When I bought my C5 at a used dealer I later noticed that the dealer had the audacity to bolt on to the rear, right below the CORVETTE wording (above the license plate fixture) on the rear panel there retarded dealer name plate. If I remove it I will have two wholes. Any way to fill it in, smooth it out and resurface/paint it?

 

Are you sure it's bolted on??

I haven't seen nor heard of a bolted on emblem in years. Even the factory C5 emblems are just held on with double sided tape.

 

Didn't want to screw with it yet, but there are two torque bolts (sp?)on each side. I don't think its double-sided tape....

 

It should just be held on with double sided tape. Grab the edge of it and slowly pull it off. You will have a little residue to clean off. Thats what I have done on the last few new cars I have bought.

 

Could be just fake bolts. To check, take out one of the inboard tail lights and run your hand down where the dealer name plate is. If you feel a screw and nut back there, then your fears are confirmed. There is some stuff that can be used to fill holes I believe. Check with a good body shop if you need to.

 

Take out one of the inner taillights and look or reach in behind the fascia and see if you can find any nuts or the screws poking through there.

I find it very difficult to believe any dealer would go to the trouble of shooting holes in a body panel for a silly emblem.

 

Tried pulling the edge off and it appears to be bolted. The bolts even show signs of stripping (paint is rubbed off itside the torx insert). I'll pull the tail light out tomorrow to confirm (lost my torx bits), but not looking good.

Can I sue for Corvette abuse?

Assuming the worse, if anyone has recommendations on a neat repair....I'm all ....

 

i dont think they bolt them on

 

I can't believe dealers still do that! Bummer. If there is holes you can have them patched and paint rear fascia or get a vette emblem and stick it over the holes. Not much help but I would get a $30 emblem and stick it there, I'd be too cheap to pay to get it painted!

 

Why not have them remove it and patch the holes. It is obvious it is their emblem. Enough customers go back and complain they may change their ways. That is on the rear fascia which can be damaged quite easily if the thing is not removed correctly.
Bill

 

May do that Bill. Thanks

 

I suspect you'll have two holes, not wholes...but to make it whole again, as in not holes, they will need to be filled. To best acomplish this, a skilled body and paint specialist will probably need to be engaged. To fill the bumper fascia, which is a urethane flexible part, it is best to use urethane based patching putty. Although you can easily do this part with stuff from a well stocked autosupply store, the hard part comes when it somes to matching the paint which will cover the filler in the holes. The rear fascia is a big surface, and easy to spot a 'rattle can' paint blend job on. If you have solid color paint, it can be done with DIY supplies to where it can be invisible. however, metallics are another thing altogether, as the lay of the metallic chips inside the translucent paint carrier, and the depth of the clear overlay coat, have a lot to do with the success of the visual blend. Most of the rattle can 'factory matching' paints today have a slight degree of flexibility when dry, but in a body shop, they mix a "flexibilizer" into the custom paint, which holds up on urethane quite well because it won't crack at all with bending. I just blacked out the lower indentation on my rear fascia, and choose a matte black vinyl based spray coating material. It remains very flexible, and adhears well to properly cleaned paint.

Many of todays dealer logo tags are actually stick on items, which can be removed with some heat [not too much, a hair dryer is fine] and pulling. Another 'tool' to use is fine nylon fishing line, which can be pulled behind the logo plate and 'sawed' back and forth to cut through the adhesive. Goof-Off or a professional adhesive remover can then be employed to finish off the adhesive gunk and get you down to the smooth paint. From there choose your buffing compound and wax of prefernence, lots of folks here use Ziano, and buff it up. If indeed you have holes to contend with, you could disguise them until later by putting in some stainless steel screws, just as fillers, or leave the holes blank. If your going to try to spot repaint the wounds yourself, I would wait until a warmer season so your chances of getting a good result are higher. Even in a home garage, controlling the heat and humidity might be tough, because your going to want to ventilate the area to keep overspray moving and sucked away from the car and you. If you bring it to a body shop, they of course have massive climate controled inside shops, and get good results even in winter. Another thing would be to fill the holes with urethane patch, and just leave them smoothed out, visible as tiny dots, and paint over when the season is better. Sorry to see you have to deal with this kind of thing. I HATE dealer logos and wish they would never apply them. Its bad enough that they put on hokey license plate frames that we have to remove and throw away. I have heard of people making a deal on a specific new or used car contingent upon the dealer removal of the dealer logo plates, including-if needed-the body and paint work to repair the holes. Best wishes on this.......Jennifer

 

Jennifer, thank you for your detailed response and they were holes not wholes...typed faster than I was able to think. They didn't even get the bolts in symmetrical to one another!!! One is higher than the other. I think I may need to call them on this. Not to be prejudiced in any way, but if it were a Cavalier I wouldn't care, but you do NOT bolt a name plate on a Vette. Again thank you for your kind advice.

Charlie

 

Maybe you should remove the plate, and if in fact there are holes, use a couple of screws as mounting studs for a red NEON light on the back.

 

Neon? I'm not in training for the Fast and the Furiously Stupid.

 

Well, the 'dealer logo' frickin screwed into the rear fascia is about as blatant as putting neon's on it!

 

Take it back to them and tell them to take their junk off and fix it like new. What the heck were they thinkink, this is no Hyundai

 

AKA EnglandGreen rice? Opps, sorry abou that - his isn't red

 

I hate when they do that I would have never bought it with it on there. In the past when I have gotten cars I make them write it on on the order that they won't put any plates / stickers on. They usually just put a plastic license plate frame on that you can take off easily.

 

Put a "Type R" emblem over the holes.
This will be my next mod

And to the rest of youse guys - It IS Red Neon on my behind

You guys are killing me even when I don't post in some threads!! Now I HAVE to read every thread to see who's dissing me