DIY: Debadging your car.

[Persian Scarface]

Hey everyone, I just debadged my car, and since I didn't notice any DIY's for this, I decided to show everyone to make things easier.

So basically, I was sitting at home bored when I decided to do this. I had been talking about doing this for a while but never got around to it, and since i was bored of my car cause I hadn't done anything to it in a while, I just went and did it. That being said, you can do this with all household items.

What you need:
-25 minutes
-Hair dryer or heat gun
-Dental floss or fishing line
-WD-40 or any other adhesive removing material (Goo Gone is most popular)
-Paper towels
-Drying cloth
-Soap and water



Sorry for the lack of photos during the process. I did this by myself so I couldn't take many while in the middle of it.

1) First, you want to clean around the emblems before you start. (This isn't necessary if your car is clean already, but just incase, it's better to clean it so it is easier to take off)


2) Once the area is clean, take your heat source, whether it be a hair dryer or heat gun, and go over your emblems thoroughly to heat the adhesive. Do this for about 3-5 minutes.

3) When you are done heating, spray a little bit of WD-40 on a paper towel and wipe over the emblem a little so that the adhesive can come off easier.

4) When you are done, take a piece of floss or fishing line and run it behind the emblem in a sawing motion to saw the adhesive off. Do this slowly and thoroughly and apply more heat if needed.

5) Once the emblem is off, spray a some more WD-40 on a paper towel and rub over the excess adhesive that is left after you remove the emblem.

6) Get a dry paper towel or cloth and start rubbing off the excess adhesive. I found that heating it while you are rubbing it off makes it easier.

7) Once you get the majority of it off and you still have some remaining, go over the area with a paper towel and WD-40 again to remove whats left until you have a nice clean surface.

8) When all the adhesive is off, wash the area where the emblem sat before. This is where the soap and water comes in. Make sure you wash the area thoroughly so you can remove any adhesive left over and as well as the WD-40 or what ever you used. Repeat this step if necessary. (I did this about 3 times). Once you are done washing, it's best to wax the area afterwards as there is no wax under the emblem from before. By doing this, you can seal the paint and give the area a nice feel.

9) Once all of that is done, dry off your car, and thats it, you have successfully debadged your car. Repeat these steps for any other emblems that are on your car if you want to remove those as well.

Here is the finished product:



This took me about 25 minutes to complete. I think it makes the car look a lot more cleaner IMO. Definitely a good mod to do when your bored lol, and the best part about it, its free!

Hopefully this will help some of you, good luck

[ilikebass7]

Looks PERFECT. i may actually take the paint off of my toyota emblems. haha, they look really good stock, just so clean

[Persian Scarface]

Thanks man! i have actually debated whether or not if i should paint my emblems black or not. i like the whole idea and look of it, but on a white car, im not sure if it will be that clean.

overall, ive gotten a bunch of complements from my friends already just by sending them pictures over mms. cant wait to hear what they say in person. one of my friends says that all the little stuff ive done to my car makes it look super clean and it makes it stand out a lot from the rest. this just goes to prove to a lot of people that a corolla can look good

[ilikebass7]

i say drop it and go with some sick wheels! keep it simple. I Like Black Emblems but like stock to.

[Persian Scarface]

yeah def. i always say once i get money, im getting rims and a drop, but every time i get money, something else comes up. hopefully soon i will be getting springs and spacers. ill rock the stock rims for a while because i think they look pretty good. just wish they were bigger tho

[ilikebass7]

yeah i need spacers badddddddddddddddddddddddd. if only i had like 120 bucks haha

[Dimaoala]

Looks good Arman. I was on the fence about debadging also, but I think I'm just leaving mine up till I get bored of it.

[FlawedLegacy]

Nice DIY! Very simple "mod"... the first one I did an LOVE IT!
I'd say go for the black emblem! Would look great IMO!

[pinoyesv6]

the last thing i usually do is wax the area you worked around. You probably have waxed/ polised/ applied sealer etc to the rest of the car but each time you did, you didn't do it in the area underneath the emblem but now that area is now exposed.

not to mention the fact that chemicals like some adhesive remover can strip the wax off your paint.

[Persian Scarface]

Yes I forgot to mention that. That's also the reason why I washed the area I worked on after it was done, so I could remove the rest of the adhesive I couldn't see and to remove the excess WD-40. I did this step 3 times. The soap I used has wax in it so I didn't have to wax it immediately.

[markymark975]

I kept mine on but decided to paint it black. It's so easy to just take off the Corolla badge but to me, taking off the corolla badge is almost like you're trying to hide that it's a corolla. Now debadging the XRS emblem would be a stupid thing.

[Dragon-88]

I only removed my CE badge but it was pretty easy and small so I didnt need everything you had.. All i did was dental floss the back and then rub the adhesive off with my thumb, took a little elbow work but I was done in 5-8 minutes..

[Persian Scarface]

Originally Posted by markymark975

I kept mine on but decided to paint it black. It's so easy to just take off the Corolla badge but to me, taking off the corolla badge is almost like you're trying to hide that it's a corolla. Now debadging the XRS emblem would be a stupid thing.

Well, you can say that about any car then. Its not like im trying to hide the fact that its a corolla, I mainly did it because i like the clean look of the rear, especially with my red out tail lights. People on the roads will still know its a corolla because there are so many of them on the streets nowadays.

Now debadging a car and putting a different badge on there, thats a different story where you can say that people are hiding their cars identity or making it look as if its something its not. Its like those people who put AMG badges on their Mercedes when its obvious that its not an AMG. Same goes with the people who put M badges on their non M BMWs.

[Jackss731]

only take off the XRS badge if you do a LS1 swap and want to make your car look like a corolla S sleeper haha

its all about those people who put the V8 badge on their 9th gen corolla

[Persian Scarface]

Originally Posted by Jackss731

its all about those people who put the V8 badge on their 9th gen corolla

or this guy i spotted months back


you can see my car in the reflection lol