23 Year old car badge removal - Stubborn Glue

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BA540i

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I recently purchased a 95 BMW 540i and wanted to debadge it. The glue holding the badge on was very dry and very much stuck on the paint as you can imagine. With heat and some WD40 I was able to get the badge off and some of the glue but not all of it.

I continued to use WD40 till I decided to stop and get some advice as I felt I was not making more progress.

After doing some research I am thinking of getting some goo gone and letting it sit on there awhile to really get in there or get a 3M eraser wheel and have at it. The 3M wheel makes me nervous as some have made things worse with it and this is 23 year old glue.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated thanks!

(it wont upload the image so here is a link)
IMG_3981.jpg - Google Drive
 
Goo Gone is not a bad route to go.

Have you tried the heat gun to just the glue?
 
For something locally to pick up, you can try Tarminator and soak the area and let it dwell. Or for something stronger, Rapid Remover will be your best friend. Also some plastic razor blades will help with scraping the residue after it’s been dwelling.
The eraser wheels are pretty effective but can damage paint in a hurry if it’s spinning too fast or if you sit on an area too long.
 
I ordered Rapid Remover and plastic razor blades. I was using a plastic puddy knife I had but will try these.

I also have a clay bar and have heard some people having success with that. To me that seems to grind the glue into the paint more..right?
 
If you soak a mf towel with the glue remover and hold it against the glue. You get a longer dwell time and an easier removal. Wipe it very gently from the outside and work your way in to the center. You can hold the mf towel up to 10 minutes and of cause you do this out of the sunlight. Some solvents can temporary soften the clearcoat a little. But if you are gentle and don't push and rubb hard you are fine. Rinse with flood setting on it after the wipe off and dry it and repeat as necessary.

Just a little tips on how you get the solvents to work it's magic for a longer time without evaporate or haveing it to run off every where. Flip or use another spot on the mf towel when you wipe up the glue residue. So it's able to be picked up by the mf towel as it's gets fastly saturated with the glue residue. After you are done let it be for a day at least before you polishing it. As it's a lot of stress on the clearcoat and can get a little swollen. So you don't get an unpleasant surprise.
 
Heat, alcohol and a plastic razor blade works best for me.
 
I forgot to mention patience! Some emblems residues can be a pain. Also plan on some good polishing or most likely compounding to remove the shadow image from the emblem being on so long.
 
Glue will melt with many solvents. If you have tar remover that is solvent based, try that. Rapid remover is supposed to be amazing, but I have never tried it.
 
Thanks for all the quick responses and info!

Gave the WD40 another shot tonight and let it sit for awhile with no luck.

How long should I let the rapid remover sit to react with the glue?
 
BA540i said:
Thanks for all the quick responses and info!

Gave the WD40 another shot tonight and let it sit for awhile with no luck.

How long should I let the rapid remover sit to react with the glue?
Click to expand...

It claims to be effective in 30-60 seconds. But also claims to be able to let it sit/dwell for a few minutes. With removing glue from a vinyl wrap for an example you could go with a minute. You could test that first and see how it desolves the glue from the badges for you. If it's not makes it to desolve enough you could up the dwell time to 3-5 minutes without any problems I think. Go up in time as needed. It's useally what's you do when removing glue to do it in multible applications until you have it off the paint. I useally rinse in between the applications and dry and apply again. So you don't let any solvents stay on accidental for a longer time. Then it's different from glue to glue on how easy it's to desolve and also what the solvents are for a kind can be difference between them.

It's a good rule to not let it to dwell so long so it dries on the paint. Solvents if they are pure often evaporate clean from the paint so not a big problem. The problem is often if you get a lot of solvents liquid standing somewhere where it can getting you problems with it. On a smooth surface and spray on and it's evaporate clean. But all solvent based liquids is not in that way and can have something else in it that leaves residue behind that can damage or be hard to get it off. So I go with the rule of not let any chemicals dry on the paint on it selfs. Also it's about what it's able to be desolveing that often re-attach to the surface again when the solvents dries on the paint. That's why I gave you the tips with a soaked mf towel to get a longer dwell time without any problems with it that it's dries on the paint before it's able to be desolveing the glue residue.
 
BA540i said:
I recently purchased a 95 BMW 540i and wanted to debadge it. The glue holding the badge on was very dry and very much stuck on the paint as you can imagine. With heat and some WD40 I was able to get the badge off and some of the glue but not all of it.

I continued to use WD40 till I decided to stop and get some advice as I felt I was not making more progress.

After doing some research I am thinking of getting some goo gone and letting it sit on there awhile to really get in there or get a 3M eraser wheel and have at it. The 3M wheel makes me nervous as some have made things worse with it and this is 23 year old glue.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated thanks!

(it wont upload the image so here is a link)
IMG_3981.jpg - Google Drive
Click to expand...

Take a look at this thread, might help you out.
1988 Pontiac Fiero Rally Stripes Removal and Prep for Sale
 
So I tried to make some progress tonight. starting out with 3 sets - 2 - 4 -8 minutes to let it set one 1 spot. I also tried 2 rounds of 3 minutes on other spots with no success. Its pretty stubborn glue...

I did not get the reaction I was hoping. One area showed tiny promise and I went at with my finger nail and plastic razor blade.

I tiny bit a clean came up with my finger nail so I stopped.

No progress I would say.

Thinking about taking it to someone more knoledgeable and seeing if they think its even possible or just order another badge.
 
BA540i said:
So I tried to make some progress tonight. starting out with 3 sets - 2 - 4 -8 minutes to let it set one 1 spot. I also tried 2 rounds of 3 minutes on other spots with no success. Its pretty stubborn glue...

I did not get the reaction I was hoping. One area showed tiny promise and I went at with my finger nail and plastic razor blade.

I tiny bit a clean came up with my finger nail so I stopped.

No progress I would say.

Thinking about taking it to someone more knoledgeable and seeing if they think its even possible or just order another badge.
Click to expand...

Try to soak a paper towel with the product and slap it on the area where the glue is for 5 minutes. The paper towel will prevent the product from running off and/or evaporating away. It might make the difference.
 
BA540i said:
So I tried to make some progress tonight. starting out with 3 sets - 2 - 4 -8 minutes to let it set one 1 spot. I also tried 2 rounds of 3 minutes on other spots with no success. Its pretty stubborn glue...

I did not get the reaction I was hoping. One area showed tiny promise and I went at with my finger nail and plastic razor blade.

I tiny bit a clean came up with my finger nail so I stopped.

No progress I would say.

Thinking about taking it to someone more knoledgeable and seeing if they think its even possible or just order another badge.
Click to expand...

Were you using rapid remover?
 
Even if you manage to remove it, aren't you worried the paint will be faded in the area around it and show the outline of the badge that was there for so long? Might need a lot of leveling on the paint to get that to go away.
 
BSoares said:
Even if you manage to remove it, aren't you worried the paint will be faded in the area around it and show the outline of the badge that was there for so long? Might need a lot of leveling on the paint to get that to go away.
Click to expand...
If what you are saying is true, no amount of leveling will make a difference. If the base coat is faded, you can't polish it out unless you remove the clear.
 
Rsurfer said:
If what you are saying is true, no amount of leveling will make a difference. If the base coat is faded, you can't polish it out unless you remove the clear.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Either way I'd expect it to not look great after having a badge in the same spot for 23 years.
 
I use mineral spirits and q-tips for something like that. I hold a cloth under the adhesive area and using several q-tips soaked in MS I attempt to saturate the adhesive for several minutes insuring the MS doesn't drip onto any paint outside the area of concern. I like the dwell time and leave it for a little while before attempting to rub it off. I use wet, wooden popsicle sticks or a paint stir stick to work the more stubborn spots, resoaking with MS if needed. The wet wood doesn't scratch the paint as quickly as plastic razor blades.

I would guess that, yes, you'll have some ghosting of the original paint underneath but wouldn't worry about it.
 
When there is ghosting, a good compound and polish usually either removes it completelly or reduces it a lot. Anytime you debadge, you should be doing a 2 step correction afterwards IMO.

Post some pictures when you are done.
 
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