De-Badging the Mazda 3

I have a question for anyone who might know. I want to take the badges off my car and have them painted a gloss black and put back on. My car is the titanium Silver color, and black badges against that would look pretty nice, in my opinion. Does anyone know how to take the badges off, are they screwed on, or just stuck on with some sort of tape. Also, how easy are the headlight bulbs to replace, I would likt to update them with the bright-whites or blue lights.

The badges on the trunk lid will all leave holes except for the "3" (The Mazda nameplate and insignia have locating holes.) They stay on with sticky foam tape. You can remove them using fishing line (saw back and forth across the foam on the back of the part), but you will either need new foam tape or new badges to put them back on. I did this on my 3 (used the dark grey wheel paint) when the body shop had all of my badges off to repair some paint damage on the trunk.

thanks for the info on that, i would have no problem getting foam tape to put them back on, as long as the back of the badges were clean and areas where they came off are clean as well. I definitely dont want to scrape them off and leave scratches on the car. what color is your car, how did the painted badges against it.

Strato Blue. I don't have any pics of the badges afterward. It looks good, but I kind of wish I had gone black to tell you the truth.

Make sure you prep the badges well. Clean them off and wear medical gloves when you are handling them (keeps skin oil from preventing proper paint adhesion) Wet sand with a 400 grit sandpaper, clean it again to get rid of any dust, then paint away.

The paints meant for wheels seem to be a good application as they would have a high impact strength. Some paints require an adhesion promoter, others don't. Read the label and follow their instructions.

all i know is that its hard as shit 4 me to change my light bulbs, the low beams at least.

what is so difficult about changing, are they hard to get to or do have to take the whole assembly out to change the bulb. On my Beretta, all I would have to do is turn the buld clockwise and pull it out.

the Mazda emblem on the grill of the car, were you able to get that off as well and paint it, or is there no way to get that one out of there.

Well I finally got the badges off the car, here is a pic of them before being painted. I will post another after prep and paint, and when they are back on the car.


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The Mazda emblems on the front grill are only clipped on. You can take them off easily but be careful not to snap off the clips. I have the mazda3i model and wanted to change the grill. So i took off the emblem from the OEM grill and painted it gloss black. Problem is i have no place to put it. Haha. Well good luck with the painting. Post those pics up when youre done.

Oh and about the lights, it should be very easy to take them off (5minutes). ON the driver side, you need to remove the black plastic cover first. (The passenger side does not have the cover) Then you just unhook the wire connected to the lowbeams, remove the rubber, and pull up or down on the metal piece that clips the bulb in place. Then take the bulb out and replace it with the new ones. When you put it back reverse the process of taking it out.

WELL HOPE THAT HELPED YOU OUT.... =p

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ORIGINAL: michael91077

the Mazda emblem on the grill of the car, were you able to get that off as well and paint it, or is there no way to get that one out of there.

The clips are at the 12,3,6, and 9 o'clock positions around the emblem.

Here are some pics of one I painted with the dark grey wheel paint (metal flake)


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Thanks for all the info on this. i am going to get them prepped and ready for paint this weekend. i just need to take the one out of the grill first. what was the manufacturer of the paint you used, was it Duplicolor, and did you use any clear coat on them.

I did 3 coats of color (thin) and 3 coats of clearcoat. There are surface flaws, so the better you wet-sand them, them smoother the end result will be. I did use the Duplicolor.

Just stick with numerous thin coats. I sprayed using a pattern to make sure that I got paint into all of the areas.

Hold the can at an angle to the part. Make 3-4 quick left/right passes across the part, slowly moving up the part. Then turn 90° and do the same thing. Turn 135° and repeat, then 90° and repeat. Remember, thin coats. You'll get less drips and better adhesion this way.

Give yourself plenty of space to work with so that you can walk around the part and don't have to touch it at all.

Good luck.

thanks for the info, i will be sure to do that. i dont think it will to hard to do, just got to make sure to get paint over the whole badge and dont have any blank spots on them. i have painted many things before, so this should be nothing new, i will post pics when done and back on the car.