Sathinas

Thank you, Sir.

NYCGLK

Thanks for the pics...I could not find pic of rear of my car...lol

P.S. I really like the GL-style exhausts on the bluetec GLK.

ivanj

The CL looks fantastic without badges. Who needs Kompressor and AMG when you see the exhausts?

Frank Zappa

Use dental floss (I'm serious) and a back and forth motion under the badge cutting through the foam backing, then Goo-gone to clean up and a good waxing. Your done. Dental floss is awsom for cutting through badges.

Cheers

dynomite05

+1, or fishing line

Sathinas

I used a combination of Dental Floss and a digital heat gun on uber low setting. Well, medium uber low.

Clean-up was minimal with this method. I just need to wax the rear, as you can see a faint "5", but that's just paint not being as faded as the rest, me thinks.

If I don't like it, I know a place where they have so many "CL65 AMG" badges, they sell them. At about 60 dollars a pop. :/

Anybody want a set of slightly used CL65 AMG badges? Guaranteed for an easy 50HP.

I am not touching the fender badges though...

dynomite05

Looks so much cleaner! Definitely right about the fenders, shouldn't touch them

NYCGLK

I'm hoping this would not be an issue on 1 year old garaged car. Thanks for tips, that's what I read before as well. Once I have some time I'll do this.

Blazeitup123

Its nice to see some X204 owners customizing. All that i have seen are bone stock. I find these threads much more entertaining than the usual help threads. I have been spending most of my time here over on the W204 forum, they are doing everything to the car. Its nice that they are such close cousins as well, or are they brothers, you know what i mean.

rmfnla

I just pulled the badges off my new GLK last night and it looks great! (Just the letters, COOPDOGG, so you can relax.)

I've done this to every car I've owned ever since they started attaching them with adhesive instead of drilled holes, and even did a few with holes when painting was required in that area.

I don't like Goo-Gone; it's essentially lighter fluid and I think it might be too harsh for the paint so I use WD40 for the clean-up.

Thanks for the dental floss trick; really saves the finger nails!

MilesBFree

I asked the dealer to leave off the dealer emblem that most dealers typically glue on. They were perfectly fine with doing so. Just a tip for new people looking to buy a GLK.

These are typically easy to remove as others pointed out above, but it is one less thing to hassle with if you ask before the dealer preps the new car.

They did add a dealer license plate bracket which was very nice as brackets go. It was even nicer when I took my p-touch labeling machine with white text on black weatherproof label, printed "McLaren Racing", and stuck it over the dealers name

We got the RWD version, so I don't have the 4-matic emblem on the right rear.

I have no strong feelings about the GLK 350 emblem on the left rear either way.

I would not remove the star on the back, personally.

As far as the front emblem goes, I find myself wondering if a person could retrofit the stand-up spring loaded star... Might be cool in a retro sort of way, especially since all of the past M-Bs we have owned have had those and I missed it at first on the GLK.

Jkrn2003

How do you clean up the sticky residue with WD40? Just spray and wipe?

Any pics?

Jkrn2003

Yea, I refuse to buy a car with dealer emblem on a car. Luckily, I have yet to purchase from a dealer that puts emblems. You can always remove the usually crappy dealer plate holders.

dynomite05

Goo-Gone is fine, it won't do anything to the paint. It has been used by many members here for this purpose

MilesBFree

Goo Gone is based on citrus oil, not a petroleum product.

WD-40 is a combination of mostly mineral oil (petroleum-based) chemicals.

I would tend to think the citrus-based solvent would be safer, but at the end of the day they are both solvents. But citrus just sounds healthier!

I think either one is probably fine as long as cleaned off immediately. I would recommend washing the residue off with soap and water, and then re-waxing since both of these plus the soap will strip off most waxes.

97W202

i like my c230 .. personally the only way I will debadge is once I go with the quad exhaust.

gsrjc

I debadged my C63 but not the GLK, no point. I only did the C63 so people wouldn't know if was an AMG.

rmfnla

I could be confusing Goo Gone with some other product. As for the citrus, I was raised in Florida and I have an aversion to that stuff!

The WD40 is not very active but I agree it's best to clean it off and re-wax ASAP.

rmfnla

Yeah; a soft cloth is best.

Pics to come soon, I promise.

omega_glk

Hey Blaze, was it hard to remove the grill and black it out and what paint/method did you use.

Blazeitup123

i have recently move from glk to c class, but i have already debadged and painted the grill on my new baby. i owned to car for 30 mins and already pulling out stock lights and putting in azn leds, x pipe mod, debadging and pulling off the grill

debadging is really easy. i used a hair dryer and dental floss. you just heat up one section of letters and they pull right off. after they are removed i used goo gone to get rid of the leftover glue from the car. total time 20 mins. it a good idea to wax or buff the residue off. i did not and dust sticks to it ans you can make out characters, but after time it seems to have righted itself after a few washes.

painting the grill is easy to but take patience. there are grill removal guides floating around the c class section that should pertain to the glk. once remove there are a lot of finicky little tabs you have to seperate without breaking. i gave up on the tabs, i could not get one loose, then handed it to my brother and he finished it no problem there are 19 of them if i remember correctly.

i used duplicolor paint, matte and gloss, fine sandpaper on the chrome, washed and dried. i came out great. just make sure you let the paint cure before putting it back together. if you look close on mine there are some thumb prints in the paint and of course there are already chips all over the grill after only a few weeks. but i don't care it looks really good overall.

this post is not very detailed, head over to diy section of w204 c class. there are step by step pics and tutorials for almost everything.

ps sorry for the grade school grammar, i just woke up, and this is easily my longest post here.

hornikel

keep the badges, you paid for it so be proud of what you have

born and raised in sindelfingen, germany for most of my life, going to stay true to what everybody in my family represents. everybody works at mercedes.

MBRedux

Goo Gone does not contain naptha, (so called lighter fluid). However, contrary to popular belief, Naptha will not harm factory paint either. In fact, it's prefered by auto detailers because of its rapid evap rate.

NYCGLK

Sure didn't pay for the badges...maybe if it was S600, SL65 or even C63 it would be worth keeping.

I never got around to it, so still have them on, will prolly end up keeping them.

rmfnla

It's not a matter of being proud of what I have; I prefer the cleaner look of no numbers and/or letters.

Thanks for all the Goo-Gone/naptha input. WD40 works fine since it is essentially a solvant (not lubrication, as many people erroneously think). Yes, I know, it's a Water Displacer, too...