Being an anonymous sort of cove, I'd like to remove the engine badge from the rear of the car. I once read that a combination of hairdryer (to soften the glue) and dental floss (to avoid scratches) worked.
Has anyone tried it, or a better idea?
|
I'm not sure that makes you more anonymous - or does that translate to - I have a weedy little engine - probably on a BMW - and I want people to think I've got a bigger one. That's the only reason people really do it. :-)
Unlike the Audi A4 driver just round the corner from me who has a 1.9tdi and he has just added no less than 4 RS4 badges to his car - one of them adjacent to the tdi badge - what's that all about ?
I think your approach suggested above should work.
|
|
But how can you be anonymous without changing the wheels, any extra body kit and exhaust pipes? In the extreme taking the RS6 badges off an Audi would not fool me about the actual car ;-)
|
|
Mate of mine in Newcastle took the 330 badge off his BMW to make it less likely to get nicked, the kidology can work both ways, as other posters have pointed out the wheels etc are a giveaway to anyone who looks closely but it's worth a try
Edited by Webmaster on 13/02/2008 at 00:40
|
I think most people who take the badges off have the higher-up models.
I always take them off, as I think they're a waste of time, and trap dirt and water. I use dental floss, but it does snap alot. You also need to do it on a hot day or use a hair drier. removing the backing and glue is the hardest part, basically it's split sticky foam pad. You just need elbow grease and a polish with lots of petroleum in it like Mer or Autoglym. I have also used white spirit with no ill effects. Old towel seems to work well. Why they ever thought of them in the first place is beyond me. It's a bit like council house hifis that say megabass and 200W PMPO
|
|
|
Remember the ads in the 80s?/90s? where the bloke test drove an Audi but it wasn't brash enough for him? Well Audis are going brasher and brasher and being adopted by more and more of his ilk.
Stupid headlight adornments in hockey sticks-like running lights, being the preferred choice of reps who will happily plough extra money into their monthly car allowance to have four rings on their bonnet and the same remote control as a Skoda but with an Audi badge.
But the dead giveaway is the S-Line upgrades. Looks just like an S3 but goes like a diesel or 1.6. That's what anyone with any sense would want. A car that looks like the very fast model but has suspension and tyres that will pay for your chiropractor's trip home to Australia at Christmas (turning left at the plane door) and all the performance of a base model.
|
|
|
The 330 is a really hard car to disguise or to fake. Even the instrument panel is unique to that model (chrome rings round the dials).
The average chav twocker isn't going to know the difference admittedly, but as most cars made in this decade are immune to the 20 second opportunist with a screwdriver, car thefts tend to be well planned and researched, and it's a fairly safe bet the car will be identified and watched for a bit first by someone who knows what they're doing.
Based on what I see on the roads in the commuter belts of London, most debadged 3 series tend to be 318i or four cylinder diesels. The tailpipes give them away. I've also seen "red" TT badges on single exhaust 150/185 models, and a fairly convincing looking RS4 that left a black fug and rumble behind it under acceleration that could only come from a badly chipped PD TDI engine.
I understand why someone might try to disguise a higher powered model for anti-theft purposes, and for that lovely Q-car element of surprise. I really don't understand why anyone would "big up" a smaller model though. It's the same as the yoof in bespoilered, bean can exhaust'd 1.1 Saxos and 1.0 Corsas that so many of us have a chuckle at.
Cheers
DP
|
|
|
|
|
>>what's that all about ?
He has small parts I suggest!
MD
|
|
|
|
I can only tell you that mine was removed by (i think) a screwdriver... Left 8 deep scratches and all the sticky foam behind.
This wasn't something I did btw. Some young saint in our street liberated it for me without my knowledge. Nice to see in an age where kids are apparently running round with guns and drugs that one or two of them are still into swiping badges off Nissans.
|
|
I used to have a Golf GTi. I lived in central Bath at the time and the car was parked on the street. In its' first year it was broken into on more than one occasion and stolen once. Having been recovered and repaired the police advised me to remove the "GTi" badges. I did that and lo and behold the local vermin left it alone for the rest of its time with me!"
|
Can also use hot, near-boiling water (I didnt know about dental floss, I used a knife), and meths to get the sticky pad off. Thats what I used to get the manufacturer badge off to replace it, after the plastic coating and paint cracked off of it.
Do some cars still have holes in the bodywork where the badges fix on? My Saab does, but thats 8 years old.. The badges are not rivetted or screwed on but the holes are there to position the badge accurately.
|
|
I'd agree with DP, the cars without engine / trim badges are usually 318s / 520s but the keen observer can work it out from the stance & exhaust pipe :)
|
I have no problem with folks wanting to remove badges for reasons other than trying to impress with their Q-car machinery.
But, those who do are plonkers.
Take the badge off to impress someone who knows about cars and you look like a.... erm... plonker. Because they recognise the car and have sussed you as a sad pathetic little twit who wants to be taken so importantly, but unfortunately just hasn't quite made it in life (on the financial side).
Take off the badge to impress someone who knows nothing about cars and you are a plonker because the observer hasn't a clue.
Why bother making an effort to prove you're a plonker, when otherwise casual observers might not be so sure.
|
I'm a plonker, then.
;-)
It's not a German car, BTW, but Polish, I believe.
|
I thought people debadged big-engined versions (and perhaps painted over some of the bling and let the wheels get dirty) to make them less attractive to thieves. Might even be a good idea to take off the V12 badges and replace them with 1.8 16V ones.
Does that make me a plonker?
|
|
|
|
i took the sign off the back off my polish car with a hair dryer and an old credit card, comes off easy enough. in fact would probaly fall off in time if left to the weather. but it still leaves the glue marks , i suppose meths would get that off.
|
|
|
|
|
|
i think i read somewhere to use fishing line using a sawing action to remove glued on trim if that helps!
|
I removed badges using a hairdryer.. you have to be careful so I covered the surrounding paint with newspaper and masking paint and rmoved any left behind sticky bits with white spirit.. .
(Personally if I had an M3 or an RS4 I'd debadge it cos of all the scroats.. and the thieve to order brigade.)
|
Fishing line works better than floss.
Hairdryer and a Matalan card is the best way!
Autoglym Tar remover gets rid of the glue residue *I think*.
Apparently it´s called the ´stealth look´, removing the badges.
|
|
Thing is, a Roomster quattro is bound to be a target.
|
Blimey, all of this phsycho analysis!! Chill out, all he wants to do is see if he can take the badges off the car - that's all! It's his car and if that's want he wants to do then good luck to him. Honestly, it is laughable what people think some times..........
Thank you and good night.
|
Christo,
My very thoughts as I opened up this thread for a once over, I was toying with posting the opinion but you articulated it for me.
|
Christo, Pugugly,
Be careful what you wish for.
Opinions are what make fora.
Stick to the plain facts and boring objectivity and ... well....you might as well switch off.
Good night.
|
|
I always assumed everyone looked at all the postings on this forum - I asked this very question the other day in technical matters and had two replies - over here in discussion land it had 22 AND got all heated up too. What a strange lot of people we have here - still variety makes the world and all that...:)
|
I have the signage removed from whatever I buy; I just don't like to advertsie what my car is [I'd remove the manufacturers own badge if I could], nor do I like clothes with logos all over them.
I also remove the garage's sticker on the rear window too. I haven't yet gone so far as to buy my own number plates though, i.e. without the garage's name on them!
I resent being a walking / driving advert for which I'm paid nothing.
|
I'm sorry ED but I don't get that - how does going to all the effort of removing badges stop people knowing what car you drive.
Also how are you advertising in anyway.
Are you really that bothered what people think about you/your car.
When you get home from shopping - do you take all the food out of the containers so as not to advertise the brand of baked beans you buy. :-) :-)
|
|
Norm,
There's a lesson I think, - posters ,sometimes the very ones that post in here, are far less judgemental in Tech.
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 14/02/2008 at 23:08
|
|
A German footwear company I used to have business with had a fleet of identical black Audi A6 Avants for their sales people. The company used to have the model badges removed from the tailgates of the cars and replaced with a very tidy and discreet chrome effect company logo of the same size. I always thought it was quite a nice touch for a bit of low key advertising.
|
I have heard of people who when offered a plastic bag at the check-out ask how much they are paying for advertising. When they receive the obvious answer, they turn the bag inside out so that the shop name is hidden.
Buy a Rolls-Royce. No name badge, no one will ever guess what you are driving.
|
|
Best reason of all defeats the amateur psychologists - the car is easier to polish without them!
|
...they turn the bag inside out so that the shop name is hidden.
Sadly I can believe that, Cliff, although how anyone could think that carrying a supermarket carrier bag constitutes advertising is beyond me. Possibly these are the same people who put masking tape over the dealer logo on their car numberplates. I have never understood why some folk get so excited about that.
Buy a Rolls-Royce. No name badge no one will ever guess what you are driving.
But badges in the wheel hubs specially weighted so that the RR is always the right way up - now that's a pointless gimmick to be proud of :-)
|
how anyone could think that carrying a supermarket carrier bag constitutes advertising is beyond me.
Isn't that why the supermarkets go to the bother of getting their names printed on them?
|
A German footwear company.... cars and replaced with a very tidy and discreet chrome effect company logo of the same size.
Always quite fancied a Birkenstock GTI myself.
Edited by woodbines on 15/02/2008 at 14:15
|
I've sussed GroovyMucker!
He's got an old Polski Fiat, beige like most of the others, and he wants it to pass for a genuine Fiat 125 with a twin-cam engine!
Go on then GM, deny it if you dare....
:o}
|
Nah, nah, not me, Lud. I wasn't there - and anyway, it was self-defence.
Thing is, as soon as I go anywhere near Dulwich Estate, he'll spot the deception by the different grille.
|
Nice mixture of heat and light here. Not sure I'd have gone to the trouble of removing the engine badge from my S60, but Volvo offered me the option of doing without one when it was new, which I was happy to accept. Nothing to do with thieves - anyone bright enough to get inside it would notice the red line at 4500 - or real or inverted vanity; just that it's no-one's business but mine what's under the bonnet. Anyone here have a badge on their house to indicate what kind of boiler they have inside?
Incidentally, I think those S60s of similar vintage (2002-3) to mine look a little untidy with the engine badge offset below the S60 one. Someone at Volvo must have thought the same, because some time in 2003 or 2004, the S60 badge moved to the left side and the engine badge moved up level with it on the right. There are probably minutes of a meeting somewhere to explain why they decided to do that - must have been a quiet week in the design department!
|
I have the perfect solution to removing badges: a sledge hammer and cold chisel.
Works every time.
Anyone want a nice badge from a new RR Continental?
:-)
|
|
|
|
