There are no laws against removing manufacturers’ badges from the vehicles that you buy. The badges are just emblems that automakers place on their products to help market them to the public. When you buy a vehicle, the badges can come off.
What is Debadging in Vehicles?
Debadging refers to removing all badges, emblems, and labels that reference the make and model of your vehicle. It’s a “customization” that is usually based on the personal preference of the car owner.
Badges and emblems include items like hood ornaments, badges on the trunk, and any side markings that indicate the make and model.
The interior also contains badges or emblems that you could remove and get a cleaner look. Badge removal is a well-known, and quick, way to customize your car.
Why Would You Debadge a Car?
There are many good reasons why you would debadge a car to remove all manufacturer references. Those reasons range from general aesthetics to practical purposes to preserve vehicles.
The primary reason to debadge your vehicle is to clean up your vehicle’s look and make it appear even sleeker and cooler than a showroom model.
When done, you wind up with a vehicle that has very clean external lines and no garish emblems or badges to interfere with the overall look.
Another common reason is a very practical one. That is to thwart the theft of the emblems or badges. Many popular and high-end vehicles have emblems that thieves love to steal.
A Mercedes-Benz or Cadillac hood ornament ranks among the most popular emblems to steal. Both are iconic and imply luxury and quality, which even thieves appreciate.
Discovering someone stole the hood ornament from your expensive luxury car certainly would be a downer.
Even worse would be when that thief damages the paint, dents the car or other components while also stealing the hood ornament. A small dent or scratched paint could add up to a significant cost to repair.
While it is nice to drive expensive luxury vehicles, they are less fun if someone is targeting your vehicle. The vandalism and theft of a hood ornament or another emblem could lead to a broken window or stolen car.
How Can You Debadge a Car?
Most vehicles that were built in recent years have badges and emblems that are held in place by double-sided adhesive or tape. The tape or adhesive is not permanent but does create a strong bond.
In theory, it will hold the emblem or badge in place throughout the vehicle’s entire service life.
Most car owners can remove badges that are kept in place by tape or adhesives and removing them is pretty straightforward.
You won’t need to take the car to the body shop for debadging the body panels, but you will need some basic tools to get the job done.
You should start with:
- A hairdryer or heat gun on a low setting.
- Dental Floss or sturdy fishing line made from monofilament.
- Goo Gone or WD40.
- Wet or dry sandpaper with very fine grit.
- Bucket with soapy water
- Rubbing compound.
- Shop rag and/or microfiber towel.
With those tools and supplies, you should be able to remove any badge or emblem for a recently built vehicle.
You start with the hairdryer or heat gun on its lowest setting and use it to blow hot air onto the emblem. The idea is to heat up the badge and adhesive or tape underneath and make the bond more pliable.
If you use too much heat, you could cook the paint. That would be very bad and force you to repaint that panel.
With the badge and tape or adhesive warmed up, you can work the floss or fishing line in from one side and pull it up and down or back and forth in a cutting-like motion.
That will help the floss or fishing line to cut through the tape or adhesive and separate the badge or emblem from the take or adhesive.
Once you have passed all the way through the emblem, you should be able to lift it off gently with your fingers.
Once the emblem is off, you need to remove what remains of the tape or adhesive. Another blast from the hair dryer or heat gun will help to loosen the remaining gun.
You can apply some Goo Gone or saturate the tape or adhesive with WD40 and let it set in for a couple of minutes. That will help to loosen the adhesive so that you can lift it off of the paint.
You likely will have to use your thumb to rub off the stubborn sections. A plastic spreader could help to remove the remaining gunk.
Once you have the tape or adhesive removed, you might need to wet sand the area is there is any discoloration or minor scratching from the debadging.
Then you can use the rubbing compound to make it shine. You can clean everything up with a quick pass using the soapy hot water, but a final wash and the wax job will complete the debadging process.
Can Debadging a Car Reduce the Value?
Debadging a car should not affect its value in most cases.
Unless the debadging process included filling in small holes for holding badges and emblems in place, there is little that could go wrong with the debadging process.
Debadging makes the exterior look sleek and trim. Some vehicles might have a slight effect on their value if you remove the badges and emblems. Those mostly would be collector cars or high-end luxury vehicles whose badges and emblems help to identify the respective makes and models.
Some badges and emblems are downright collectible – and sought by thieves.
If your car has mint-condition badges that are collectors’ items in their own right, then you would maximize the vehicle’s value by leaving them on the body.
Only in rare cases will removing a badge or other automaker emblem reduce your vehicle’s value. That is assuming you do not scratch up the paint or otherwise damage the exterior or interior while removing badges.
