Things you've learned from debadging your car

[marvinp]

I'm thinking of debadging my 135i. I feel that it will give it a cleaner look. While it seems like a pretty straight forward thing to do, I've never debadged a car and so I'm a bit worried about doing it wrong and potentially ruining the paint. I was wondering if members who have already debadged their car could give me some guidance, and do's and dont's for debadging. I've had my car for almost 2 months now.

The steps I was going to use to debadge my car:

1. Wait for a hot sunny day or use a hair dryer to get the area very hot
2. Apply a bit of goo-gone around the letters.
3. Using dental floss, slowly saw off the lettering from the glue
4. Remove left over glue using goo-gone

Am I missing anything?

[randomquickness]

that should cover it! You won't damage any paint doing it that way.

[Jaguar66]

!

[xjet04]

I'd skip steps 1 and 2 too. A quick floss is all you'll need. I also learned from removing my rear spoiler that your average bug and tar remover works great for adhesive removal. Personally, I think it works better than goo-gone by a mile.

[jibaholic101]

i would warm it up with a hair dryer and use goo gone on the emblems as well. to remove it, i would use an old credit card.

when you are done, be sure to wax the area.

[Mega Man]

I replaced mine with the black ones; goo gone across the top, let it soak in to the adhesive a bit (if you taped off the area it won't run below the tape (unless you applied too much), dental floss takes it off easier than a hot knife through butter. Use your finger to rub off the excess adhesive (I know from past removals, sometimes extra goo gone helps but I didn't need it on this one).

[PrimoM3]

Actually, the cleanup will be a bit harder if you heat up the adhesive first. It turns gooey like gum. Don't heat unless you have to, the floss should cut through fine on its own.

Follow up with polish and wax in that spot after it has been cleaned.

PS- I thought the title of this thread was "Things you've learned from d-bagging your car" I LOL'd.

[marvinp]

Thanks everyone. So I think I might go with applying some goo-gone first, waiting a bit and then using the dental floss. I'll do it this weekend and let you know how it goes. I was pretty confident about debadging my car until I saw a debagded Civic where I could still see the badge. Ugh. I guess he didn't know about goo-gone. If goo-gone doesn't get all of it out, then I'll try the tar remover.

[Drew Rocker]

I told the dealer I'd feel better about the brake light falling off if he changed the badges. Worked like a charm.

[oneintheory]

tape off the area around the badge. i've got microscopic scratches around the area that are really obvious with the badge off. on, it's not noticeable.

[marvinp]

Originally Posted by oneintheory

tape off the area around the badge. i've got microscopic scratches around the area that are really obvious with the badge off. on, it's not noticeable.

How'd you get scratches on there? From the floss or from the rubbing to remove the glue?

[esses]

Cold day.
Fishing line.
Try to 'roll' the adhesive off with your fingers.
Betaclean or goo gone. This takes a while, don't scrub.
Clean and claybar.
Wax/seal.

[marvinp]

Just debadged my car. I wish I had read esses' comment not to rub. I think as a result of the rubbing I now have swirls and spider webs. It's nothing a good polish won't remove.

Also, the contours of the adhesive are still visible. From a certain angle you can still see that it spells out 135i but you have to be extremely close, have good eye sight and be anal like me. I used goo gone and a bug and tar remover but they haven't removed it completely. Any advice? Would claying help?

[esses]

To get that glaze try rubbing with your fingers until they burn. Then more goo gone. Then clay.

[cagekicker]

i'm doing mine tomorrow.

[marvinp]

cagekicker, if I had to do it over again, I would peel off the remaining glue instead of trying to rub it off with a microfiber towel. B/c of the rubbing I had a ton of spider webs after I was done. It wasn't anything that didn't come out with a good machine polish though.

Right now I still have very invisible outline of where the glue was. Even with the polish it didn't go away. But I'm hoping it will go away with time as that area is exposed to the same weather conditions as the surrounding area.