De-badging Your Car

De-badging your car can be such a cool cost-effective mod to do to your car. Whether you want to make it look cleaner without the badges, or just hide the fact it's a basic spec model, there's no denying it's going to look better.

With just a few low-cost items, you can tackle this job in under 30mins. So go get a cuppa, and let's get crackin'.

TEMPLATE

You might want to start ripping things off straight away, but trust us here, make a template. The template will be ideal if you want to stick the badge back on at a later date. It means you'll get it in the exact same spot as when it left the factory.

Use some low-tac detailing tape to tape around and in-between each letter. You want to also add tape around an area of the car that you can use for positioning. For example, we taped the curve of the boot next to the tail light. So we have the exact position when it comes to re-applying the badge.

HEAT

No this step isn't 100% necessary, but it will certainly help. Please be careful! We used a heatgun on a low-heat setting, but you can use a hairdryer too. We basically want to heat up the adhesive holding the badge to make it easier to remove. Please judge this carefully. The last thing you want it to burn your paintwork/plastic bumpers.

FISHING LINE

Fishing line is ideal for the job here. It's super strong and ultra-thin to be able to get behind each letter and cut away at the adhesive behind it. Use a sawing action to effectively cut each letter from the car.

Once the letters are off, you should be left with the adhesive tape visible like the pic below.

PICKING

You can add more heat here if you like, to soften the adhesive tape. Then just pick away with your fingers, carefully lifting an edge of the adhesive and peeling off. If you're car isn't too old, it should come off easily like it did here on the Insignia.

SHADOWING

So, you think all your hard work is done, but now you can see the shadowing of the badge. This happens as grime builds up, or the paint around the badge is a slightly different tone. Remember, the badges were added from factory, so the paint beneath hasn't seen the light of day like the rest of your car. Fear not, we have the perfect way to remove this shadowing in the next step.

POLISHING

That's right, get that bottle of Vanity Swirl Concealer Polish out from your cupboard, along with our microfibre polishing pad. Add your 2-3 spots of Vanity on your pad and rub away the lettering shadow. It's like magic!
Wipe the polish residue away with one of our Candy Cloth Microfibre towels.

Now, just step back and admire your hard work. Job. done. Just look how much better it now looks!