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Ghost letter images after debadging...

Old Sep 17, 2007 | 04:15 PM
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spta97's Avatar
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Ghost letter images after debadging...

I removed the 'infiniti' off of the back of my g/f's G35x and it looks great, but I still see almost a "ghost" of the letters. It is not very easy to see, but if you catch it at the right angle you can sort of see it. She had to take a few minutes to see it herself after I pointed it out.

I used adheasive remover, clay, and wax but it will not go away. Is it possible there is a slight indent from the letters? The surface feels perfectly smooth
 
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 04:58 PM
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From: Hamilton, NJ
Originally Posted by spta97
I removed the 'infiniti' off of the back of my g/f's G35x and it looks great, but I still see almost a "ghost" of the letters. It is not very easy to see, but if you catch it at the right angle you can sort of see it. She had to take a few minutes to see it herself after I pointed it out.

I used adheasive remover, clay, and wax but it will not go away. Is it possible there is a slight indent from the letters? The surface feels perfectly smooth
The rest of your paint is faded slightly from exposure to the sun where the paint under the letters was not exposed and therefore not faded giving the ghost letters. Sorry i don't know how to fix it, if it even can be fixed.
 
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 05:09 PM
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It is called repainting the trunk.
 
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 05:26 PM
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1. How old is the car?

I debadged my letters after 10k miles, it took about 2 months and a couple of coats of wax to get all the shading out.
 
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Old Sep 17, 2007 | 08:50 PM
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That is crazy that you had that. Mine is an 03 with 35,000 miles and when I removed the lettering, no shading.
 
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Old Sep 18, 2007 | 08:48 AM
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The car is only two months old and spends the week in the garage so I don't think it is sun fading.

I should also mention it is just the outline of the letters, not the interior of them. Perhaps it will fade over time.
 
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Old Sep 18, 2007 | 08:50 AM
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If you get the car waxed or buffed it will all disappear.
 
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Old Oct 3, 2007 | 11:53 AM
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YEA; you need to strip off off the wax on the trunk-use a good cleaner wax & buff, clay, wash, and wax. Spend some time working the polish into the paint. My car had this, and it was the WAX/Sealer that built up around the letters. It took several coats of a good cleaner/polish to remove. After it is done a few coats of a good wax or sealer and you will be done.
 
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Old Oct 3, 2007 | 12:05 PM
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Re-Post Questions.........?

I think I seen this question before....HAHA This is actually an easy fix, you don't need to use a clay bar this has nothing to do with paint crud. Start by stripping the trunk lid with cleaner then apply an item like Scratch X and with an applicator rub the area where the letter were. (no circular motions) Wipe off and check it out, if you still see shadows repeat the process. Then load up your trunk lid with some high quality wax.......you're good to go!
 

Last edited by gary c; Sep 15, 2012 at 01:17 PM.
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Old Oct 3, 2007 | 01:03 PM
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I did use AFTA which should have removed all the wax. I'll see about hitting it with a buffing wheel as well. Does the Scratch-X stuff work? I think it only temporarily fills in scratches.
 
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Old Oct 14, 2007 | 01:37 AM
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Originally Posted by BracketRacerSteve
1. How old is the car?

I debadged my letters after 10k miles, it took about 2 months and a couple of coats of wax to get all the shading out.
This is really commom and probably more so in certain states. Once you clean it and waz it and let it sit in the sun eventually you wont be able to see it anymore.
 
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Old Oct 28, 2007 | 01:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Hi-Tech_G
If you get the car waxed or buffed it will all disappear.

yup
 
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Old Oct 31, 2007 | 02:08 PM
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the same thing happened to me, just take it to a local car wash and they will charge you about 10 bucks for it, they have a special cleaner that takes care of it and then they will buff it for you
 
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Old Aug 12, 2012 | 08:30 PM
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Originally Posted by gary c
I think I seen this question before....HAHA This is actually an easy fix, you
don't need to use a clay bar this has nothing to do with paint crud. Start
by stripping the trunk lid with cleaner then apply an item like Scratch X and
with an applicator rub the area where the letter were. (no circular motions)
Wipe off and check it out, if you still see shadows repeat the process. Then
load up your trunk lid with some high quality wax.......you're good to go!
Thanks a bunch! Had the dreaded ghost letters after removing the 'G 35' from mine. Decided not to move on to removing the 'INFINITI' incase I wasn't able to correct the problem. Saw this post, happened to have Scratch-X just laying around, and now there is absolutely NO SIGN of the ghost 'G 35'!

Now I just have the Mt. Fuji and INFINITI and I kind of like it that way. I will leave it for a couple of days and see if I still want to remove the INFINITI lettering.

Thanks again! Others should definitely try this before taking it to a professional detailer!
 
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Old Aug 23, 2012 | 11:09 PM
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All you need is 3M rubbing compound!!!
 
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