Black Badge Mods

September 26, 2014

The silver badges had been bugging me for some time. Decided to get my finger out and do something about it! (plus it was a cheap mod!)

Front end first, although unfortunately the bumper has to come off. The Badge is kept in by three tangs and I very much doubt you could lever it off from the front without breaking everything. Fortunately, I can get the bumper off in about 10 minutes now. 8 bolts and a bit of wiggling and it's off.

Slide a small flat blade screwdriver down the sides of the tangs and the Badge will pretty much fall off. Key the surface with a bit of wet and dry and you're ready for painting. First though, the rear.

I decided to ditch the rear 'TOYOTA' Badge so that saved me a spray job. I wanted to fit a TRD emblem in it's place instead so off it came with not too much care. However, I wanted to keep the 'AYGO' badge so I needed that off next. I gave up with the dental floss method (it kept snapping) so I used an old store card to gently cut and slide behind the badge to get through the sticky backing, being careful to keep the card away from the paint. It worked really well. Once off, the laborious job of getting all the old adhesive off the badge and the car and it was ready for the next stage.

The AYGO badge got the wet and dry treatment before I cut up small pieces of double sided sticky pad and put them on the back so I could stick it back on after painting:

I happened to have some satin black lying around, perfect. Three coats on both badges and all good! Although satin goes off quick, I left it overnight before attempting refitting as I knew I would be applying pressure to get them back on and didn't want to leave fingerprints in them!

All back on the next day. The TRD emblem (comes adhesive backed) was already black plastic and looks satin anyway so I didn't need to do anything with it. I think the result looks quite factory which is what I was after.

Front end now - I had left the bumper off in case refitting the badge was a pain but actually it pushed on really easily - I could have put the bumper back on the previous day.

Did you spot the little badge in the lower corner of the grill?! Yep I had also ordered another TRD badge, this time it came in satin black again but it was made of metal and comes with threaded bar/clamps so that it can bolt through the grill. It's very subtle against the black grill and the pics don't show it very well but it's more obvious when you see it in person. I did have to drill two 5mm holes. No big deal.

Overall I'm really happy with how it's all come out, and for a total of about £15 I think it's one of the most cost effective mods I have done!

Cheers