Details of Detailing: Emblem Removal of Vintage Cars
A few times a year something comes along that is a treasure and in detailing that treasure to me was preping two cars for Pebble Beach and Quail Lodge 2012.
The 1955 Porsche 356 Pre A GS Carrera Speedster I believe the owner told me its 1:14 in the world. It will be attending Mille Miglia in 2013
The Ferrari is a 288 GTO that had the honor of sitting on the 18th hole of Pebble beach as one of the cars for Ferrari USA.
I didn’t have a ton of time with these cars because the transporter was arriving in just a few days, so I had to prioritize what I could get done with what needed to be done. One of the things that shows like a bird turd on a car is the areas around the badges of the car. These cars needed some polishing, but the areas around the badges were in rough shape. Now with these cars the badges are pegged into the panel, and the peg or foot of the badge is held into place on the inside with specialized clips. You would think just pop off the clip and remove the badge……….never is it as simple as it seems. Most modern badges on daily drivers are stuck in place by adhesive foam tape, removal of these is different…….maybe for another article.
Using the Meguiars D300 and MF finishing pad, yes a finishing pad………a bit less haze created on this paint with a finishing pad.
This Ferrari 288 GTO was reacting a bit differently than the Porsche. I used Meguiars D300 primed pad with 3 pea size dots ofMeguiars 105 on a MF Cutting pad. This combo gave me the cut and finish I was looking for. I followed up with Ultrafina……
The trick to debadging a car is to have what you need ahead of time (clips), don’t rush the job, and pretend the badges cost $1000 each. I also cleaned with q-tips in between the letters, old dried waxes and grit removal. This Ferrari badge you will notice the letters are held in place by a super thin support, THEY BEND SUPER EASY! With these hand crafted cars the badges are fit to certain spots on the car, in my experience, so keep track of what part of the car each comes from……….this will save much time and weeping as you search for the right combo of hole and badge!
Cheers,
GREG NICHOLS
