So I had some time on my hands today and decided to do some (basically) free cosmetic mods on my '04 Black/Black coupe. I helped a buddy debadge his new Audi last night which reminded me I was actually pretty good at it...and so the C R O S S F I R E letters days were numbered. I'll share my process and a few pics from my Blackberry that I took on the go.
Debadging the C R O S S F I R E Letters:
Tools/Materials Used
- Heat gun
- Dental Floss
- Goo Gone, Invisible Glass
- Porter Cable DA polisher
- OPT Compound, Polish, Poli-Seal
- Meguiars NXT Liquid wax
- Aquawax
- P21S S100 wax
Time spent:
Approx 1h20m
Difficulty:
Moderate
Process:
One by one I used the heat gun waving back and forth across the letter for approx 1 min. I would then take a decent length of floss and slide it behind the letter and slowly pull downward in a back and forth motion. As long as you heat up the glue enough the letter will come off quite easily. Rinse and repeat for all letters. Now once the letters are off youll find grey glue residue. When the letter first came off I would use my thumbnail to work off much of this residue, if youre having problems try heating up the residue for a minute with the heat gun. Wipe down with Invisible Glass cleaner, then QD spray to keep your work area clear of loose residue Repeat for all letters. Finally you'll have very close to all residue removed, soak the area in Goo Gone, leave for 30 seconds, and use a microfibre to wipe away.
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Now the area should be totally smooth to the touch, make sure you have good lighting to check for any miniscule amounts of residue remaining. At this point you'll more than likely be able to see the ghosting and light scratches from where the letters were (and where your fingernail scraped). After this I sprayed down the area again with QD spray, and dried.
With the Porter Cable DA polisher and a green Edge polishing pad I used the OPT compound x3 passes. Then onto a white Edge polishing pad with 50/50 OPT polish/OPT Poli-Seal. Wipe clean, apply NXT Liquid wax, wait for haze, soak area with Aquawax and buff off. Topped with P21S S100.
This process produced a literally flawless result, even to my OCD eye. For zero dollars this is the best mod I can think of, highly recommended! Sorry the pictures don't do justice, its raining and the car is dirty!
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Tinting the sidemarkers:
Tools/Materials Used:
- Thin, angled chisel (with masking tape to protect paint)
- VHT NightShades paint ($14)
- Invisible Glass (glass cleaner)
- 220 Grit sandpaper
- Microfibre towels
- OPT Compound, Polish
- Meguiars NXT liquid wax
- Aquawax
Time spent:
Approx 45m
Difficulty:
Low
Your first task is to remove the sidemarkers which is honestly pretty straight forward. I used a thin, angled chisel with green painter's masking tape on the blade to gently pry all four markers out, and twist/pull the bulbs out. Have patience and they'll pop out without breaking anything. Next I cleaned them with Invisible Glass. I then sanded with 220 grit sandpaper to give the paint something to adhere to. I applied 3 coats, with about 10 mins between coats. I left them to dry for about an hour.
I then reinstalled them on the vehicle. They looked a bit flat to my eye so I used this process to bring up a gloss finish: hand compounded/polished with OPT products, applied layer of NXT wax, and buffed off with Aquawax. From 5 feet out these look great.
If you're really **** the finish might not be satisfactory as it's difficult to get the spray perfectly even on this material I found. Overall this greatly enhanced the smoothness of the side, as I found the stock markers really caught your eye and broke up the look of the car on the side profile.
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Enjoy guys, questions and comments welcome.
Cheers!