Badges for motor vehicle web site

private

We're a startup about to launch a new motor vehicle web site to help people maintain their vehicles. The site consists of vehicle data along with user-contributed know-how.

The audience consists of vehicle owners, college age and above. Our audience doesn't run to the dealer when they have a problem, but would rather go online to see if there's an easy solution to their problem.

We need a set of motor vehicle badges for a fix-it-yourself web site, due to be launched soon. The badges should be friendly but not "cartoony". The badges will be awarded for user contributions to the site. A little gloss on the badge would be nice. The site currently supports automobiles, but will support motorcycles, boats, RVs, etc in the future, so the badges should not be too vehicle-type-specific.

The color scheme of the web site is-
* pure white background with F3D588 accents and B35B00 buttons
* site logo uses B66918, 555555, and A0A0A0

Here are the badge levels for the site-
* Contributor
* Junior Mechanic
* Mechanic
* Senior Mechanic
* Master Mechanic

We don’t expect entire words (like “Master Mechanic”) to be used in the badge, but perhaps initials would be ok. Also, if there’s some way to connote increased status intuitively in the design that would be great.

The design should be at 100x100 but should also look good at 30x30. Vectorized would be ideal. Please no stock images or clip art.

As a point of reference, we find the foursquare badges to be too dark, and the colors too flat. We'd prefer something a little brighter, easier to read, and with more visual appeal. Thanks!