Is Debadging A Truck A Good Idea?
It seems that every year, depending on who made them, pickup trucks get more and more covered with badges.
I fully understand that it’s done, more or less at least, for the purpose of advertisement, but you see, not everyone likes that sort of thing, therefore the idea of removing some, if not majority of additional emblems comes to more than one owners’ mind.
Yes, if you like it
Whether or not you should debadge your pickup solely depends on you.
Personally I have never done this to any of the trucks that I ever owned over the years, and let me tell you some of them had a lot of badges, stickers, emblems, whatever you want to call them.
The reason why is because they never ruined the aesthetics of a pickup truck in my mind, so there’s that. I also think that getting rid of them could potentially ruin the vehicle’s resale value.
Again, there is nothing inherently wrong about getting rid of the emblems you don’t like. It is your pickup truck, you paid the money for it, and if doing so makes you even a tiny bit more happier when you look at the thing, go for it.
What badges to remove
There is no set in stone way to go about it, as you can really remove any of them you don’t think are good enough, although i can still suggest the most common places, just to make it easier.
One of them is clearly the doors. Some brands like to cover them with as much wording as possible, and truth be told, this is what you should probably start working with to really improve the truck’s appearance.
The next is probably the tailgate. You know what I’m talking about: the 4×4’s, the other company defined slogans can all be taken off, if that’s what you want to do.
You could also consider getting rid of the actual manufacturers emblem, to give the tailgate that raw look, though how good does it end up looking really depends on the actual tailgate.
Having said that, this is not it. In case you really want to go an extra mile, it’s possible to remove many of the emblems that are inside the cab too! But, truth be told, i haven’t heard of many doing that, so yeah.
Lastly, instead of getting rid of the badges altogether, why not try relocating? Just that you don’t like it in one particular place, taking the thing off and adhering to a different spot could make all the difference.
Consider changing their color
Instead of contemplating whether or not you want to remove the badges that catch your eye, try painting them.
This can help the things blend in with the pickup better, and you may end up liking it even more. You can obviously do this with just about any spray paint can or whatnot, but I would suggest going for the dip coating route, like with the well known Plasti Dip.
If, for any reason, you will end up wanting to revert the changes in the future, it will be easier to do it that way.
How to do it
For best results, you should get these items: a heat gun, adhesive remover, fishing line and paper towels.
And yes, there are those who cut the badges off using just a fishing line, and then peel the leftover material with their own fingernails, though that can end up ruining the finish, so you should probably take your time while doing this.
As long as you go about the process cleanly, it will be possible to reuse the letters in the future, if that’s your goal.