Okay took the stuff off my car pretty easy (broke the f/o) i got the glue off and waxed the spot but at night when a light hits the car you can kinda see a slight reflection of where the badges were. Anyone use polish or a rubbing compound my car is like a year old so its not gonna match exactly due to the orange peel but it bugs me. Its fine during the day though.

best bet is to use a polishing compound. It doesn't have the abrasives that rubbing compound has ( even that won't take off orange peel) but should do the job for you. Then a good quality wax should put the oils back into the paint to make it match perfectly

Hey guy, Spray on wax just won't do it. You need to go out and get meguires gold class wax and do it by hand then you will get the look you want

i debadged mine while waxing so it all worked out.

That is quick detailent to get the entire car shiny i used meguiars wax

i guess next washing i will use polish and see what happens

yeh well it kind of doesnt go away so easy, you can maybe buff it out a little, but if yours is like mine, guess what, its faded all around it and thats whats left of the old paint that hasnt been faded, it will probably fade to match, or youll stop noticing whichever happened to me first

Have any of you guys went on the meguiars web site? They hav ethis thing where you answer a few questions and it will give you a report of what products/time you should use to get the desired look for your car. Mine said i should surface prep 3X/yr........polish 8X/yr........wax 10x/yr. but i also said i have no problem spending 4 hrs a month on it.

http://www.meguiars.com/carrx.cfm

I said I'd spend 1-2 hrs./month, and that it doesn't have to have a showroom finish, and they STILL want me to wax my car 10X a year...that's a wax every other time I wash my car?!?

i guess the more you wax the more products you use !!! and since most of use have nothing better to do........

I did mine exactly like this minus the claybar and it came out perfect.
http://www.focusfanatics.com/howtos/debadge/

I never waxed mine when I debadged. I simply used goo gone and bug and tar remover. However, the car was only 2 weeks old : / maybe that had something to do with it.

I have a question-- why do folks debadge their cars[???:)]? Seriously! I didn't know that it was so important to people.

My friend/riding instructor ALWAYS debadges his trucks b/c he feels that it's ridiculous to "pay" to advertise for the dealer/manufacturer.

I'll admit that it does give the car a nice, clean look!

Yeah to make it look cleaner i parked next to the 03 version of my car, and my car looked that much nicer cause its dabadged .

I debadged using the "how to" (see hotfocus's post above) and I love the clean look.
I hear ya, Pitch!

paint thinner worked 4 me

Because our ZX3's have huge bosoms...So debadging makes people not stare anymore....:)

In France, people usually debadge because it recognizes a modified car from a stock. So U could have a sleeper but recognizable by others 'cause of the debadging....

My froggie view...:)

Vassil... it's Pioneer, not Pionner if you want to fix that. "Oh no, the OCD is consuming me... augh!!!!"

Yeah, I never waxed where I debaged either and it never left any outlines or residue. I just used a can of sticker remover (from Advance Auto Parts) and a credit card. Then wiped it clean.

I would like to debadge my car, but i'm afraid my Dad will get all hot and bothered when he finds out the emblems are gone...

What do you guys think?

Well if it's your car go for it. Why would he get all hot and bothered for?

you never know, might not be anything he would notice was gone. Debadge it, then say, "Pops, whatcha think, look clean?"

Well, when i had my civic, i debadged it and the honda emblems had two holes in the body. my dad thought the insides of the hood and trunk would rust up, that's why he got mad. But any way, the other reason is that even though the focus is mine, he's the one who paid for it. So i don't want to do anything that might upset him.

Well, you don't have to worry about any holes. They have double-sided tape on them. You just have to heat them up or use some kind of sticker remover solvent and they will come off. Then just wax her a little. C'mon now. You might impress him!

what about the rear ford emblem?

I don't think most people take off the actual Ford oval... I just debadged the words Focus and ZX3 on the back of mine. The Ford oval I'm pretty sure would leave holes.

Ok, say I debadge mine. I want to take the "focus" off, but if I remove the "SVT" does it come off in good shape where I could possibly reapply it somewhere else?

John- i totally messed up mine, so if I ever wanted something back on i'd have to reorder them. Some people I think take them off without issue though... I wasn't planning on saving them so I didn't care about their condition![;)]

I checked out the link for the instructions and I may just try it! It does make the car look "clean."

Thanks!

Edit--- Any luck w/ getting the dealer name off? Mine is a decal and in the past, they seem to fade w/ time and look really crappy. I wish that I had thought about that before I bought the car [:(]

I took mine off with a razor blade, goo gone and a light touch. My car was also less than a week old so it didn't leave any Ghost Images.

Debadge man. Most poeple dont even notice it unless they are a enthusiests. Ussually poeple say "There is something differant about your car..."

I took my emblems off because, I hated them. I dont like haveing all those stickers on my car. I dont need to advertise I have a focus. I dont need to advertise where I got it from. Besides it looks much better with out them.

I solved the dealership stickers beforehand. Before I picked up my car the day before I gave them instrutions NOT to put there sticker on there. Went to pick it up and checked just to make sure. I had that problem on my other car. I used the same stuff that i used to debadge my Focus on it and it messed it all up.