Debadging question

Jngrbrdman

Jngrbrdman

New member
I've got a new Legacy GT that I need to debadge. I don't know if you have ever paid much attention to the back of the new Legacys, but the badging on the back is going to be a B**** to wax around. I figure its best to just take most of it off. I'm going to leave Subaru on one side and take off the rest. I've done debadging on dealership emblems and vinyl advertising, but I've never actually taken off factory badging before. Is a hair dryer going to be sufficient or will I need to break out the heat gun? I don't want to wreck the letters and my heat gun gets pretty hot. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Yeah, that's how I usually do it too. Hopefully that works the same. Its the first order of business when I get that baby home on Monday. Here is a picture of the debading area.



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I don't like it at all. The GT is way too big. Or maybe the 2.5 is too small. I dunno... There is a custom emblem maker that will make you a badge in those chrome letters to say whatever you want. I'm thinking about taking off the Legacy 2.5 GT and replacing it with 'sleeper'. ;) I haven't seen too many of these out on the roads here (which is weird considering where I live) so chances are that people aren't expecting this mild mannered looking car to go 0-60 in 5.7 seconds. ;)
 
Nine times out of ten I have found that you dont even need a hairdryer or heat gun. Just get some fishing wire ( or similar ) in between your two pointer fingers ( like dental floss ) and gently "saw" behind the badge. Then in most cases I have found that you can rub any excess sticky stuff off with your finger. If its a bit tougher, then a quick swish with some rubbing alcohol will have it off in a jiffy.
 
6cyl's_of_fury said:
Nine times out of ten I have found that you dont even need a hairdryer or heat gun. Just get some fishing wire ( or similar ) in between your two pointer fingers ( like dental floss ) and gently "saw" behind the badge. Then in most cases I have found that you can rub any excess sticky stuff off with your finger. If its a bit tougher, then a quick swish with some rubbing alcohol will have it off in a jiffy.
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That's how I debadge a car, as well. It works well, but just be sure to go slow. Sometimes I have to resort to using a little of the 3M Wax and Adhesive Remover after the badge is gone.
 
Do you have site for the place who makes custom badges?? I know a couple kids who got it done replacing honda and acura with their last names. It looked pretty good but hard to see, both cars were silver.
 
Use a hair dryer or heat gun set on low as previously mentioned. Also try to get a plastic scraper underneath the the badge while you are doing this. You can purchase a plastic scraper at Home Depot or Lowes in the paint department. They are used for scraping painted wood that has been soaked with paint remover. Also try useing 20 lb. monofiliment fishing line. Get the line started underneath a corner of the badge then pull back and forth on the line in a sawing type motion. Cut off a piece long enough so that you can wrap it around both of your hands so that you can get a good grip.



I did this recently to debadge that blue colored UWS badge on my truck tool box that clashed with color of my truck.
 
Jngrbrdman- I'd first find out how the badging is mounted. Back when I had an Outback, some was pinned (the "Legacy") and the rest was glued on. Seemed odd that it wasn't all one way or the other...



I'd *guess* that the "GT" is glued, since it's not on every Legacy, but who knows. See if you can get a look at the back of the panel. It's usually no big deal to pop the pinned ones back on, but you don't need any nasty surprises when you're halfway through the job.
 
http://youremblem.com/



I was going to have an Autopia one made for the longest time, but it just wouldn't have looked good on the Integra. I keep wanting to do one on the Accord in place of the LX or something. On the subie it should look good.
 
It's really no problem.



I debadged my car last year and you can't even tell there were badges there for 7 years.



Be prepared to rub to get off the residual glue though.
 
Jngrbrdman said:
I've got a new Legacy GT that I need to debadge. I don't know if you have ever paid much attention to the back of the new Legacys, but the badging on the back is going to be a B**** to wax around. I figure its best to just take most of it off. I'm going to leave Subaru on one side and take off the rest. I've done debadging on dealership emblems and vinyl advertising, but I've never actually taken off factory badging before. Is a hair dryer going to be sufficient or will I need to break out the heat gun? I don't want to wreck the letters and my heat gun gets pretty hot. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
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Nice car - congratulations.
 
The debadging has begun. :) I don't understand dealerships sometimes... I specifically told them that I don't even want them to wash it. Just pull the plastic off and hand it over. Where in that request does it say "After you pull the plastic off, make sure you slap your cheesy dealership vinyl logo on the back."? Oh well....



The badges came off easily. The Subaru was all one piece. Legacy was individual letters, but that was easy. I actually left the 2.5 GT on the back for now. Once I got to that point I kind of liked it. I'm still tossing around the idea of getting another badge made and putting it on top. Even putting the Subaru badge back above it looked pretty sharp. I'll have to look at it for awhile and see if it grows on me.



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Of course it had to be snowing all day when I picked this car up. lol What fun would it be to buy a new AWD car and not have any roads to test it out on? ;)
 
Glad you didn't run into any surprises! Heh heh, those dealership people just don't get it, huh?



Hope they got the plastic off without marring anything. I let the Mazda people take it off our MPV and they inflicted a few nasty scratches in the process :rolleyes:
 
The car is kinda dirty right now to really notice anything. I can still see some spots where the glue got left behind. No trouble though. I'm equiped with exactly the right stuff to take care of that. ValuGuard makes something specifically for treating new cars and getting the glue off. I've always wanted a reason to break it out, but I don't do a lot of new car prep jobs. ;)
 
Jngrbrdman said:
I'm equiped with exactly the right stuff to take care of that. ValuGuard makes something specifically for treating new cars and getting the glue off. I've always wanted a reason to break it out, but I don't do a lot of new car prep jobs. ;)
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Not using their ABC?
 
I didn't take the plastic off because the car was at another dealership when it arrived and they had to drive it over to me. They took that off prior to dropping it off.



Autoint has a "new car prep" that is more suited for removing the glue from the plastic than ABC is. Its a safe solvent compared to an acid bath. Its great at getting adhesives off.
 
Hey Jngrbrdman: Congrats on the new ride!!



I've been lucky enough to buy two new cars in the past 18 months and on both occasions I had to beg, insist and threaten not to buy the vehicle to get the dealership to only remove the plastic in my presence. The second time, I arrived back at the dealership later and found that had still washed the vehicle, luckily they did not try to remove the adhesive lines or buff out anything.
 
lol yeah, I hear you on the threatening part. I did the same thing. I told them if that car is clean then the deal is off. ;) I still don't know why they thought that putting a vinyl sticker on the back was going to be acceptable. Oh well... At least it was super easy to take off. Now I can't wait till the weather clears up a bit and I can get the rest of this goo off the car.
 
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