Help with emblem overlay

I am looking to order front and rear emblem overlays from GrafxWerks.com. I am confused by the color selection section. when it asks for the color, is it asking for the color of the stars? I want the emblem to look exactly the same as stock except with a red background. Would I choose chrome mirror for the color and reflective dark red for the background. I just don't want to order the wrong thing. Thanks.

i changed mine to red.

 

i pryed it off the grill slowly.

removed the black background with steel wool.

careful not to mess up any chrome, and spray painted it Krylon banner red.

 

cleaned the face of the emblem w/ mineral spirits.

 

thats not an over lay though. and im sure the 2006 rear emblem is bolted on.

I have an '05 and I was able to heat up the emblems (both front and back) with a hair dryer and then gently pry them off by working a plastic knife behind them. It takes a little work because the double stick tape they are attached with is tough but it will come off and any tape left on the car can be rubbed with your finger and it will just ball up and fall away.

 

If you really want your emblems to look like stock but be red then you would be better off removing them, sanding off the back, and repainting with any color you want.

 

I used metallic red model paint and once I had several layers of that on, I put on a layer of black auto paint for good measure to be sure it didn't wear off over time.

 

They look totally stock to anyone who doesn't know the background is supposed to be blue. The stars remain untouched by the sanding.

 

If however, you still want to use an overlay, I have also used grafxwerks for an overlay on my steering wheel emblem. And yes, dark red metallic would be the background you want, and chrome (or whatever they call it) is the color you want for the stars.

 

I like the overlay I have for my steering wheel but I would have painted that as well if I could have. (It's not removable.)

 

My avatar will show you what my overlay looks like.

FYI: The dark red metallic was a little brighter red than I expected, I'd call it "fire engine" red.

Maybe I will try removing and painting them. Does the 06 have the rear emblem bolted on? If so would I be able to loosen the bolts from inside the trunk? Is the front emblem glued on like the 05 or is it bolted on too? What kind of glue would I use to glue the emblems back on the car?

Maybe I will try removing and painting them. Does the 06 have the rear emblem bolted on? If so would I be able to loosen the bolts from inside the trunk? Is the front emblem glued on like the 05 or is it bolted on too? What kind of glue would I use to glue the emblems back on the car?

 

The rear emblem is not bolted on, there are just 2 location pins. Both emblems are held in place with double sided foam tape. You can reuse the foam tape if you are careful when removing the emblem. Or you can just go to auto parts store and get some moe.

Yeah, I think you're better off trying to find new doubled sided foam tape. Just be sure to get the thinnest tape you can find so that the emblem doesn't sit above the chrome ring surrounding it.

 

The rear emblem is held in place with the tape and has two pins that go into the trunk.

 

If you pull the carpet back from the trunk lid (it's just held in place with little snaps that pull out and will go right back in), you will see the two pins sticking through the trunk. There is a small barrier that you will need to reach around but I used a screw driver and simply pushed the pins out from inside the trunk until I could get my fingers under the emblem on the outside; then I just slowly peeled it off.

 

The most difficult part about painting the rear emblem is that it, like the front emblem, is two seperate pieces. The clear plastic part that is painted and has the stars in it, and the chrome ring that surrounds the painted part. You have to seperate those two pieces to be able to sand and repaint.

 

It's easy on the front and will probably seperate on its own when you remove the tape.

 

On the back, you will see that the chrome ring is attached to a solid back which doesn't allow you to push the painted piece out because it too is taped in.

 

You will have to CAREFULLY and slowly drill into the backing until you reach the painted part. You will see on the front emblem that the first paint color you see is black, it is covering the blue paint. When you are drilling go slowly and in small steps so that you can see when you reach the black paint.

 

(You will want to be very careful not to go through the paint and into the outer clear plastic. If you do, it's not the end of the world, but it will make for more work for you since you will have to sand out the indentation into the plastic because it will be visible after painting otherwise. )

 

Once you have reached the paint, you will be able to (with some elbow grease) push the two parts apart from one another by holding the chrome ring and pushing something soft (like a pencil eraser) through your newly created hole. It's not going to come off easily but trust me, it's just the same tape you've already seen and will peel off if you try hard enough. While it might be easier to push with something harder than an eraser, again, you risk indenting the clear plastic and making more work for yourself. (Again, trust me, I did it and sanding out even a small dimple isn't fun.)

 

After that, you just sand all the paint off. I went to my local discout super store and bought a model sanding kit that had 6 or 8 different grits in one package from extremely coarse, to ultra smooth for finishing. I found that to be very useful because 1) the sanding "film" I used is washable and resuseable, unlike sand paper; 2) the film is very flexible and allows you to move with the curve of the emblem; 3) you will scratch the clear plastic as you're sanding all of the paint off so you will want to smooth all of those scratches out and the decreasing grits really help with that.

 

I hope this helps. If I wasn't clear on a point or you would like some further clarification, by all means, please ask and I'll be happy to tell you what I can from my experience.

 

I also have some pictures of my finished product if you are interested. I may have loaded them on here somewhere before but just let me know if you want to see them.

Thanks for all of the help. I will try this as soon as I get my car back. Someone backed into the side of it with their truck. I should get it back soon. I would like to see the finished product to see how it looks. Thanks.