To debadge or not to debadge???

[dpnguyen]

What you refer to as "ghosting" may be due to the difference between the faded paint and the paint that's been shaded from the badging. Unless you actually see residue under the badging, I would think twice about using some sort of cleaner. My badge "ghosting" is all but gone. What I did was wax that area weekly, and I also parked my car outside in the sun on purpose. You'll notice that it starts fading and should be gone in a few weeks.

Enjoy the beautiful, clean look!

 

[codex57]

That's cool. This one kid at my high school had a 330Ci and he took steps to make it more like an M3. He debadged it and had the dealer install the "M3 gills" on the sides of the body, behind and above the front wheels.

I encountered such a moron. Even had the M3 badge. Drove like a complete moron. One thing he forgot to change which gave him away was the single exhaust.

 

[jcrosi]

Proud of my 325

Last April I became the proud owner of a brand new 2004 325I. I love it and love showing it off. I am not sure where you guys live but take a look around. My 325 is still more expensive than 90-95% percent of the cars on the roads I drive on. With uprgrades and sales Tax it was over 42K. Nothing to sneeze about and a lot of money to me

Upstate NY by the way

Be yourself!

 

[sly]

What's what is when I see an "M" badge on a 530i or something random like that. Or if I see an AMG badge on a non-AMG car. I'm pretty good at telling the differences between cars without looking at the badge (i.e. I can tell the difference between a 325/330/M3, 525/530/545/M5, etc.) but most people aren't.
Debadging the car does look cleaner, but having the badge there looks nice as well. I have actually been considering removing the "G35" badge on the right side of my trunk lid...I think it would look a lot cleaner.

I'd conservatively estimate that 90% of the drivers on the road don't know what a M3 is, and the 10% that do will easily determine that the rebadged car is not an M3 and laugh like hell at the driver.

 

[HornyHornet]

Last April I became the proud owner of a brand new 2004 325I. I love it and love showing it off. I am not sure where you guys live but take a look around. My 325 is still more expensive than 90-95% percent of the cars on the roads I drive on. With uprgrades and sales Tax it was over 42K. Nothing to sneeze about and a lot of money to me

Upstate NY by the way

Be yourself!

Whoa! For $42K you could have gotten a 330i w/Performance Package.

 

[Susie520]

Last April I became the proud owner of a brand new 2004 325I. I love it and love showing it off. I am not sure where you guys live but take a look around. My 325 is still more expensive than 90-95% percent of the cars on the roads I drive on. With uprgrades and sales Tax it was over 42K. Nothing to sneeze about and a lot of money to me

Upstate NY by the way

Be yourself!

Whoa is right! I got a 330xi with Premium, Cold Weather, Sport Package, and Xenon's for $44,380 - ended up paying $41,500 after negotiations and then taxes and tags of course. That is a mighty expensive 325!

 

[jcrosi]

Missing the point

It was actually $37, 825 + 3121 in Sales tax (NY - 8.25%) = $40, 945 and then tack another $200 for reg/fees and then I rounded up to 42K in my post - okay I could have rounded down

Didnt think bad
325, sport/pre, xenon, HC, heated seats, with steptronic........

But the point is - Be proud - Unless everyone here is wealthy - apparently I am the only one who thinks $41, 145 is a lot of money.

Your car for me in NYS would have been over 48K

 

[Frosty Power 323CI]

We're all proud. $41K is a lot of money. Heck, I bought mine CPO 323CI for $29K CDN or around $22K US and I could barely afford it. I'm proud of my car too. I could have easily purchased a brand new Cavalier or a cheap domestic car, had a 4 year warranty and probably save some $$$, but why drive something your not proud of or don't want. Some friends thought I made a wrong decision and should have bought a new car(domestic or cheap import) but those are the friends that usually settle for the things they need and never get the things they want!

You never need to drive a BMW, you want to drive a BMW!!!

 

[Frosty Power 323CI]

Hey guys,

It's been over a week now and now the so called "ghosts" of my badge are off my car(the faint symbol of my badge on the paint). A bit of waxing and polishing and now they're all gone!!! Looks good. Thanks for your opinions,

Frosty Power

 

[DrivingTopless]

Frosty,

What color paint do you have? I'm curious if the ghosting would be more apparent on a dark color.

 

[Big Daddy]

When debadged my 750iL (mainly because the gold colored badge looked like a pimp mobile) it showed a ghost image. Considering the car was a 91 and black I could not totally get rid of it. I decided to put a silver 735 badge on the car (sleeper?) My 318is was sold in Germany to my brother (original buyer) without badging. It was clean and looked good. I wish there were no badges on my roadster.

 

[Frosty Power 323CI]

Frosty,

What color paint do you have? I'm curious if the ghosting would be more apparent on a dark color.

The color of my car is jet black. It took a bit of waxing and waiting but a couple weeks later it's not noticable, well, at least i can't notice it. just did what dpngyent say in his thread and it worked, thanks.

 

[DrivingTopless]

Well, I did it. Took all of about 10 mins to complete.

I first slid dental floss under the numbers to cut the gummy backing. Then peeled off the remaining sticky stuff by hand. Sprayed some bug and tar remover on the residual gunk. Let it soak in for about a minute and lifted right off when wiped with a cloth. Applied a coat of wax. Done!

Looks great! No ghosting, no anything!

 

[Frosty Power 323CI]

Sounds great, a quick and easy fix!!! No ghosts!!! ha ha ha.....

 

[codex57]

It was actually $37, 825 + 3121 in Sales tax (NY - 8.25%) = $40, 945 and then tack another $200 for reg/fees and then I rounded up to 42K in my post - okay I could have rounded down

Didnt think bad
325, sport/pre, xenon, HC, heated seats, with steptronic........

That sounds about right actually. My friend who had pretty much those options on a 330ci (same sales tax rate) paid $41,000 or so and after tax and stuff, it came out to about $45,000.

 

[sosinsur]

everytime I meet a chic in my car...she dont know what year or model I have...only that she saw me in a BMW and its clean...I still get azz [shake] wit the 323ci on the car....no future to your frontin.... ....What happens when the fake M3 rolls up next to the real M3..