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.

xf4.jpg?t=1301350126

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!

xf2.jpg

xf1.jpg

xf3.jpg



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.

xf6.jpg

xf7.jpg

Enjoy guys, questions and comments welcome.

Cheers!

 

I did the same thing to my side markers only i used three coats they look black during the day and still light up pretty decent at night ill take some pics if i ever get my car back Bambi met the karman steel body at 65mph

 

Aside from the deer damage lol you can see that the side marker light is damn near black

 

it is MUCH better to bag your deer with a rifle than your car......

 

Are you an insurance agent? Cause the nasty man at state farm wasn't exactly pleased with my hunting strategy either....

 

Lets hope that deer does not have any family. A lawyer will try and find that your to blame. or at least a contributing factor in Bambi's death. If you had not blacked out that side marker the deer would have seen your car and would not have run into it. Sorry to see the damage, glad your ok.

 

It probably ran into the side of your car cause your sidemarkers are tinted

 

I would entertain this with more enthusiasm if it would have been dark out but it was noon lol I think bambi had a rough winter and couldnt deal with her deer life and decided to end it using the most beautiful car she could find RIP you suicidal grass eating Ra - tard

 

Not hardly... I build guns to get them before they get my car...

 

Man, that car is totalled...why are you modding it....lol.....that's like waxing a car in the junk yard...it serves no purpose...have you had an estimate from that agent who didn't like your hunting technique? I will be surprised if he fixes it. Most are just totalling them...my agent told me when I purchased the coupe, that ERIE Insurance doesn't insure my type of car anymore, but would mine since I was already an existing customer. I am wondering if anyone else has had that happen to them...

 

I can see your problem and the accident clearly had nothing to do with the car. The problem is that you live in Pennsylvania! I lived in State College (Penn State) for three years, 2004 - 2007. There are more friggin forest rats in that state than other any place I've ever seen. I had a 45 mile one way drive to work and I'd see a new deer/car accident on average every day. Deer were roadkill everywhere. I80, secondary roads, residential areas...it didn't seem to matter. And what really amazes me is that Central PA has a huge hunting culture. Everybody hunts deer. And there's still a gazillion of the damned things bouncing off cars and trucks. I'm still amazed that the stupid things will run like hell from a dog or coyote but seem utterly oblivious to a huge, noisy, 4,000 lb mass of steel hurtling toward them day or night.

 

I have owned 6 cars 5 of which were totaled by deer or deer related. Its crazy and until they made poaching a felony it was a weekend ritual. This is the second deer I hit with this car the first one didn't do any damage some how. It would be one thing if I drove like a moron but I drive like grandma.

Doc the mods were done b4 the car was hit and they didn't total it 5700 was the total bill I had a bunch of other stuff done too rocker panels repainted, hood repainted, bumper repainted, a ding from a door it will look like new!