Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for mechanics and DIY enthusiast owners of cars, trucks, and motorcycles. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I see a lot of people who has stickers and metallic badges on their car paints and I really want to put some on my car too.
But I fear I might damage the car paint when I have to remove them one day before selling the car.
Are these things going to damage the paint or is there a way to remove them without damaging or should I never put them on?
As long as you ensure that the area you are applying the sticker/badge to is properly clean and dust free when you apply it you should minimize the chances of any damage occurring.
As for removal it depends on the glue used - most can be removed relatively easily by using a hairdryer to heat the glue up, allowing you to peel the badge/sticker from the paint then clean off any remaining residue using something like lighter fluid.
It doesn't completely eliminate any chance of damage though.
You shouldn't damage your paint if the adhesive is designed to be stuck onto car paint, i.e. the double sided tape on the back of the letters.
When it comes to removal I make sure the sun has been shining on the area for a while or heat the area slowly with a heat gun on low and then use a paint scraper with some rag/cloth wrapped over the end. I have never damaged the paint so far.
While you can remove the badge and not damage the surface there is the strong possibility that the sunlight has affected the paint color over time and the areas covered by the badges has been protected.
So, when you remove the badges, those areas show up very clearly as a darker or different color...
