Thinking of taking off just the cooper s badge on the back in favour of a cleaner look. From what I understand you just heat up the badges with a hairdryer and slide some floss/fishing line in behind to pop them off. What do I use to remove the residue though, assuming there is any? I was thinking of using polish and possibly a very small amount of varsol if there is a lot of gunk left behind.

 

Goo-b-gone seems to work. There was a post recently on this:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3820630

 

Thanks for the link.

For anyone who has done this recently did you have any issues with ghosting where the emblem used to be? I know this is a non issue with newer cars but I have an 05 and many years of exposure to the elements has me worried I'm going to have more trouble on my hands if I take the badge off. My car is pepper white if that makes a difference, but I'm not sure if certain colours are more susceptible to it or not.

 

Removed my Cooper S badge almost 4 years ago (05 as well) and there was no ghosting. Nothing you can't fix with the proper technique/products anyway if you can see something.

To give you an idea:

 

Looks nice.

I'm just so nervous to start taking the letters off. I'm afraid of what I might find underneath

I think it will be really difficult to correct ghosting on a white car too. If only there was a way to know what is underneath before I start the removal process. Maybe take one letter off and see what I have to work with? If it looks bad at least I'll only have one letter to stick back on.

 

If you botch the job or just plain don't like not having the emblems, you can always buy a replacement from the dealer complete with new adhesive.

When I had my S, I took off everything but the letter "S" Noticed the dealer replaced it when they got it back in trade.

 

I want to say that going over the area with a clay bar can help remove some of the "ghosting" too.

Also, I would be hesitant to use goof off or goo-b-gone on the paint - it would be comparable to using wd-40...it would work but there'd be no guarantees on the paint not being dulled.

 

But, from what I understand here, the MINI wings logo will leave a hole in the metal.

 

It looks as though the car was rear-ended and the repair shop forgot to put the badges back on...........

 

I popped off the C and didn't really like what I saw but I decided to polish the crap out of the paint underneath and it actually looked pretty good, so I did the rest of it. I went to town polishing the area and it looks just about perfect.

There is a very very slight amount of ghosting, however. Its so slight that you can't even pick it up with a camera but its still there. If you stand any more than a foot away from the car it is unnoticeable though, and you really have to look hard to see it (i.e. if I didn't tell you it was there you probably wouldn't notice it). I have a clay bar kit so I might give that a go later tonight, but even if it doesn't make a difference I'd still be happy with where I am now.

Really pleased with the results though. It looks a lot cleaner and the back of the car looks more symmetrical now.

 

Maybe the rear wiper delete is throwing you off a bit

 

Yeah, there's holes behind the Mini wings logo, same for the bonnet one.

 

I (heart) debadging...