Correcting/blending paint after removing badges

D

DEwalt

New member
I removed some large emblems on my truck about 4 months ago. The truck is 7 years old...Is there a way to get them to blend? Not sure what the terminology would be. How about polishing on it?

My background:
I`m pretty new to the more proffesional detailing. Last year I bought a griots polisher, poor boys polishing sample kit, green, orange and black pads. Also bought some other misc. Chemicals.

Thanks!
 
Start with the lightest polish and pad and slowly work up. If light polish and pad don’t work try same polish with the next step up pad if that doesn’t work go down a pad but up a polish, then if that doesn’t work up to the same pad as number two try with the polish. Just keep in mind that the more you work at the more clear you will remove


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DEwalt- When the badges were on there for that long, there might always be some artifacts. I`ve had ghosting even when I removed the emblems immediately upon new-car delivery (like, right out-of-wrapper). And some emblems/decals cause a depression in the paint that you might not *want* to abrade away.

Not trying to dissuade you, I debadge most of my vehicles..but I seldom try it on the ones I buy used as I it`s too likely to show.

There are a few different challenges:

- a depression in the paint from the emblem having been "pushed into the clear" upon installation
- a perimeter outline of where the emblem was that`s not as bad as the above
- an outline from where the emblem protected the underlying area from marring/correction
- a difference in the the paint`s color between under the emblem and the surrounding area (don`t expect to fix that one)
 
Yeah, I`ve played around with this as well, and when the vehicle is older, there`s often a ghost image left behind due to fading, just as Accumulator mentions. We`ve played around with some different polishes and were unable to achieve much of anything. Ghost images remain.
 
I`ve done three in recent years with mixed results. One was on the vertical surface of a 9 year old, well-kept Black Buick Lacrosse. It came out perfect with nothing stronger than M205 or Meg`s UC (can`t recall which). Another was on the hood of an 11 year old Oldsmobile, bright metallic red and not well-maintained paint. On that one I could only reduce the outline, even with a rotary and some of the most aggressive compounds on the shelf. Third was the quarter panel lettering of my Dark Burgundy `87 El Camino. Color wasn`t a big issue there. But the now-crystallized foam adhesive had eaten into the paint. Even with careful wet sanding, I couldn`t make that disappear. Fortunately, I was replacing it with a different style cursive script, so it was not as obvious as complete de-chroming.

Bill
 
Oh man, every time I see this thread I wish I could remove the "Z71" emblems from the Tahoe without having to have those panels repainted.
 
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