Removing the Front Chevy Badge on a 2004-2007 style aveo

[xintersecty]

You got to admit it, the front chrome chevy badge is awful. A lot of guys just paint it out. I too consider that a lame mod.

So this is my plan process in removing the chevy badge.

Materials
Small amounts of fiberglass, about 5x5 inches.
5 min epoxy
bondo
wax paper
tongue dispensers for mixing

1) remove the front grill. It's pretty easy to remove. Make sure you don't break any plastic screws.
2) Remove the Liner from the grill and then remove the chrome part. This is a zillion screws holding all this together.

3) It should look like this before you get started


4) Flip it over and we are going to add some fiberglass to the end parts. This is where you are going to cut that center part off.


5) Sand to help the epoxy stick to the plastic.


6) cut some fiberglass in a strip that covers that hole. It will need to go into the lip and past the sides. Mix up some epoxy. Lay the fiberglass into the epoxy then drape it over the hole.


7) Continue adding epoxy to get the fiberglass to adhere. Basically the fiberglass is forming the new support. This a picture showing the other side.


Cut a strip of wax paper to hold it place and to keep the shape while drying.


9) Repeat for the other side. It takes about 5 mins to set and 30 mins to get hard. This is what it looks like when done.


10) Use a saw and cut the center part out. Follow the contour of the shape.


11) The is what it looks like separated from the main body. Cut the other side.


12) And now this is removed and ready for the next stage.

[xintersecty]

13) Time for Bondo. Make sure you wear gloves and have your material ready to go


14) Lay the Bondo. It's going to goo everywhere. Try and keep that a minimum and work quickly
.

15) Use the wax paper trick and cover the surface. This will smooth it out while it is drying.


16) This is what it looks after drying. Do both sides.


17) Use a Dremel tool to knock down the rough bits.


1 Followup with sandpaper. This will require several iterations of Bondo and sanding to get it just right.


19) This is what it looks like with the front badge gone. To me, this looks way better.


I will cover painting in a later post.

[xintersecty]

Painting turned out to be easy breezy. I just got a can of gloss black and shot it. There are some slight imperfections in the around the areas where I cut off the center part. Just the most important thing is to be careful and sand. The Dremel tool helped a lot.

[nelson845]

Nice and clean!

[Catscape]

I just did a simple cutting out of the center piece, but after some thought I will most likely go back and do the fiberglass and bondo job, just to give it a nice finished look. Excellent job on this tutorial, great detail!

[BlueBird94]

You know that the front badge is just held on by like 4 screws right? I took it off in like 5 seconds the day I bought my car... Just have the mesh on there now.

[Nickelbawker]

You know that the front badge is just held on by like 4 screws right? I took it off in like 5 seconds the day I bought my car... Just have the mesh on there now.

His is different slightly. Mine wasn't attached either must be a slight year difference. The 05 I have had a 3 piece grill though painted mine silver. Need to shave the center hole some more and bondo the square shaped things to be even with the rest of the trim on mine.

[xintersecty]

You know that the front badge is just held on by like 4 screws right? I took it off in like 5 seconds the day I bought my car... Just have the mesh on there now.

Yes but mine looks awesome, yours looks like "dude you just unscrewed your badge" LMAO

[Nickelbawker]

Yes but mine looks awesome, yours looks like "dude you just unscrewed your badge" LMAO

Ah I see now. You only had to bondo two spots versus all the notches that are showing on mine now. Probably a little tougher that way as well. I might have to do that to mine too.