen Tacoma

I recently had my 2000 Tacoma repainted. It looks great, but what I didn't realize beforehand was that the tailgate emblems were vinyl (see pre-painted picture). So now I'm trying to track them down. I found the T O Y O T A, and the SR5 ones, but I cannot find the 'TACOMA' one (Well, I can find it, but it's ridiculously high priced (well over $1,000)). Any ideas as to where I can track one down?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

Here is a website to tacoma stickers, not emblems. Most emblems go for too much to call reasonable.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1432458610/toyota-tacoma-1st-generation-trd-racing?gpla=1&gao=1&

 

I expected to just pop up ebay and find one for like $20 in a minute.
You are right though, they are legitimately being sold for $1000.... I can't believe that.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/221240722933?fits=Year%3A2000%7CModel%3ATacoma&epid=662906090

Instead of the chrome emblems you could switch to the 95-97 style with the decals like these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/152046335616?chn=ps&norover=1&mkscid=101&itemid=152046335616&targetid=1496860795332&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9030090&poi=&campaignid=19851828444&mkgroupid=145880009014&rlsatarget=aud-1480434320788%3Apla-1496860795332&abcId=9307249&merchantid=8400784&gclid=CjwKCAiA-vOsBhAAEiwAIWR0Tbv_Q7cdph1QI6ZTKZ6F4fCtZIroc3x1X06VYZYozicbK0TC7amSSBoCM0UQAvD_BwE

I can't vouch for that seller, and I know there is a guy whose name I forget that apparently makes much higher quality versions of these vinyl decals for a bit under $100 I believe. I'll need someone else to chime in to remember who...

Edit: The guy is https://www.jamesdeancreations.com/tacomalogos.htm
Looks like he also sells the style you are looking for as a vinyl decal, I imagine they would be flat and not the raised chrome that came originally.

 

So hard for me to believe that you can't get a little vinyl emblem for less than $1,000. I really expected to not have any difficulty replacing these. I could (and might) have to go the sticker option, but I really want to keep the stock look if at all possible. I'll keep looking for now. I have to believe there is an affordable option out there somewhere. Hopefully I'll come across something. Also, just realized I misspelled 'Tailgate' in my initial post. lol

 

James Dean creations. Was around $300 for everything for my truck.

 

that is a badass website
thanks for sharing

 

Find one in a junkyard and take a good razor blade with you.

 

I contacted a manufacturer to recreate these with an initial lot of 500 TACOMA emblems with SR5. They could not get the font quite right so I bailed. The price wasn't bad as I recall. Maybe a different entity could do it. Otherwise, go with the not-raised decal type.

 

Since the 1st Gen. emblems aren't available, I decided to use the 2nd Gen. emblems.



The emblems look like this:

 

Finally found the emblems I wanted for the first gen Tacoma SR5. Still not dirt cheap, but $50 is way better than $1,000. lol

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ss...001_T_NORMAL_CT1&crd=20240208090000&ch=osgood

 

They appear to be repops, but pretty darn nice repops. Good find!

 

I bought a pair of the SR5 emblems and can confirm, these appear to be great quality and the font and is a great match to original. Side by side, they are nearly identical other than the finish, which is a tad shinier and chromier (i know, not a word but describes how it looks!) than the original chrome type finish so if you're putting one next to an original emblem, there will be a noticeable difference. Nice to see they finally have a TACOMA version available too so you could just replace all 3 on the tailgate - TOYOTA, TACOMA and SR5 - and they'd all match.

Can't say how durable they are since I haven't installed them yet.

 

Has anyone had any experienced with these decals? The ones mentioned above are ok but this has the whole set for $15

 

I looked at the sticker options (before I found the actual chrome emblems at a reasonable price). I thought it might be a viable option to keep the truck looking somewhat stock. Although the font looked great, the sizes were off for the look I wanted. Maybe if you worked directly with the guy, they could make them closer to the original sizes??? Anyway, here is a picture of the tailgate emblems I ordered, and although they are reproductions, they seem to be very good quality, and the size and color (chrome) match exactly with what was originally on my tailgate. Waiting for warmer weather before I install them, but I'm extremely happy with them.

 

Where did you get those? The link above doesn’t work.

 

I don't have experience with those exact ones, but I did buy some ebay or Amazon ones a few years back. They were alright quality, however the fit was not perfect, they were just a little bit smaller than OEM.

On my tailgate somehow when I removed the original decal a bunch of paint came up with it (same thing happened with my original side stripe decals ). Because of this I needed a perfect fit to cover up the chipping, so I went with James dean creations and they are exact OEM replacements.

If you're putting them on a 04, I don't think anyone would ever be able to tell the difference from the better james dean ones, unless you parked next to a 95-97 and stared at it for a while.

 

Toyota Tacoma Pickup Tailgate Emblems TOYOTA TACOMA SR5 1998- 2004 Replacement | eBay
There's one left - there were two until I just bought one

 

Those are stickers, not a physical emblem

 

Looks like there’s a 3D print/chrome plating market out there

 

There is an official vendor in the left side pane of the home page… IIRC, TVD vinyl.