Removing pinstriping and "Riviera" side emblems?

I wanted to get everybodys opinion on the best way to remove the pinstriping and side emblems. Never been a fan of pinstriping and the emblem just looks out of place so high on the car. On my last car I kinda of scraped em off but ended up stratching the paint and dont want to do it to such a clean car.

Adhesive remover? Tools? Anything? thanks

Not sure about the pinstripe but what I did to remove the Supercharged badge off the back of mine was use some dental floss and warm the logo for a few minutes with a hair dryer. Then take the floss and wiggle it behind the emblem and work your way until you have it all off. Folks here advised wearing gloves but you can't manipulate it as well with them on so I did it bare handed with no pain. Just sawed away at it and it came off. I did have to scrub the area where it had been for some time to clean it off but you can't tell I ever had a supercharged badge anymore.

I'm not sure if there are any pins on the Riviera logos keeping them on. I have a pic of a logo close up and while not apparent in real life it has a glob of glue you can see sticking out a bit. I dunno if the whole thing is just glued on or if it may be bolted in but I'd imagine it's just glued on. I've thought about doing it just to add to the mystery element of the car. With those logos off the only thing you can see on the car are R's everywhere. R's on the wheels, the front and the back. Some people would have no idea what it is!

Get us some pics up when you do it, I'd like to see what this will look like.

I just waited for a hot day and peeled mine off slowly with my fingers. I don't think it had been on there very long. Car had less than 30k on at the time.

Heat gun or hair dryer will speed things along a bit. Be careful, you can ruin them with a heat gun, but warm up the metal all around the emblems first (not too hot - don't burn the paint), and I used a brass putty knife on the Riv emblems and some not-as-nice tools on the trunk supercharged emblem (but I am repainting the trunk lid anyway).

Huh, I didn't know you took off the Riviera badge on your's AA. Did you do it for the same reason I thought about doing it?

I wouldn't advise the heat gun - we have one but I'm not stupid enough to put all that concentrated heat over such a small area. I don't think a hair dryer could do any real damage (Well you'd have to keep it in the same spot a really long time to). A knife sounds dangerous to use there and could scratch the car. I liked how well the floss made the Supercharged badge come off so I'm sticking to my recommendation for safety to the paint.

Back when my dad had the GTP he took those GTP badges off the door but I forget how exactly he did it. One kept falling off anyway and it was cool to make the GTP look waaay less suspicious. Is it a plain old Grand Prix or is it a GTP? Only one way to find out, and you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? (Sorry I couldn't resist )

I also have pinstriping on my Riv. It appears to be exactly the same material as the dealer name that I removed from the backside of the trunk lid. I just used the edge of a credit car, driver license, student ID, whatever plastic card you may have. The edge takes the material right off very easily. I might take off my stripes also. No heating required.

My Riviera emblems will stay on, but I'm going to remove the stupid "Signature Edition" pieces that were put on at the 2nd dealership that sold it in 2000. There are 3 of them, inside and outside.

Shintsu wrote:

I wouldn't advise the heat gun - we have one but I'm not stupid enough to put all that concentrated heat over such a small area.

A knife sounds dangerous to use there and could scratch the car.

Used properly in the correct hands, these tools would work well to do the job. As with most things, a "stupid" person is what makes a tool "dangerous". Some one with experience and technique will be able to produce good results.

Shintsu wrote:

Huh, I didn't know you took off the Riviera badge on your's AA. Did you do it for the same reason I thought about doing it?

Probably not. I left my badges on, just removed the pinstripe and dealer lettering on the back.

Oh, I thought that's what you were talking about. The OP was asking about removing the Riviera badges on the side and the pinstriping. Oddly enough, the letters on my trunk where the dealer stuck them on are still somewhat visible even though they were peeled off several years ago. You can still make out Bardstown, KY if you look close enough. Would I need to take a buffer to it or something to get that off? It's a lighter white where the letters were and darker everywhere else almost as if the people who bought it new had that on there and never took it off or something.

Shintsu, good hands with some mild rubbing compound or machine glaze polish would clean that right off. I would not use either by hand, I had bad luck with that, but with the right machine polisher and experienced hands would clean it right up in no time.

Strange mine came with no emblems or pinstripping But I can see the lines and a lil of the glue were it was

^^ Somebody else took them off. It is some folks perception that putting pin striping on a car is a way to hide body work from a past collision. I don't believe this entirely, but insurance adjusters take it into consideration. Using reverse logic, someone might take the striping off to seem less suspicious - or they were like me and just didn't like the look. The Riv has beautiful lines, no help needed, imo.

I used C4 to take off my side emblems

I never had pinstriping - white looks good without any pinstripe and I wouldn't want one. I mean, there's no other color I could pick that seems to go well with the car. It would either be black or red - and neither of which match anything else on the car or serve any real purpose to me. I like the clean look of no pinstripes.

98riviera98 wrote:

I used C4 to take off my side emblems

LOL

StrictlyBusiness wrote:

98riviera98 wrote:

I used C4 to take off my side emblems

LOL

its how i roll.... DUDE.. so i asked you before.. but never saw that thread again


WHERE ARE YOU FROM IN MN?

Im from Minneapolis but I live in Saint Paul Now...

StrictlyBusiness wrote:

Im from Minneapolis but I live in Saint Paul Now...

cool i sent you a pm.. you can access it at the top it will say you have ONE new message check it out

StrictlyBusiness wrote:

Im from Minneapolis but I live in Saint Paul Now...

Aren't they the same place?

deekster_caddy wrote:

StrictlyBusiness wrote:

Im from Minneapolis but I live in Saint Paul Now...

Aren't they the same place?

nooooooooo.... they are separated by the drink...

ehh....its a horse a piece

Shintsu wrote:

I never had pinstriping - white looks good without any pinstripe and I wouldn't want one. I mean, there's no other color I could pick that seems to go well with the car. It would either be black or red - and neither of which match anything else on the car or serve any real purpose to me. I like the clean look of no pinstripes.

Gold pinstripes look really nice on my Riv, esp since I have the gold R grille emblem and gold trunk lock assy. I have to take some time to look at my Riv with the stripes, and try to imagine it w/o them. They'd come off easily.

I hear Mpls and St. Paul get along about as well as cats and dogs.

1998 Riv wrote:

Shintsu wrote:

I never had pinstriping - white looks good without any pinstripe and I wouldn't want one. I mean, there's no other color I could pick that seems to go well with the car. It would either be black or red - and neither of which match anything else on the car or serve any real purpose to me. I like the clean look of no pinstripes.

Gold pinstripes look really nice on my Riv, esp since I have the gold R grille emblem and gold trunk lock assy. I have to take some time to look at my Riv with the stripes, and try to imagine it w/o them. They'd come off easily.

A little something like this:

Spoiler:

1998 Riv wrote:

I hear Mpls and St. Paul get along about as well as cats and dogs.

Well I guess you could say that, if you have to deal with the gangbangers lol

My pinstripes are painted, not tape.

Emblems are all stick-on (see the FSM for details) and the dental floss method should work, followed by a buffing.

Albertj