Rather than hijack another post, here's one of my own. My '3.2TL' trunk emblem came off while washing my car last w/e. Instead of just sticking it back on (or sticking 'them' back on since it broke), I decided to try and clean the residue and polish for a partial debadging. Well, here are two pics of the result:



without flash



Nice, huh?!? It looks like the clear coat has freakin peeled off! Any ideas?

 

not sure but u should try to use those "scratch off" products from your local auto store... maybe that would help...

 

That's after both Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, and Meguiar's ScratchX2.0, using an aggressive foam hand-held sponge and a buffing foam sponge; rubbed out with a micro-fiber towel.

I'm thinking wet-sanding or a detailing expert with an orbital buffer. Replacing the clear coat really concerns me.

 

The clear coat is gone...I say put the emblem back on...

Edit: Buffing won't do much without clear coat.

 

looks like your trunk was painted before. i can see poor prep work in the pics. you can put the emblem back on or get it painted again. sorry bro

 

Thanks for the sentiments. Yeah, I think the whole car might have been repainted, or at least a new clear coat. There is bad prep work all over the car, although the clear coat is in decent shape. I think they taped-off the emblems and sprayed clear coat around it, so when I pulled the emblems off, the clear coat around the edges came with it. They should have sprayed with no emblems on, then added them after the paint cured.

If I rebadge the emblems, there will still be an obvious outline of where the clear coat peeled off. I need to at least blend the edges of the clear coat back into the paint, THEN add the emblems. A Porter Cable buffer would be best, but I don't have that. I wonder if I could blend it by wet-sanding.

 

No, wetsanding will only get you hazy scratched clear coat. It will probably stick out more that what you have right now. Hand buffing MAY clear up some of the wet sanding marks, but I would try to get a buffer before any sanding.

 

Sorry Dude but it does look like some shotty bodywork on your trunk, i can see what we call sand scratches from bondo work on your trunk i hate seeing stuff like that !!! The best thing to do is to find a good bodyshop to fix and repaint your trunk i would almost bet that its been repaired before looking at the pic you posted!