It is an easy and distinctive mod to debadge the car. But the Circle-T badges on the hood and lift gate, and the two HybridSD badges on the front fenders (after 2006) have pins that fit into holes in the bodywork. Maybe the pins and holes really are for aligning the badges. But then, maybe it's just Toyota's way to seriously discourage removing these badges. It is not at all difficult to remove the badges. And here the avid debadger, or modder has a problem; What to do with the stupid holes? Why not cover them up with a thin fiberglass plate painted in the car's body color? It would be a really easy yet classy solution. Cast polyester/epoxy resin should do the trick. For the Circle-T, the plate would be exactly the size of the OEM chrome ornament. Maybe 1/8 inch thick at the rim with a smooth round-over, 1/4 inch thick in the center. The pins aren't really necessary, but they would ensure that the plate mounted easily in exactly the right place. The Hybrid-SD badges on the fenders have differing pin patterns. As a result, there are separate left and right badges. The shape of the cover plate isn't dictated by the bodywork. I'm thinking that an elliptical shape would look good. I see this plate 1/8 in. thick at the edge, but only 3/16 in thick at the center. All the plates would be affixed with thin 3M two-sided sticky tape. What do you think?
For the sides, you may prefer the side marker lights. http://www.sigmaauto.com/jdm/prius/prius0405.php
M.Oiseau, Thanks for the post. I have checked out the Prius side marker lights. They are tall enough to cover the vertical spread of the holes, but they are not long enough to cover them both. (Pictures of recent Euro and Japanese cars show both the HybridSD badge and side marker lights on the cars.) To my suspicious, cynical mind, this was intentional on Toyot's part. Again, they're motive is to keep the badges on the car to further their corporate purposes, i.e. sales, advertising, free publicity.
zenMachine, Is it the concept of painting the badges that is simple, or is it the process of painting. IIRC from other threads, the process of deglossing the badges, with 600 or so grit sandpaper and ScotchBrite pads is time consuming, difficult work. I'm thinking that If I do the work, I might just as well end up with a smooth, clean surface.
I didn't take them out to sand them down or anything like that. I just meticulously painted them over. It's not that hard. You just need patience and a steady hand. The paint stays on pretty well even through many car washes and rainstorms. There's a little bit of peeling off in some small places for the front emblem, but not very obvious. And all it takes is some touch up. The Hybrid badges on the two sides don't have any peeling at all.
Whoa! Are you saying that you painted them in place? If so, you're a braver man than I. Did you do any masking with tape or the masking liquid that modelers use?
I debadged my 04 and 06 the days I got them home, but I've left the chrome Toyota logos on for now - I need to find a decal place that can make the logo exactly the same size as the chrome logos, and in many colors - I want to use a silver and a red just slightly darker than the Millenium Silver and Barcelona Red, so the logos are ghosted. It's not top on my list of priorities, so other than a Google a few months back that didn't get any places with Toyota logos already the right size, I haven't looked into it much.
zenMachine, Have you posted pix of your car anywhere? I'd like to see what the overall effect is with the badges in place and painted the body color as opposed to no badges.
Here is a possible alternative that I just found: http://priuschat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=11843&stc=1&d=1224328977 I don't know what it's made of, most likely resin/plastic of some sort. I'm thinking I could carefully sand the Circle-T off and then repaint. At ~$48US it is a pricey item, and I'd need two. Found it here: http://www.ppsonline.net/emblemGrill.htm Paint from here I suppose: PaintScratch Touch-Up Paint (rs), Spray Cans, Spray Paint, Paint Pens One spray can each of primer, base coat, and clear top coat comes to $65US. So, two badges and the paint comes to ~$165US -- Yikes! Time to rethink this "good idea."
I've posted the first pic sometime back in the Tinted Tails thread. It doesn't show all the painted badges, just the two in the rear. But it should give you an idea. The second picture is kinda dark, it's mostly to show the mooncaps, but you can see a little bit of the side job. If I have some time this weekend, I'll try to take some closeup shots of the painted badges.
Re: Debadging: Circle-T/HybridSD Hole Cover Plate zenMachine, you've got one very smooth, very tight ride there. Well done. The Circle-T on the lift gate looks darker than the body color. Is it black chrome? If you get around to it, I'd really appreciate seeing a frontal, and front quartering shots to see the HybridSD and Circle-T on the nose. On a separate mater; IIRC, in the past you've posted pdfs from the Body Manual (??). Is there anything there that would help me understand what would be entailed in removing the upper grill "smile?" [Edit] Nevermind on the "smile" removal. I figured it out and posted the info here: http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-modifications/54784-removing-upper-grill-smile.html
Yes, the circle-T on the liftgate was actually painted using Honda's Midnight Black. I was experimenting with that one first. I actually removed it, painted it, then restuck it back on. After that, I decided to get the Toyota touch up paint and did the others directly in place, without removing them. Attached are some photos I took yesterday. It was in early evening so the light wasn't so good. You can see that the front badge has lots of pockmarks now. But I kinda like the look of that so I think I'll just leave it alone. It's pretty easy to touch up some of those places, but I've been kinda lazy. Besides, no one really looks at these things up close except me. Out on the road they're hardly visible anyway.
dogfriend, Thanks for the pix. Now I can add hand painting to the list of possible ways to "dechrome," if not debadge. I especially like the lift gate's two-tone look. I too like the look of the Circle-T on the hood. It has a certain worldy, "Been there, done that. You got a problem?" look about it. With just a little more paint randomly removed, I could see a clear coat to fix the paint-chrome ratio. Again, thanks.
Back in post #10, I identified some resin badges found on the internet as a possible raw material for a Circle-T replacement on hood and lift gate. It only cost $48, and I need two... ridiculous. I picked up enough Sculpy modelling material -- ~$11US -- for maybe 20 cover plates. It is relatively easily worked by hand and with simple tools, i.e. a cylindrical glass as a roller, a kitchen knife. It hardens up when put in a 275 deg oven for 15 minutes. Final smoothing/shaping is with sandpaper with grits between 120 and 400. Here is a pix of the results: http://priuschat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=12096&stc=1&d=1226464641 On the right are my first two attempts; on the top, one with a smaller Circle-T pressed into the surface. More on this in a minute. On the bottom, a smooth faced blank. Both these are the same dimensions as the OEM Prius badges. In the center column are on top a small Circle-T badge (4-3/8 in. by 3 in.) that I got from a junker at a salvage yard. Below is the Prius' OEM Circle-T (3-1/2 in by 2-1/4 in.), also salvage. On the left are two tools I made. On top is a handle for the smaller badge.Three pins on the back of the badge slip into holes in the base of the handle. It is used to impress the smaller badge into the face of a "raw" but correctly formed blank. On the bottom is a thin aluminum template the same size s the larger Circle-T. The two holes match the pins on the back of the Prius badge. On the car, the bodywork is formed into a low, flat-topped rise to hold/display the Circle-T. It is obvious that it is meant to feature/hightlight the badge. For this reason, I'm not sure that the smooth-faced blank will work; too plain. That's why I used the small Circle-T and made the other blank. I like where this idea is going with two reservations. First, I think the imprinted Circle-T is too deep. I now want the imprint to be shallow, to give a subtler presentation. Also, I believe that there is an older, smaller Circle-T out there. The plates, unadorned or impressed, will be painted the body color, Barcellona red. They will be mounted with thin 3M two-sided sticky tape. So it's back to the junkyard and more poking about amongst the hulks. Ultimately, If I can get it just right, I may make a mold of the best plate and cast the final ones in filled epoxy resin. But, I may just stick with the Sculpy. And, either way $11 is a whole lot easier to swallow that $96.
