fred114 |
October-19th-2008 12:50 PM |
The front emblem is held on by clips only. Be careful as to not break them but is pretty easy to remove. The rear "M" is held on by glue and has two pegs for alignment. Using fishing line or dental floss is a easy way. I sawed in from each side then from top down and bottom up until I hit the pegs. It then just popped off. I also heated it with a heat gun to get the glue soft. You can use a hair dryer or just leave it in the sun for several hours. If you use a heat gun, do not use the highest setting, you could ruin your paint with too much heat. The other emblem on the rear(and I am not sure what the sedans have, I have the hatchback.) is just held on with glue. Again the fishing line/dental floss trick works here very well. I also taped an outline of this position with painters masking tape(very little glue) to assure proper positioning when I reapplied them.
Now I have heard a lot of people just painted right over the chrome with no problems. I did the bleach bath thing. Soak them for about a week, changing the bleach everyday. Ate the chrome right off and left just the blue plastic. It is very smooth, but I hit it with some 400 grit sand paper then finished it with some 1500 grit. Very smooth. Then prime, paint and clear coat. I bought a new set of emblems from the dealer, did then in black. I have a 08 Black Mica Speed3. Looks good, but not quite what I wanted. I have the original emblems now cleaned up and am just about to paint them red. Think this will add an aggressive and sporty look.
Oh, the bleach bath will eat the old glue off, so get some 3M emblem adhesive to reapply. Can be found at any auto parts store with the paint.
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