[jaymaynard]

One thing that's annoyed me about die Weisse Lady since I first saw it on Craigslist three years ago (indeed, one way I knew it was the same car) is that the 560SL badge is on the wrong side of the trunk lid. It was going to annoy me until I did something about it.

So I ordered a new one ($66, yikes; that place for $49.50 charges $30 shipping!) and went to remove the old one. The dental floss trick didn't work, but a careful application of pocketknife did. Unfortunately, when I was done, this is what was left:

The stuff laughed at Goo Gone. The last little bit under the L is clear (mostly) because I sat there and picked at it with a thumbnail. Is that what I'm going to have to do for the rest of it?

 

[Ears]

hair dryer or very low setting heat gun+wd40 or bug/tar remover, and careful application of plastic scraper...

Good Luck!

 

[260e crusier]

Heat from a hair dryer works really well when removing the emblems. I don't recommend a heat gun UNLESS you know what you are doing. It's too late to use heat once the emblems are off.

I don't like to use dental floss. It leaves too much of the foam tape and adhesive on the paint as you found out.

Best thing to do now is to use 3M adhesive remover, Reel Magic or Goo Gone in conjunction of a plastic razor (not scraper). Keep the residual foam tape/glue moist at all time while scraping.

 

[jaymaynard]

Best thing to do now is to use 3M adhesive remover, Reel Magic or Goo Gone in conjunction of a plastic razor (not scraper). Keep the residual foam tape/glue moist at all time while scraping.

A plastic razor? Uhm...not sure I've met one of those...

 

[Aussiemerc]

It will take several applications of 3M and you need to let it soak a bit before wiping. I also used a non abrasive nylon kitchen scouring pad .

 

[okyoureabeast]

Do you have a power drill? I'd get a buffing pad and attack it that way with some of the chemicals mentioned above.
You might consider soaking a rag in some of that stuff and letting it sit over night. Not sure about how the paint will look after all of this.

Honestly, after all of that effort to expend taking it carefully off you might ultimately have a weird 560SL fade.

I'd just take it to an autobody shop and have them strip it out and repaint the area.

 

[260e crusier]

A plastic razor? Uhm...not sure I've met one of those...

Here you go:

Permatex Plastic scraper 80190 - Read Reviews on Permatex #80190

The blade looks like a double sided razor blade except it's made out of plastic.

 

[260e crusier]

Honestly, after all of that effort to expend taking it carefully off you might ultimately have a weird 560SL fade.

Some people call it "fade", others call it "ghost". More noticeable on older/lighter colored cars.

Rubbing compound and clay barring will remove most of it. If you have any headlight polishing/buffing compound laying around, that will probably work also.

 

[jaymaynard]

Some people call it "fade", others call it "ghost". More noticeable on older/lighter colored cars.

Rubbing compound and clay barring will remove most of it. If you have any headlight polishing/buffing compound laying around, that will probably work also.

Will that work on a clearcoated paint, though? Which, I assume, is what these cars have in the later years (like mine)?

 

[Stereolab42]

3M Stripe-Off wheel:

https://www.amazon.com/3M-Stripe-Wh...rd_wg=p4aWf&psc=1&refRID=NKDCE6PN9FE7QDE3N3CR

Yes, it's a thing you put on a drill and apply directly to your car's paint. I didn't believe it at first. It took my hours to work up the courage to apply this to my brand-new E63 when I was replacing emblems. But it's a goddamn miracle worker. It will remove ANY residue without harming the paint. Just yesterday I used it to remove an old sticker from the door jamb of my 560SL. What used to take an hour with mineral hour and a rag (leaving micro-scratches everywhere) now takes minutes.

 

[rowdie]

Will that work on a clearcoated paint, though? Which, I assume, is what these cars have in the later years (like mine)?

Don't assume. It depends on the color. What is your paint code?

 

[jaymaynard]

Don't assume. It depends on the color. What is your paint code?

147, Arctic White.

 

[rowdie]

As far as know that is a single stage paint with no clear coat. Metallic paints were clear coated.

 

[jaymaynard]

Yay! Once I get the crud off, I'll see how it looks.

I had no idea there was such a thing as a plastic razor blade. Have to see if my local O'Reilly has it in stock.

 

[260e crusier]

Will that work on a clearcoated paint, though? Which, I assume, is what these cars have in the later years (like mine)?

It depends. If it's mostly dirt in the clear coat, yes. If the surrounding paint has faded, no.

If the car is mostly garaged, ghosting will be minimal. When i debadged my 1987 260E which was white, there was a lite shadow of the badge. No one ever noticed it, but I knew it was there.

 

[jaymaynard]

Grrrr...

I used the Goo Gone and plastic razor blade method to get the remaining foam and adhesive off. Here's what's left now:

There's a layer of paint over the trunk lid that's not present where the badge was attached. I don't know why it was repainted like that, but it was. The thin black lines you see are actually dirt in the corner where the top layer of paint ends.

The trunk lid doesn't match the rest of the car anyway. I'm seriously considering removing the three-pointed star and the handle, then taking it to a local shop to have just the trunk lid sanded, painted, and buffed out. Hopefully they can do a better job of matching the color than whoever it was did it last time. It would be an easy job for them.

 

[Stereolab42]

That's kind of mind-boggling. They repainted the trunk lid without taking off the badge? While somehow also laboriously masking off all elements of the badge? Whaaaat?

 

[RLT61]

3M Stripe-Off wheel:

https://www.amazon.com/3M-Stripe-Wh...rd_wg=p4aWf&psc=1&refRID=NKDCE6PN9FE7QDE3N3CR

Yes, it's a thing you put on a drill and apply directly to your car's paint. I didn't believe it at first. It took my hours to work up the courage to apply this to my brand-new E63 when I was replacing emblems. But it's a goddamn miracle worker. It will remove ANY residue without harming the paint. Just yesterday I used it to remove an old sticker from the door jamb of my 560SL. What used to take an hour with mineral hour and a rag (leaving micro-scratches everywhere) now takes minutes.

I used this on my car to remove 30 year old taped on pin stripes. Worked extremely well.

 

[jaymaynard]

That's kind of mind-boggling. They repainted the trunk lid without taking off the badge? While somehow also laboriously masking off all elements of the badge? Whaaaat?

That was about my reaction. Someone went out of their way to screw up...and didn't even repaint anything but the trunk lid, and did a terrible job of color matching. I'm partially red-green color blind, and I can see the difference.

 

[jaymaynard]

I took it to a local body shop this morning for a look-see. It turns out that the extra layer is a clearcoat that isn't on the rest of the car; as @rowdie noted, it's a single-stage paint. The body shop guy said that he's not real surprised that the emblem was masked off before the clearcoat was applied; apparently, in earlier times, insurance companies wouldn't pay for removing and replacing emblems like that, so people would just mask around them.