De-badging A3

[baker]

Thinking of taking the A3 and 2.0 from the rear of my A3. Are they held on with adhesive, or is there something that will leave a hole that must be filled. If adhesive, is a hair dryer enough to remove them? Thanks for any input.

[teecster]

Most of the time the only things on Audi`s are the actual AUDI emblem, the big one.



Hairdryer, goof off, then a nice detailer/polisher = D

[Accumulator]

BAKER- Cool idea, I debadge all our Audis (some to a greater extent than others).



I use a combination of 3M Adhesive Remover and a hairdryer. Sliding some waxed dental floss between the badge and the panel will help pull it off once the adhesive is compromised (DO NO use a screwdriver/etc. instead) and will help you determine if the badges are pinned on.



Think twice about removing the Audi rings. I like how completely badgeless looks, but plenty of other people prefer leaving the rings on. I took everything off the S8 and left the rings on the A8, and most people like how the A8 looks better (but not me, so do what *you* think looks best ).



IME all the badging is glued on, but I really dunno about A3s :nixweiss I`d sure be surprised if they were pinned though. You could always go to the dealer and check out the emblems, make sure they don`t have pins (or ask an Audi dealership bodyshop).



IF the badges *are* pinned on, you can almost always just put `em back in place. I had this happen with a Subie..one badge pinned, the others glued, and I just stuck the pinned one back in place. As long as you don`t bend/etc. it (use the floss method to help prevent that) you shouldn`t have any problems. But man would I be surprised if they weren`t just glued on...

[Flashtime]

^ Good info^



Fishing string works too. But be sure to clean around the emblems with a brush.

And they use double sided tape; 3M makes these for many manufacturers. Should

you decide to pet them back on, do use the 3M brand (works best). And for

cleaning off the residue, SEM SOLVE (part# 38374) or 3M Adhesive Cleaner (Part# 08984).

And you can use these cleaners for overspray, waxe/grease, bug/tar, etc.

Good stuff and safe on paint.

[Jason M]

3M pin-stripe remover, AKA 3M eraser wheel, can come in handy when de-badging. It makes much quicker work of some bigger pieces of adhesive/tape than 3M Adhesive Remover. I generally use both. The eraser wheel is easier on the paint than scrubbing with Adhesive Remover so I get all the larger pieces off with that and then use the Adhesive Remover in a lighter fashion to finish up.

[stilez]

BAKER- Cool idea, I debadge all our Audis (some to a greater extent than others).



I use a combination of 3M Adhesive Remover and a hairdryer. Sliding some waxed dental floss between the badge and the panel will help pull it off once the adhesive is compromised (DO NO use a screwdriver/etc. instead) and will help you determine if the badges are pinned on.



Think twice about removing the Audi rings. I like how completely badgeless looks, but plenty of other people prefer leaving the rings on. I took everything off the S8 and left the rings on the A8, and most people like how the A8 looks better (but not me, so do what *you* think looks best ).



IME all the badging is glued on, but I really dunno about A3s :nixweiss I`d sure be surprised if they were pinned though. You could always go to the dealer and check out the emblems, make sure they don`t have pins (or ask an Audi dealership bodyshop).



IF the badges *are* pinned on, you can almost always just put `em back in place. I had this happen with a Subie..one badge pinned, the others glued, and I just stuck the pinned one back in place. As long as you don`t bend/etc. it (use the floss method to help prevent that) you shouldn`t have any problems. But man would I be surprised if they weren`t just glued on...

Agreed.



When removing for myself or customers, I heat up the badge for 60-120 seconds with the hair dryer and slowly massage the dental floss with the hair dryer still on, to remove the badge. The heat should allow a rather flawless separation from the paint. Follow up with an adhesive remover and then polish it.

[baker]

I decided to go ahead. It was pretty easy, less than an hour start to finish and that included polishing, applying KAIO and then a layer of SG. Very clean look to the rear end now.











and a pic of the roof, I polished it this morning, put 2 coats of SG on it about 6 hours apart and topped it with Collinite # 885 Fleetwax.

[Accumulator]

BAKER- Looks great!



The hatch looks a lot better without those badges (and you won`t have to work around them any more either ), and leaving the rings was probably a good idea :xyxthumbs

[baker]

Thanks Accumulator. Your input was one of the deciding factors to go ahead with it.

[Accumulator]

BAKER- Well, I`m just glad everything went smoothly. IME it usually does with Audis, but sometimes you do get ghosting from the emblems that takes some polishing to completely eliminate.

[FlowRate]

Good job. I`m part of the crowd who prefers the rings, so I`d say that was a good idea. Well done =)

[Mark77]

I like it, good you left the rings there.. looks a bit too naked without them IMHO.

[Accumulator]

I like it, good you left the rings there.. looks a bit too naked without them IMHO.

Heh heh, I bet I`m the only person in the world who likes how the S8 looks without the rings From the rear it now looks like an utterly generic big sedan, oh-so-stealthy. Even with the rings on the grill, you have to know your cars to know what it is.



Reinforcing my tendency to debadge: I just did a friend`s `93 V8 quattro that`d been unwaxed for many, many years. The oxidation was so bad it actually made it look like a different color, but that oxidized paint was still Audi-hard. Working the tight spots around the "quattro" script was an incredible PIA.

[importfan878]

looks much better

[zxert]

Yeah if you removed the rings it would lose some if its audi luster, and be much to plain. But my g35 for example, in my opinion, looks great with a complete debadge. It really depends.