97 900 SE T

3-M Badge Adhesive is the appropriate material for sticking the new ones on. A good automotive paint shop will have it. Far as taking the old ones off, slow & easy and try not to scratch the paint. No secrets, just pry slow and careful with something wide. Putty knife or drywall knife would be good, I'd think.)

My '88 900 had that for a decade or so. Not alarming, and I wouldn't want to tighten it up as the telescoping action needs to work if your chest hits the steering wheel during a frontal crash.

Dave Hinz

Last time I did this, I tried using some dental floss (is that called the same over there?) instead of levering - it worked very well.

Ah, that's a good idea, and yes it's called the same thing here (amazingly enough). Do you have a suggestion for him for taking the residue of the old adhesive off, in a way that won't interfere with the new adhesive? I'm thinking "goo gone" (orange oil solvent) but I'm not sure if the new adhesive would care for residue of that.

Dave Hinz

I used white spirit (it's a mixture of C6-C12 alkanes). I suspect goo gone would work too. The trick is to clean up afterwards with a polar solvent, like ethanol or acetone. This removes the residue left behind by the oily stuff, so the new adhesive has a nice, oil-free surface to stick to.

I once cleaned off old badge adhesive using household glass/surface cleaner with paper towels. Perhaps not ideal, but it was effective, and didn't seem to harm the paint.

John

I should of mentioned it's a 97 900 SE T. The dental floss is a good idea...I'll try it. The new letters/numbers have the stickem already on them. I'm assuming that it will be adequate but will keep the 3-m in mind if they don't seem secure. Say...does acetone hurt the paint???

Thanks

Matt

If it removes nail polish it'll remove paint as well.... Use some gasoline/petrol.

-- MH '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96 '87 900T8

No, but it takes off the wax, so you need to give it a good waxing afterwards. Ethanol/methanol also remove wax, but to a lesser extent, so are a better option.

...which will also strip the wax. Clean, glue, then wax.

There's a fair old difference between nail polish (polymer dissolved in acetone) and car paint (two part polyurethane based polymer).

Yeah, but I've seen some highly magnified photos of auto paint after being cleaned with acetone, lacquer thinner, etc. It was kind of worrisome. I now use only an approved product, such as an automotive surface cleaner designed for removing wax, silicone, etc before paint work.

Bob