Clear bra/PPF wrap and letter and badges replacement
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 480
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skoda octavia MkII 2.0
Clear bra/PPF wrap and letter and badges replacement
i got a quote to wrap the coming E63S in Xpel Stealth but the detailing guy strongly suggested replacing the badges and other letters and symbols. he could do a cut-out but he says the result is never as good as simply wrapping and replacing that stuff.
what bugs me more is that he says it is better to buy new ones than to place a new glue/double side adhesive on the previous symbols/letters/badges because they will stick higher than the originals and will lead to dirt accumulation. he is not a newbie and has 15 years of this stuff and worked on more than 3 thousands cars (no sh*t) but I can't believe there is no solution to place a tiny double adhesive with the same strength and thickness as used by MB.
yeah, the cost is not that great considering the car price and wrap price but still it goes to €300 EUR essentially for a stuff that's not even aluminum and is replacing brand new stuff. it is simply ridiculous...
anyone with experience on this and how have you dealt with it?
what bugs me more is that he says it is better to buy new ones than to place a new glue/double side adhesive on the previous symbols/letters/badges because they will stick higher than the originals and will lead to dirt accumulation. he is not a newbie and has 15 years of this stuff and worked on more than 3 thousands cars (no sh*t) but I can't believe there is no solution to place a tiny double adhesive with the same strength and thickness as used by MB.
yeah, the cost is not that great considering the car price and wrap price but still it goes to €300 EUR essentially for a stuff that's not even aluminum and is replacing brand new stuff. it is simply ridiculous...
anyone with experience on this and how have you dealt with it?
Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 40
Likes: 8
From: Cambridge, UK
W213 E220d
I took the badges off my W213 as soon as I got it, and they're in perfectly good replaceable condition. No damage at all. I've kept them in case a subsequent owner wants them.
HOWEVER, to replace them properly would require me to clean off all the remaining adhesive gunk, and cut new VHB tape to fit the letters. I'd happily do that myself if I ever needed to, because 2-4 hours of my time doesn't cost me anything. But at workshop prices it may simply be cheaper to buy new vs incur all this manual labour to re-use the old. Sadly, that may be why your man is suggesting what he is.
HOWEVER, to replace them properly would require me to clean off all the remaining adhesive gunk, and cut new VHB tape to fit the letters. I'd happily do that myself if I ever needed to, because 2-4 hours of my time doesn't cost me anything. But at workshop prices it may simply be cheaper to buy new vs incur all this manual labour to re-use the old. Sadly, that may be why your man is suggesting what he is.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 480
Likes: 30
skoda octavia MkII 2.0
HOWEVER, to replace them properly would require me to clean off all the remaining adhesive gunk, and cut new VHB tape to fit the letters. I'd happily do that myself if I ever needed to, because 2-4 hours of my time doesn't cost me anything. But at workshop prices it may simply be cheaper to buy new vs incur all this manual labour to re-use the old. Sadly, that may be why your man is suggesting what he is.
Dagger9903 mentioned another thing that could also be at play. taking out the badges can lead to some damage on the badges given the force to be applied for removing them
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Joined: Nov 2016
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S450-4matic
A Word of Caution!
I live in the NE USA and the temps here are mostly on the cool side 8 months of the year.
I was giving some thought to having a partial clear bra put on my E300 as I just took delivery. In any case I was told by a detailer from FL that all of the clear bras have one nasty side effect if you live in a hot weather climate like FL or AZ and that is that once they’re installed they reflect the sun light from the clear bra right onto the paint and after a year or two the sunlight has a tendency to start to fade the darker colored paints, most especially with the standard Black and the Brown, which of course makes sense. So he told me unless you garage your car you’ ll be one unhappy camper in the next few years, advice worth taking.
Personally I garage my car and have it hand washed weekly(weather permitting) and hand Zymoled once a month so I don’t really need a clear bra. But for those that don’t a word to the wise and your pocketbook is well taken
Doc
I was giving some thought to having a partial clear bra put on my E300 as I just took delivery. In any case I was told by a detailer from FL that all of the clear bras have one nasty side effect if you live in a hot weather climate like FL or AZ and that is that once they’re installed they reflect the sun light from the clear bra right onto the paint and after a year or two the sunlight has a tendency to start to fade the darker colored paints, most especially with the standard Black and the Brown, which of course makes sense. So he told me unless you garage your car you’ ll be one unhappy camper in the next few years, advice worth taking.
Personally I garage my car and have it hand washed weekly(weather permitting) and hand Zymoled once a month so I don’t really need a clear bra. But for those that don’t a word to the wise and your pocketbook is well taken
Doc
Thread Starter
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 480
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skoda octavia MkII 2.0
OK, some more news from my detailer guy.
It seems that at least the MB star on the rear is fixed on 3 points and many times it breaks when taking off. I suggested using a brand new star but I would prepare for re-use the other badges because I don't see how using a strong adhesive from 3M will not secure the badges and only the original one will. He says that somehow the original adhesives give 0 problems and they had several cases where the re-used badges have come off either by taking heat days in summer or some other reason. But then he dropped what seems a lame excuse: that I am placing the re-used badges on top of a PPF that has one feature to avoid dirt getting stick and not over the paint. But if that is so why the MB OEM badges will stick over the PPF??
Another finding is that they are going to cover the PPF with a ceramic coat BUT from their own brand. I questioned how is so and why they don't use one of the top brands dedicated to that and he says they have used all major brands and opt to do one themselves in the last 9 years...
It seems that at least the MB star on the rear is fixed on 3 points and many times it breaks when taking off. I suggested using a brand new star but I would prepare for re-use the other badges because I don't see how using a strong adhesive from 3M will not secure the badges and only the original one will. He says that somehow the original adhesives give 0 problems and they had several cases where the re-used badges have come off either by taking heat days in summer or some other reason. But then he dropped what seems a lame excuse: that I am placing the re-used badges on top of a PPF that has one feature to avoid dirt getting stick and not over the paint. But if that is so why the MB OEM badges will stick over the PPF??
Another finding is that they are going to cover the PPF with a ceramic coat BUT from their own brand. I questioned how is so and why they don't use one of the top brands dedicated to that and he says they have used all major brands and opt to do one themselves in the last 9 years...
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Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 374
Likes: 74
From: 78 degrees North
2018 E63S
No need to replace the badges as long as they are removed in a proper way.
I've been using a thin fishing line to "cut" through the adhesives used to fasten the badges.
On my current car the shop wrapping the car did this for me, all badges are in perfect condition.
I've been using a thin fishing line to "cut" through the adhesives used to fasten the badges.
On my current car the shop wrapping the car did this for me, all badges are in perfect condition.
