When you spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new car, it’s more than a little frustrating to have the dealer slap their thirty cent emblem on the back and give themselves free advertising. I didn’t push it when we bought our car because every car on their lot already had it, but it sure is tacky.
I’ve heard that you can remove stickers and emblems before, but I was nervous about screwing up the paint or the clearcoat. I emailed car guru MattM for some advice, and with that (and some YouTube videos) as training, I headed out to the garage. My tools were warm water, a sponge, hair dryer, a plastic putty knife, Goo Gone and a micro fiber cloth. Here are the steps I followed. Please note this was the first time I’ve ever tried this and if you screw up your car, don’t blame me.
- Use the warm water to clean the area and start heating up the emblem. Dry it off.
- Fire up the hair dryer and warm the emblem and the area around it. Don’t leave the hair dryer in one spot for too long as it’s possible to make the paint bubble up. Your goal is that the emblem or sticker should feel warm to the touch, but not hot. Think about how your car feels when it’s been sitting out in the sun on a 100 degree day. I didn’t get near that hot but that was my gauge for how far I was willing to go.
- Use the plastic scraper to carefully start to lift up the emblem. Try to pull it off leaving as little of the glue behind as possible.
- Use your micro fiber cloth and the Goo Gone to remove any remaining glue.
- Wash the area again and check for any remaining residue.
- I waxed the area just in case I’d removed any wax or clearcoat in the process.
It all worked remarkably well for me. You can’t even tell that anything was there!
Removing A Car Dealer Sticker
When you spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new car, it’s more than a little frustrating to have the dealer slap their thirty cent emblem on the back and give themselves free advertising. I didn’t push it when we bought our car because every car on their lot already had it, but it sure is tacky.
I’ve heard that you can remove stickers and emblems before, but I was nervous about screwing up the paint or the clearcoat. I emailed car guru MattM for some advice, and with that (and some YouTube videos) as training, I headed out to the garage. My tools were warm water, a sponge, hair dryer, a plastic putty knife, Goo Gone and a micro fiber cloth. Here are the steps I followed. Please note this was the first time I’ve ever tried this and if you screw up your car, don’t blame me.
It all worked remarkably well for me. You can’t even tell that anything was there!