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I wrote this 5 years ago, in Icelandic. It's a very easy process but you can easily cause damage to your paint if you're not careful. I did this on a 2000 BMW E46 318i, which was my second car and my first BMW (haven't driven anything else but BMWs since then). I did this for a cleaner look, as I'm not a big fan of badges on cars. I've just done the sides on my Z4 and I love the difference it made.

This isn't the only way to debadge a car, but I found this one to be very easy and fool-proof. I'm sure there are many more writeups like this one out there (perhaps even here), but I hope that this will help someone despite that. Please, be careful. You can easily damage your paint if you're not careful.

Equipment needed:

• Hair dryer
• A few rags (microfibers preferred)
• Light polishing compound (I used Dodo Juice Lime Prime, it did the job this time around)
• WD-40, or some sort of goo-remover. WD-40 was the only thing I had around.
• Dental floss
• Some sort of tool to safely remove remains (I used my nails (not recommended and a clay bar to remove the very last remains of the glue)
• Car wax

1.



Start by heating the badge you are about to remove. Be careful, as you can easily overheat the paint causing permanent damage to it. 10 seconds or so should to the job, but please be careful.

2.



Spray some WD-40 (or chemical of your choice) on the badge. A smart thing to do is to place a cheap rag underneath the badge to prevent the chemical leaking over everything.

3.



Heat the badge for another 10 seconds or so. This should loosen up the glue, making the next step that much easier.

4.



Take a decent length of floss and go to town on the badge using smooth motions. Be sure to grab the badge when it falls!

5.



After the badge has been removed, you most likely have a bunch of glue remaining. The first time around, I used an old credit card to pry the glue. You can also use your nails or anything plastic (and not too sharp) you have around, but you can easily scratch the paint if you‘re not careful.



After removing most of the residue, I removed the smallest particles using my clay bar.

6.



Now you‘ve exposed paint that has never seen the light of day, and it will show. You need to even the paint out using a polishing compound. I used Dodo Juice Lime Prime this time around, as the paint didn‘t need a lot of polishing to even it out.

7.



I would recommend washing the area afterwards. Doing this, you‘ll be able to see if your polishing did its job or if you have to do more. Afterwards, wax the area and you‘ll be done.

The end result:

Good write up

nice write up

Thanks! It held up well for something I wrote more than 5 years ago!

Nice write up - simple, elegant mod

I am a fingernail guy - found they I could feel what I was doing, and definitely wouldn't scratch the paint. Took ages to get the glue out from under my nails though

Doesn't seem to be a problem for most, but it might be a good idea to use an old toothbrush and very soapy water to dislodge any small bits of grit that may have lodged in the joint between badge and paint.

I neglected to do this on my first badge removal. The grit got picked up by the floss and badly scratched the paint, despite liberal lubricant use. Fortunately, my Zed was not the first.

There is a much quicker and easier way - spray Tardis above the badge for it to run into the foam, leave it for 2 minutes, use a hairdryer and it will fall off

nice write up, only thing i would change is the credit card/plastic bit, i would use baby wipes

Thanks for the comments guys!

Tardis sounds interesting, but I've never heard of it being sold over here.

But Taz, I'm not sure that baby wipes would be very helpful when you have all the glue / foam left (like in my case). But I may very well be wrong, I've never given it a shot! I used my nails this time and followed up with a clay bar, which gave me a foam free zone.

For what it's worth, this thread may be old, but it's still every bit as helpful. I've just bought an old Z4 to drive around Europe for the Summer, and whilst for me the car is simply a means to an end (i.e. I don't mind racking up 10K miles on it), I don't want it to look shabby. This helped make it a 10 minute job to remove the tatty, 15-year old badges, so thank you.

Personally I like the badges. The only thing I removed was the dealer's name decal. It was like a PVC decal and a hair dryer alone did the trick in that instance.