how do I de-badge a merc saloon?

[bordseye]

do I just prize the badges off? If so how do I remove the adhesive? and if the car is 3 years old, as it is, am I likely to end up with the shadow of the badges showing where the paint hasnt faded?

[daveparry]

Take the badges off! simples!

[BE57 TOY]

bordseye said:

do I just prize the badges off? If so how do I remove the adhesive? and if the car is 3 years old, as it is, am I likely to end up with the shadow of the badges showing where the paint hasnt faded?

Point a hair dryer at them for a minute or so, the glue melts and they just flick off. The paint won't show any shadowing at that age. If it did then T cut would bring it out, but it won't need this.

[Reardy Mister]

With brand new BMWs, we used to heat the badge (and therefore double sided sticky that is used) with a hair dryer and get a piece of nylon string/twine. Twist it up slightly, slip it behind the badge and saw along behind the badge with it, pulling slightly in the direction of the badge to keep the string off the paint. That will just leave some sticky which will roll off with your fingers and then polish off any residue. Job done. Back then, every BMW arrived badged, even if you had ticked the de-badge option. Then guys like me just tore them off at pre delivery stage.

[7even]

fishing line works a treat.

[Jd27]

or dental floss

[driverrob]

I've always wondered why BMW and M-B owners (alone, AFAIK) feel the need to de-badge their cars.
Please enlighten me.

[BullMoose]

driverrob said:

I've always wondered why BMW and M-B owners (alone, AFAIK) feel the need to de-badge their cars.
Please enlighten me.

In some cases it's snobbery so as not to give away the model of the vehicle.

[mrmr96]

Normally I'd guess it's either a low spec car wanting to hide that fact, or a high spec car wanting to hide that fact.

Of maybe they prefer how it looks?
And it's easier to clean?

[bordseye]

mrmr96 said:

Normally I'd guess it's either a low spec car wanting to hide that fact,

Exactly. Dont want others to see how cheap I am. ;-)

[Willeh85]

I literally did this last week. I just bought an 8 year old Alfa 156 (don't start about it'll breakdown etc)and on the rear I thought all the badges made it look clustered.

• Clean the area with a damp bit of kitchen roll to get rid of dirt and grime.
• I heated the bits up with a hair dryer until they wiggled a bit when you touched them.
• Then with some dental floss I Flossed each bit off, with a lovely minty fresh smell.
• The residual glue/double sided tape was still there so I sprayed a bit of WD40 on it let it soak in and sprayed some on a bit of kitchen role/blue roll and rubbed the rest off.

There was a bit of a shadow left but that came out with hard rubbing (and don't start again) with more WD40 on kitchen roll. About 30 minutes total spent doing everything.

Here are my before, during, and after photos on Flickr(ignore the lights in the footwell), and also a link to a useful video showing the steps on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5saNP7cdFck

http://www.flickr.com/photos/willeh85/sets/7215763...