Rebadge, Debadge or Leave it Stock , what is your preference?

[My ST is Better!]

How many people plan on debadging or rebading their Explorer ST?

View attachment 99

I did a rebadge on mines, forgot to take pic of the rear.

 

[Nelson6655]

Great find on that price!

What was involved in getting rid of the old exhaust tips? Does it sound any better? It definitely looks better!

You just need a sawz-all to remove the old tips. No change in sounds, just looks 100x better!

 

[TooTall]

https://www.dhgate.com/product/full-carbon-fiber-for-universal-akrapovic/466503728.html

Sweet! Thank you! Bout to order 'em!

 

[FordHousePDX]

Dealer never told me that. WTF. I’ll make some calls tomorrow lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got a an invitation letter from Ford within a month or two after purchasing the ST. I'm headed to UT next week for my ST experience!

 

[Nbk4t5e]

I got a an invitation letter from Ford within a month or two after purchasing the ST. I'm headed to UT next week for my ST experience!

Very cool. Enjoy sir


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TooTall]

Finally found the time!

 

[GTP]

30% window tint on our front badge. Kind of looks like black chrome now.

Also left off the letters after clear film on the hood.

 

[Yungty718]

30% window tint on our front badge. Kind of looks like black chrome now.

Also left off the letters after clear film on the hood.

View attachment 1259 View attachment 1260

I’m going to tint my car this week so I’ll definitely ask them to place some scrap pieces on there a tad darker


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GTP]

Yeah, we tried a darker piece, too, but then it was too dark. Hard to see the badge, and yet not fully blacked-out, so we went back to the 30-35% tint. Couple of weeks now and I'm still satisfied.

 

[Decker90]

I normally leave things like this stock (do not rebadge or debadge); however, the lettering on the hood keeps grabbing my cloth when waxing or detailing. I like the look of the lettering, but you would think they would have done something less sharp and protruding.

Yeah I feel ya on that one when I did my ceramic coating it was a pain to get around the lettering

 

[GalenaST]

Yeah I feel ya on that one when I did my ceramic coating it was a pain to get around the lettering

I'm with you guys on the lettering it's a pain when detailing. I've considered taking it off but I think it looks better on.

Between that and detailing the front grille those are the biggest pain points the rest of the car is easy minus the roof lol

 

[Decker90]

I'm with you guys on the lettering it's a pain when detailing. I've considered taking it off but I think it looks better on.

Between that and detailing the front grille those are the biggest pain points the rest of the car is easy minus the roof lol

I purchased a small detailing brush from Chemical Guys to do the grille it makes it so much easier.

 

[STSkip]

Looks much better without the explorer lettering

 

[STSkip]

Just got done rebadging the Ford emblems. I took off the explorer from the hood so I can clear bra it. Debating on putting it back on.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks so much better without hood lettering, I debadged my hood also

 

[blackbeautyST]

Finally had these emblems installed. I think they look great! View attachment 280 View attachment 281

Looks great! Did you get the badges from OEM Autoart? I got some all blacks from them this week and I went to do the swap and there is no way to attach the new front badge

 

[blackbeautyST]

Did you by chance notice if there is anything from the back holding the ST emblem on? Im getting one made blacked out and of course I had my bumper off and was too into that Ford emblems process to notice at the time lol

The front ST badge is taped on nothing else you can peel it off.

 

[GalenaST]

The front ST badge is taped on nothing else you can peel it off.

Got er done about six months ago

 

[Kirk ST]

DIY Debadge
I've never done this before, so thanks to the pros on here who talked about it. In the end, I felt taking the EXPLORER letters off would leave a cleaner front end, especially on the bright Star White model I have. The Black letter/white contrast really made them stand out. The triangle between the letters, the Ford oval, and the ST never looked great to me; graphically, it's imbalanced and it bothered me. Taking the oval out wasn't an option with this grill and I like the ST, so the letters had to go. Plus, cleaning bugs around the letters was annoying and on rainy days, I'd get dirt streaks up the hood from the aerodynamics of the letters. So I went for it.

I bought some adhesive remover, a scraper with a plastic razor (plus a few extras...which I didn't need), and had a microfiber towel on hand to buff it all off. Probably 15mins of work, and it would have been less if I'd let the adhesive remover soak a bit longer. It took a few passes of popping off the letters first, then the foam backing, then the remaining adhesive. As a word of caution: I tried to be really careful with the metal backing of the scraper, but I think I might have nicked the paint just a bit on one or two letters. Either find a whole plastic scraper or maybe tape up the backside of the tool. bummed about it, but have a touch up plan with the dealer for chips and rims. a few more front end stone chips and I'll bring it by for that. nothing too deep.

Feedback welcome and happy to hear push-back on if I should have kept them on. If the votes are thumbs down, I could always learn how to reapply them or get the cooler Interceptor badging.

cheers from Pittsburgh, land of dirty roads, bugs, and tree sap.

 

[Baditude]

DIY Debadge
I've never done this before, so thanks to the pros on here who talked about it. In the end, I felt taking the EXPLORER letters off would leave a cleaner front end, especially on the bright Star White model I have. The Black letter/white contrast really made them stand out. The triangle between the letters, the Ford oval, and the ST never looked great to me; graphically, it's imbalanced and it bothered me. Taking the oval out wasn't an option with this grill and I like the ST, so the letters had to go. Plus, cleaning bugs around the letters was annoying and on rainy days, I'd get dirt streaks up the hood from the aerodynamics of the letters. So I went for it.

I bought some adhesive remover, a scraper with a plastic razor (plus a few extras...which I didn't need), and had a microfiber towel on hand to buff it all off. Probably 15mins of work, and it would have been less if I'd let the adhesive remover soak a bit longer. It took a few passes of popping off the letters first, then the foam backing, then the remaining adhesive. As a word of caution: I tried to be really careful with the metal backing of the scraper, but I think I might have nicked the paint just a bit on one or two letters. Either find a whole plastic scraper or maybe tape up the backside of the tool. bummed about it, but have a touch up plan with the dealer for chips and rims. a few more front end stone chips and I'll bring it by for that. nothing too deep.

Feedback welcome and happy to hear push-back on if I should have kept them on. If the votes are thumbs down, I could always learn how to reapply them or get the cooler Interceptor badging.

cheers from Pittsburgh, land of dirty roads, bugs, and tree sap. View attachment 5161 View attachment 5162

did you heat them up at all?

 

[Kirk ST]

did you heat them up at all?

I did not. The adhesive remover just said to apply it between temps of ~50-85f, and we had a nice sunny day in the 70s here. I had it parked in the sun for a bit, but no other heat applied.