How to Customize the Decals on your Car
When looking for an easy way to make small exterior changes, debadging your car makes the car look cleaner and better. This is all a matter of you opinion on what emblems you want to remove, but I personally think that removing all of them is the best look. These can be done with normal household items and save you from spending the extra money on adhesive removing products.
Here is a list of the things you will need for the removal process.
Plastic putty knifeDuct tapeSome old ragsGasolineMulti-purpose cleaner(simple green preferably)Water
Step 1: tear a strip of duct tape off and fold it over the edge of the putty knife. (this will prevent scratching the paint)
Step 2: wedge the knife under on of the corners of the emblem and rock it back and forth until the emblem starts separating from the car. (during this step you will notice that some of the glue is still on the paint. This is ok, and will be taken care of later). Keep working the knife further under the emblem, while rocking it back and forth until it is fully removed.
Step 3: Once the emblem is off, place the knife at the remaining adhesive and try to pry what you can get off. (if it doesn't come off right with the knife it will come off slowly in later steps)
Step 4: Once you have removed all that you can of the glue, take one of the old rags and soak a corner of it is gasoline. Rub the corner in small circles on the adhesive. (you will notice the compound starts breaking down once the gas touches it.) keep rubbing in small circles until the glue is fully broken down. (add more gas when necessary)
Step 5: If there is still a good deal of adhesive remaining that the gas does not break down, repeat Step 3 using the putty knife. If should be easier now that the gas has weakened it. Repeat Step 3 and 4 until all of the glue is completely off.
Step 6: It is important that you clean the area right away because if you don't, the gas can eat away at your finish and ruin it. Spray the multi-purpose cleaner of the area and with a DIFFERENT rag, wipe it down and make sure all of the gas is off the paint.
Step 7: Once the area is wiped down, wipe it down with water, to make sure there is no harmful chemicals left on the paint.
Step 8: Repeat the steps above to other emblems on the to have a fully debadged car.
Once you are done with this free "mod", you will be happy with the results. The car looks much cleaner without those tacky letters and emblems all over it. This is something that will separate you from other cars, and it works great when you are being ticketed. Most cops don't know cars without emblems, in fact they couldn't tell you whether is a Ford, Chevy, Honda, Toyota, etc. without seeing the emblem. You will become a stealth warrior on the streets from doing this simple mod!
