FrankieAvocado

Hello there folks, I've been lurking for a while under the premise: "If you don't have anything useful to say, don't say anything" but I figured I might as well pop my head up and contribute something. That something is this guide. And you're reading it! So far we're off to a great start.

If you're anything like me (and according to science you are probably either extremely genetically similar to me, or maybe one of those Canadians) then you are bored with chrome emblems. Personally I see the damn things all over the place and they make me want to vomit. Therefore I propose that it's time to paint your emblems some sort of snazzy colour! Follow me down the rabbit hole my friends...down the terrifying and poor-advice filled rabbit hole.

Step 1: You'll need to yank off your existing emblems. THIS IS NOT A FUN OR EASY THING TO DO! It requires skill, dedication, strong fingers, and dental floss.

Edit: It will also require some double-sided molding tape (local auto-parts store or office supply store), some primer and paint (whatever color you want, I'm not going to judge you*), and some rubbing alcohol or other solvent IF YOU ARE FEELING RISKY AND LAZY.

Second Edit: Banana Smash! You will need sandpaper. I'd recommend medium grit since you'll be using it to rough up the emblems for painting.

* I will secretly judge you for your color decision.

FrankieAvocado

As you saw from the previous images, you will need
A: the target of your aggression
and
B: some dental floss.

You may also be tempted to cheat (like I did) and use a razor blade.

DO NOT DO THIS.

The easiest way to tell that it is a bad idea, is to observe that I thought it was a good idea. I got off lucky and only had a few extremely minor scratches in the paint, but seriously...you could mess everything up and have to buy a brand new RX8. I went through three of them just getting you this guide. Do you know how difficult it is to claim insurance on identical cars that are identically burned to the ground in a field? It's difficult. (P.S. Thanks to Michelle from Geico, you were a peach!)

Alright, so basically you just want to work your dental floss underneath the rim and saw it back and forth kinda like one of those thin steel-wire saws. There will be a ton of nasty goopy stuff underneath (which is basically just two-sided foam tape). It will seriously take a long time to get through this stuff, and to make it worse: most of the emblems have little studs in them that run into holes in your car. Ostensibly this is to make the emblem easier to seat level, but mostly it just makes your life miserable in this part.

Some good advice: leave your car in the sun to get really warm. This worked well here in Florida cuz it's been over 90 all day. The heat helps loosen the tape that is holding everything on.

Some better advice: skip the whole "nature" crap and go straight to a low-power heatgun or high-power hair dryer. Suck it nature!

FrankieAvocado

Are you ready to move on to Step 2 yet?

Man that's too bad because seriously...there are a ton of emblems that we are going to remove and they are all going to require that dental floss trick. BTW, I went with a special mint-flavoured kind that was supposed to be "extra slick". I don't know if either of these things matter in anyway, but I can tell you that they had the following effects on my experience: the mint made me smell good and the slippery thing made me VERY ANGRY.

The following emblems were easy to get off:

MAZDA text. It had 3 posts in it but seriously, I barely had to do anything to get it to pop off.

The following emblems were average to get off:

The entire RX-8 logo. It had no posts so you should do what I did and use tape as a guide for when you stick it back on. You also should make your wife go and buy more masking tape if she has used it all, unlike myself who was a coward and used electrical tape as a backup plan (I'm not driving my car to the store when there are holes in it and dental floss all over it!).

The following emblems WERE THE DEVIL AND SHOULD BE SHUNNED:

The actual emblems. These have two posts in them each as well as a short stunted "guide" post that exists for no reason because it's not like you're going to get confused and put it on upside right? right.

Again, I want to strongly caution you to not use a razor blade. If you disobeyed me on the first emblem then I don't have to warn you about this because you know the terrible truth. Keep with it even when it seems hopeless and soon you shall know minty victory!

FrankieAvocado

Step 2.

We made it you guys! Take a minute to get yourself composed because you are on the gravy train now! Sort of. This is the gravy train insofar as it is sticky and has no brakes. I'm terribly sorry to inform you that now we have to get all that remaining gunk off. It is seriously a pain. No joke, it will be just as bad as that whole dental floss thing and it won't even smell minty and delicious.

You're going to need some kind of solvent here, and I'll tell you the things that I tried:

Solvent 1 - Hot water and soap.
Success Level: 1
Details: It cleaned off the sweaty arm prints that I left all over my car. Other than that, it had no effect.

Solvent 2 - Goo B Gone (or similar)
Success Level: 3
Details: It had some mild effect on the filthy gunk that was left over and left no damage to my paint. Unfortunately it simply wasn't enough to remove most of the stuff.

Solvent 3 - Rubbing Alcohol
Success Level: 7
Details: Alright, this was kind of my emergency step here. I wouldn't normally scrub my car with harsh chemicals but I seriously had been scrubbing for an hour and a half with Goo B Gone and hadn't even rubbed off one emblem worth of goop. This is a desperate measure, but the good news is that it worked. It still took a TON of rubbing to get the goop off and I'll share the secret below but the important thing to know is that this DID make my front bumper look slightly less good than normal (the plastic lost some of its sheen).

Solvent 4 - Paint Thinner
Success Level: Dante Must Die
Details: Do not do this. Even I didn't do this. If the rubbing alcohol isn't working for you then phone a friend and ask for help.


"My experience with rubbing alcohol" or: how I managed to get the goop off without ruining everything -

The trick that I used basically involved wetting a strong shop napkin with a bit of rubbing alcohol and rubbing that onto the filthy left-over double sided tape. It immediately made the tape slick and sticky, at which point I flipped over to the dry part of the napkin and used it almost like a pencil eraser. The gooey tape bits stuck and rolled up with the napkin and were rendered non-sticky; dropping off in small *****. It took a while to do this and at one point I rubbed my hands so raw that I had to use gloves in order to keep going.

However you get off your filthy emblem left overs, you should have something that looks a little like the pictures below. If your car DOESN'T look something like the pictures below then you either skipped a step, or you are reading the wrong guide and have probably damaged your Ford Focus. If your car looks too much like the pictures below then please get out of my garage, that isn't your RX8. Seriously, how did you even find my house this quickly? We're only halfway through the guide.

Also, use a sharp razor to remove as much of the muck from the BACKS of the emblems as possible. It's both unsightly and also gets in the way when its time to put new emblem tape on. Crap, did I forget to mention that you're going to need more two-sided tape? You're going to need more two-sided tape. I'd recommend buying the 3M brand stuff, but only because it worked for me. I'm sure lots of other people have opinions about other types.

FrankieAvocado

Step 3:

Gloating time!

You have achieved victory over your foes, and it is time to spread them out before you on your newspaper mat of victory. BEHOLD, I have removed the emblems and they shall hurt my fingers no longer (you might cry at the heavens)!

Now is a great time to grab a beer. BUT DON'T YET. I know it's tempting, I do. They are right over there in the fridge, waiting to help you celebrate. ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS CONGRATULATE YOU AND LOVE YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE! But you must be strong. Mostly because Step 4 is really quick and then you are on to Step 5 which involves a lot of sitting around and waiting. I find that time spent sitting and waiting is time that could be optimized by beer consumption.

FrankieAvocado

Step 4:

Rough em up.

UGH, I forgot another thing you will need: sandpaper. Hold on while I go up and edit the first post of this thread again. I mean, no actual time will have passed for you (since you are reading this from the future) but be assured that I am irked by the necessity to change things I have already written. Tell ya what, I'll put the words "banana smash" in there so that you and I will both get the in-joke but everyone else who comes to this thread will be confused. Trust me, you'll laugh about it. I know, because this has already happened (you're in the future, remember?).

Time to sandpaper your emblems. Some of you may have exacting standards about sandpapering off the glossiness. Some of you may say that I have to get right down to the part that isn't at all shiny. Those people have a lot more patience and sandpaper than I do. I'm working off the "now that I've settled in to a project, I am stuck with whatever things I already own in my garage and DEAR GOD WHY DO I ONLY HAVE SUPER FINE GRIT SANDPAPER IN HERE?!?!?" principle. I hope you are too, because that's how things get DONE.

Grab your sandpaper and scratch up all of your emblems. Make sure you get in to the tricky parts cuz otherwise you might get paint-flaking in strange places. I didn't spend too much time doing this because sandpapering is pretty easy and also I wanted to get to Step 5 quickly (since it involves drinking beer). Attached to this post is a comparison of my After / Before emblems (listen, I think we've already established that chronological continuity is not my strong suit) and an overview of all of the emblems post-sanding.

FrankieAvocado

Step 5:

Drink Beer! (in between priming and painting)

OH MAN, this is my favourite step. I am AWESOME at this step. First things first: do you have your primer and paint ready? If not, grab them and start shaking. Mine said that I had to shake the can for a full minute constantly before spraying the first time. I'm not sure how much of that is true and how much of it is just them covering their asses with people returning paint that didn't work (claim denied: user didn't shake paint can enough) but it isn't worth risking disaster here. Find your "strong hand" (we ALL know what I mean by that) and start shaking.

Once your primer and paint are ready to be sprayed on, read the instructions. Seriously, read them. My primer was specifically formulated for plastic and had really strange instructions. It told me EXPLICITLY to only use one coat, not multiple coats. I don't know why, but I wasn't going to argue with it regarding its sole purpose in life. I sprayed on a single coat of primer and then I went to go get a beer while it dried. Did I say "A" beer? It took an hour to dry (Florida humidity doesn't help any) so I actually had several beers. You should learn from my non-mistake here and be generous with drying times. Unfortunately this may push your project time out to a full day (I started around 3pm and didn't get the emblems back on the car until 11pm) but it is worth it because the alternative is fingerprints or runny paint all over your emblems.

Once you have the primer all set and it has both passed the recommended time AND is dry to the touch (check both if you live in a humid area, mine took an extra 30 minutes of drying) then you can spray on your paint. I chose blue paint but a lot of people go with black for that 'blacked-out' look. I'm not disappointed in my result, but I may have chosen red if I could do it all over again (I CAN do it all over again obviously, but I'm not looking forward to all that double-sided tape crap). Paint paint paint. In between coats allow a generous drinking time. I mean "drying time". Yes...drying time.

Below are both my primer coats and my final coats. The in-between parts were less interesting so forgive me for not showing all three individual coats of the exact same colour blue.

FrankieAvocado

Step 6:

Tape it up!

We are almost there folks, just two more steps. This one is the last annoying step. You'll need to cut out strips of your double-sided tape and apply them to the back of all your emblems. Some people in other forums for other cars recommended slapping on a big thick slab of tape and then trimming around the edges. I tried that to start with, but there are just too many tight turns etc to do that without nicking up the emblems. In the end I sliced up tons of little pieces and put them on, then trimmed anything that was sticking outside the lines with a razor blade. Important note: I trimmed from the BACK forward, not from the front (painted side) backward. That helped me use the edges as guides. I didn't take a lot of pictures of this because it involved lots of gentle holding (I was terrified I would mess up the paint) and fine motor-skill cutting with a razor blade. Basically, I just cut tons and tons of little strips and filled out the back with them. It doesn't have to be perfect, just make sure that it's enough to hold everything on and that you can't see any edging from the front.

FrankieAvocado

Step 7:

Put it back on and clean off any smudges.

Good news! You made it the whole way to the end of this guide! Either you are an honest human being and you read the entire thing, or maybe you're a cheater and you think that it's cool to bypass people's hard work and effort in order to get to the payoff. It's cool man, we've all "been there". I mean, some of us have. The cheaters. The rest of us don't understand you and aren't welcoming you into our society.

Hey, that was a weird sidetrack right? Let's finish this project up already! I know you're eager to just throw those emblems on there, but first take the time to clean off the surfaces you will be applying them to. I know that you already did that once (in order to get rid of the gunk from when you took them OFF) but who knows what sorts of dirt and grime (and human sweat) might have gotten on your car in the meantime. Clean the areas with some soap and water and then rub them dry with a clean cloth. Alright, stare at them a bit. Okay, now it's time to do this:

Grab your taped up emblems and reapply them to your car. The super easy ones will be the MAZDA text emblem and the two M symbols because they have guide posts. Just line em up and push em on. The tricky one will be the RX-8 logo because it doesn't have any posts to guide you, but luckily you put that tape on there at the beginning right? If you didn't, then good luck with that. Oh, don't forget the "-" part of the RX-8 logo. If you're like me then you almost lost that part at least 6 times, generating panic and relief in short staccato bursts. Sorry heart.

Alright, back that car out of your garage (or if it's already outside, then don't bother moving it) and stare at it. It's good to go. You probably gained like 3 horsepower from this mod (if you painted it red). High-five!

Venko

Really fun to read DIY... I read the first parts and didn't think rest could compare, but boy was I wrong...

Jokes aside, the DIY is easy to follow, it is clearly and concisely explained with all the steps pointed out...

I was thinking of going with a blackish colour or something else that would go well on a sunlight silver... Would you, being the artist that you are, have some artistic advice?

PS

thanks for the tips with Geico, I'll make sure to ask for Michelle...

FrankieAvocado

Thanks for making it the whole way through Venko! I'll tell ya, I think that the blacked out emblems look really good on silver, but if you REALLY feel like trying something interesting then this guide to a carbon-fiber look might be worth checking out:

DIY CARBON FIBER PAINT JOB - Honda-Tech

It's on a Honda forum so if you do it and it works then it'd be sweet if you could give us a more detailed DIY here on RX8Club. Either way, upload some pics when you finish it cuz I'd love to see the result!

Stephen T

Superb! I actually stayed at work for an extra 3.79 minutes in order to finish it.
Of course I'm a lazy **** and might see if I can squeeze paper of some kind in behind and just sand and spray. When that looks like and turns to **** I'll use your DIY thread and wonder why I was such a lazy *** in the first place.
P.S. come to New Zealand and do mine....I'll even shout the beers!!!

FrankieAvocado

If you are going to go that route (and it is a route that I contemplated myself), I would highly recommend that you do a hybrid approach. The large M emblems should be pretty easy to mask off and are the hardest to remove from the car. Conversely, the RX-8 logo and MAZDA text are easy to remove but far too detailed to mask off easily. Try just masking the big stuff and prying off anything you can't mask.

Also, if this tactic works well please let me know. It would make it a lot easier on my minty fingers!

Stephen T

Cheers. I may wait until I can find apple flavoured string, mint is too "last year".
I'll let you know.

everest004

Greatest post ever.

FrankieAvocado

Awww shucks, thanks! :-)
Let me know if there are any other projects that you'd like to see a guide to. I was thinking of doing a stereo wiring guide but there are so many already out there that I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile. Maybe I should try to make a custom wing?

UcantCcanU

Fun write up Frankie

I used goo-gone to get everything off and then followed up with my detail spray and clay bar from Adam's to clean everything up real nice afterwards and make sure all the residue was gone.

I did my emblems a while ago and they took forever because i soaked them in bleach until all the chrome was stripped off and had to change out the bleach every 2 days or so. Long story short i said to hell with the emblems on the trunk because i couldn't get them perfect. now its getting expensive because i'm just gonna weld the holes shut and have the body shop repaint the trunk while shes in storage this winter.

got some copper red mica from dupli-color and did my front at least

FrankieAvocado

This looks fantastic! I dig the aggressive M look that yourself and several others have gone for. I might do that next time and go for a carbon black look. You obviously spent a lot more time getting the chrome off of the emblems, the bleach thing seems like a ton of effort to go through. I'm definitely going to stick with sanding cuz that worked great and only took like 15 minutes. I wonder of could eBay a sweet old Mazda flame emblem and replace my rear M with it. Anyway, great work on that beautiful paint job!

Seanway

Great DIY and good read in general. I used a plastic putty knife to get the "M" off and it was very easy (after heating with hair dryer). Thanks.