I have been getting a lot of emails from customers and also in general car conversations about simple ways to change the look of ones vehicle . Now with the endless choices we have from simple window tinting to getting after market wheels, body kits etc. It can quickly become a very expensive endeavor. One quick easy way to change up the look of your car is to DE-badge it. This is a very unique way to change up the look of your car with minimal cost and to give it a cleaner sleeker look.
I WILL WARN YOU!!!!
If not done correctly and if this is rushed in anyway you can SERIOUSLY DAMAGE your paint. In some cases I have seen where it needs to be repainted!! There is a serious learning curve in doing this correctly. More so the fact that it takes incredible patience then highly skilled finesse here. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, just hire a pro to do it such as myself lol.
I WILL WARN YOU!!!!
If not done correctly and if this is rushed in anyway you can SERIOUSLY DAMAGE your paint. In some cases I have seen where it needs to be repainted!! There is a serious learning curve in doing this correctly. More so the fact that it takes incredible patience then highly skilled finesse here. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, just hire a pro to do it such as myself lol.
This is a beautiful 2015 Mercedes-Benz that is owned by a very valued client of mine. I have had the great privilege of detailing his awesome cars!! (proud owner of a very impressive car collection) This is his everyday driver he uses to take to work , and also takes it on road trips to California. So it see's some miles. I installed AMMO SKIN on the paint, giving it a full 6 months of protection on the paint. Really Fun project!!! It came out great too.
We also had the conversation of giving this beautiful Mercedes a sleek clean look for the back decklid. So we of course discussed de-badging it . The following photos showed the process. ENJOY!!
We also had the conversation of giving this beautiful Mercedes a sleek clean look for the back decklid. So we of course discussed de-badging it . The following photos showed the process. ENJOY!!
As always before I do any kind of paint work I always give the car a good quality hand wash with the proper mitt, to safely remove any road debris and dust, without the risk of incorporating love marks.
Now this is where the real patience kicks in. You need to take painstaking slow steps to use a balance of chemical/ heat/ and very MINOR scraping to finesse glue from the paint.
Here i very gently use a plastic scraper Then I gently pick off with my finger
This for sure is about 80% of the job as I pre-treated the glue surface with adhesive remover fluid. Then slowly picked and GENTLY scraped off the pesky glue. Its good practice to do it patiently as your first instinct is to scrape and pic heavily to get the glue off. But this can lead to bigger head aches down the road and can in a worse case scenario damage the vehicle.
This for sure is about 80% of the job as I pre-treated the glue surface with adhesive remover fluid. Then slowly picked and GENTLY scraped off the pesky glue. Its good practice to do it patiently as your first instinct is to scrape and pic heavily to get the glue off. But this can lead to bigger head aches down the road and can in a worse case scenario damage the vehicle.

After about a good 40 minutes we got the glue off. As you can see in the photo there is no deep scratches in the paints surface. Taking the time to do this carefully and gently definitely paid off.
There is a respect that goes into this as this is a $50,000 + car. So that certainly must be taken into consideration. If for any reason you don't feel comfortable in doing this it would be wise to hire a professional to do such a job.
The final photo shows the refinement part of the process. As just pulling the decal is not the last step , there are required refinement and protection steps that must be completed. I just did not focus on that aspect of the job because today's focus was on decal removal. Not paint refinement.