Not sure if this was the best place to put this but just a little how-to on removing badges. Kinda' dipping my toes into making How-to's so I can do some more later when the money rolls in. ;D


In this DIY, I'll be removing both front 'GT' badges from my 2006 Mustang as well as the rear........thing that surrounds the keyhole for the trunk. Let's gather out materials, shall we?


Step 1: Heating the adhesive=> Begin with your heat gun set on high. I'm assuming you're using something like I had from Harbor Freight or Home Depot and it can't do 31x10^7 BTUs/Hr. or anything like that. Keep the gun 6"-12" away from your paint. I only heated the adhesive for about 30 seconds or so, max. Be careful. Doing this step wrong can damage your paint!
When it's done, the adhesive should be nice and soft. Use caution during the next steps; the metal is hot and the adhesive can stick to you while it's hot and you will pee yourself. Trust me.

Step 2: 'Cutting' the adhesive=> This is where the fishing line comes in. You may want to wear gloves for this; your hands will be near the hotter metal and the fishing line can kinda' grief your hands. Find a corner on the emblem and insert the fishing line underneath it as demonstrated.
You'll want to start sawing back and forth, cutting through the adhesive as you go. Be careful not to overreach and break your fishing line but if you do, whatever, it's fishing line. You'll have to take some liberties with your angle of attack to get it all. You'll notice a couple of spots where your fishing line won't cut through. Those are the little pegs used to center(?) the emblem on the fender. Just cut around them and pull the emblem off once all the glue is gone. Oh, and you may have to reheat the adhesive here and there. No biggie.

Step 3: Getting cleaned up=>So, if you did everything right, there should be one less emblem on your whip and a lot of adhesive left as seen in the above picture. Time to clean it off. Grab your terry cloth or a shop rag and your heat gun. I also used a spent hotel keycard for scraping but it wasn't really needed. Heat the adhesive up and go to work. It's best if you push the layer of glue off in one direction. 'Scrubbing' it won't remove as much and leaves a lot of rag residue on the car. This step might take a while, as I will show with the trunk keyhole cover thing. Keep at it and you should be left with a very thin layer of adhesive left. Take a new rag or cloth and apply rubbing alcohol to it. Think liberal. This part kind of sucks because you really have to keep scrubbing to get all the leftover off. I alternated between wet and dry rags so I could see my progress. You can do this.

Step 4: Wash and Wax=>Coming Soon!

Decided to put this in to show everyone maybe the worst you can possibly face when doing this little project and how well the adhesive can actually come off. The 'emblem' in question is the big, circular, plastic adornment that you see on some S197's. Here's a link to its image:http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/w.../downsize7.jpg I imagine some neglected Ford engineer with a forgotten but inflated adhesive budget plotting to insert what might have been the S197's only flaw. Ladies and gentlemen, for you consideration....

This is what I found when I managed to get the back emblem off. It took a while to saw it off and I figured there'd be a good quarter inch ring of adhesive holding it on. Wrong. However......