Blacking out front badge

M

mglavina

R3VO 3VOM
:
2006 Mazdaspeed 6
Again, there was suposed to be some nice weather this week so I thought of a small simple project... Blacking out my front "M" badge.

Not sure what the best approach was? I was planning on sanding it down, applying 3-4 coats of flat black paint then a few coats of clear gloss overtop. I plan on getting the badgeless grille eventually, so this is just a cheaper temporary alternative for now.

Only issue is that I wasn't 100% on removing the front badge. I know that there are 2 plugs holding it in on the sides but I wasn't sure if there is also glue that I should heat up first. Fishing line? Dental floss? What is the best way to take it off?

Any advice on removing the flying M or blacking it out is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
With mine I just carefully used a knife to peel it off, there was glue but it wasn't all that sticky and the plugs just held it position, the glue held it on. IT was a fairly small piece do I didn't bother sanding it, just cleaned it with rustoleum wax and tar remover, threw light coats of duplicolor generic black on it till covered, and used Duplicolor Wheel Clear Coat (I think it holds up to salt and whatnot better than generic clear coat. Then I just used industrial strength hot melt glue to re-attach it.
Mine is an 02 Protege so the way it is attached might be different, but I think it is all pretty much similar.
 
Removing the front badge is easy, its held on by 4 clips, I just took my grille out to get to the clips. The rear, I used some thin string an did like a sawing motion to get it off. I then used alcohol to remove the remaining adhesive.

What I did after I took the badges off was bought 3M 220 and 400 grit sandpaper, Krylon gloss black, white primer, and clear coat. Sanded the emblems down with 220 first then 400, washed the emblems right after. I put on the white primer then waited a minute after a first layer, then put another one down, waited another minute and put a third coating. Waited an hour for the primer to dry then sprayed 4 coats of gloss black with a minute interval between each coating. Waited an hour after that for the black to dry, then sprayed 2 to 3 coatings of clear. Then let it sit for 24-48 hours for the paint to dry. I wanted to do the evil emblems but i probably would hack that up.

That's what I did. Turned out pretty well. Wish I had pics to show, but maybe some other time.
 
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Here is a pic of my front set-up with badge to look at if you want
4
 
No adhesive on the front badge, just the rear. Undo the couple screws holding the middle part of the front grill down (with hood up). Then you can remove the hole thing and look behind it. There are 3 tabs. Much easier to get your fingers on them that way too.

Wetsanding is the best method for the smoothest finish imo.
 
Wow a lot of different ways to do this... hmm. How well did everyones come out? How well did it last? Did anyone notice paint chipping/falling off? Also, because our cars are Black Mica and not completely jet black, did anyone notice a significant difference in the shades of black against the actual body colour?

I'm pretty much set on this, just gotta pick out the day. Thanks for the input so far.
 
One thing you can do to get the chrome off is to soak the badge in bleach for a day or two. Once that's done, a little wet sanding or a Dremel will make quick work and smooth it down. I did some gloss black with 2-3 coats of clear and it's held up well.

You don't need to peel the front off, you need to remove the grill and depress the clips behind it.
 
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Sounds easy enough. To put it back on should I apply some adhesive glue or just pop it back in place?
 
Yeah to be honest I didn't do the best job on the rear. I only had some crappy sand paper that took me forever to use. And I used the "soak in clorox" method to get rid of the chrome. Which didn't even come off completely after 4 days of soaking. Regardless my badges have been fine for almost a year now. Through many car washes and look great. You can't really mess up either. Just resand / remove paint / redo.
 
quick question from a n00b here.....are you guys painting by hand or using rattle cans? Im thinking about doing this mod soon, I just dont want to screw up my badges.....
 
spray paint is not what it used to be.. its so much different now then just taking a can and spraying it and it would go everywhere, now most of them have adjustable spray fan nozzles on them and seriously ive seen parts on a car that were spray painted with the exact paint to match and you couldnt tell the difference between the part that was spray painted and the actual cars color that was painted in a factory, and sometimes i wonder how some body tech's got their certifications.
 
I sanded mine, and used cheap spray paint. Clear coated it over top. 4 coats of paint, 3 of clear coat, dryed over night.

Check out my sig... Cost me less then $10... I say: win? lol. But seriously, it's not too bad. If you need some help I could explain my process.

EDIT: forgot to mention, took it to a coin-op the day after I painted it and I sprayed the s*** out of it with the pressure washer (because I was washing my car) and not even a flek of paint came off. It's only been a week and it still looks mint.
 
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