painting a trunk lid

SDE

Well-known Member
The bottom part of the trunk lid on my son's 07 Impala is more than half gone. I bought a replacement at a junk yard. It is a different color and I would like to paint it. The word Impala LT, is individual letters and I assume that to do a good paint job, that I will need to remove them and then re apply them after the painting. Any suggestions on how to remove them with the least amount of effort and damage? How about how to re apply them so that they are equally spaced and look like they should?
thank you
SDE
 
GM used different systems to mount an emblem like that. Some had studs going through the body which had push nuts holding them on. I normally use a dremel tool with a carborundum blade to cut the nuts off on those. That type nut isn't reusable anyway. Some more or less have two sided tape where they just stick to the paint. Getting that type emblem off you could gently heat one with a heat gun and run a thin knife under it. Just don't heat it too much, they are using more and more plastic these days. Probably would be safer to heat the metal from the back side. Then to put the letters back there are several different brands of two sided tape which are for outdoor conditions you could use. 3M makes a 03614 Scotch-Mount tape which could be used. As far as the placement just be sure to measure where they are located on the lid and the width of the letters installed. Then assemble the letters on a piece of cardboard like what is on the back of a legal pad with regular two sided tape. The set of letters could be then installed as one. Since the installation tape is far stronger the cardboard could easily be pealed off afterwards.
 
Can the letters be masked off for painting? I realize you want it to look better than an Earl Schibe repaint job, but on a 14 year old car with rust it may not be worth the extra effort to remove and reattach them.
 

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