Removing Badges on tailgate

[gregozedobe]

I decided to declutter the tailgate of my RS wagon today, so removed the "OCTAVIA" badge. I used dental floss, it cut through the double sided foam adhesive very easily, then a bit of metho and a fingernail removed the adhesive & foam with a little effort.

After perusing for a while I thought the vRS badge should go as well. This is stuck on with a much stronger adhesive, and nether dental floss nor a hair dryer made any impression at all. After a bit of head scratching I tried a plastic putty knife, and that did the trick.

The end result was much more to my liking (clean and uncluttered on both sides), but I kept the badges in case the next owner wants to stick them back on.

The chrome badging probably looks better on a blue or black one, but it just doesn't suit the yellow IMO. I'm now considering a black grille surround and no RS badge on the front too, then black roof rails, and also blacking out the B and C pillars (similar to the treatment on a Passatt wagon)

Not going to post any pics, but if anyone wants to know what badgeless looks like, just gaze at the left side of your Octy's rump, and that's what the right side of mine looks like (if it is a yellow RS wagon)

[STV4SYT]

I find fishing line works best.

[99gti]

I find fishing line works best.

Spider wire does the job very well but a bit exy unless your into fishing also...

[DanSA]

Sounds dood Greg, and definitely agree with the black rails on the yellow - will look great.
Any thoughts on darker wheels too?

I have some silvervision indicator globes on order to clear up the lights a little, plus some Phillips X-Treme dimmed headlight bulbs - find the stock bulbs wanting..

Fuel econ is down to 8.1L/100km now - very happy, she seemed to loosen up considerably after 7500km.

Enjoy, and keep us up to date with your progress.

[gregozedobe]

Any thoughts on darker wheels too?

I was originally thinking about powder coating the std mags charcoal (look good and not show brake dust so much), but the std silver is growing on me (and lighter coloured wheels look bigger than darker ones somehow).

I have several different H1 globes to try out in high beam, once I've tried them all I'll let everyone know which ones I liked best (Philips are supposed to be finally releasing some H1 55W X-treme globes next month, so I'll get some of them too, as I liked the H4 version).

If anyone lives in Canberra and wants to check out how Osram Rallye 65W H7s work in their low beams send me a PM and we'll organise a night. These globes are supposed to have lots more light without adding too much strain on the factory wiring or creating too much heat build up in the headlight. I bought them for my Transporter, but am still waiting for the headlight to arrive from the UK.

I'm not game to check on my fuel economy, as I am in full tilt running-in mode at the moment (typically 3rd gear, lots of throttle from 2,000rpm to 4,500rpm then back off to 2,000rpm and do it again and again as much as traffic permits). It consumes up to 62l/100kms on uphills doing this (yes, that's sixty-two litres per 100Km) ! I'll do this a lot for the first two tankfulls, that should bed the rings in nicely, and I'll be able to drive a bit more normally (except for varying the revs all the time).

It might be my imagination, but the motor seemed to be getting slightly more free-revving at 4,000rpm already (at the tender young age of 371Km).

[gregozedobe]

Any thoughts on darker wheels too?

Well, now that I've done a bit over 500km, I can see that all I have to do is not clean off the brake dust and I will very soon have quite dark wheels, so I guess I'll be able to see whether I like dark wheels or not without actually having to do anything. And if I decide I don't like dark wheels a quick wheel wash will return them to their shiny silver state again.

This running in malarkey is definirely NOT conducive to good fuel economy, I'm getting about 12l/100km so far - lots of 3rd gear, 2,000rpm, foot to the floor to the speed limit, slow down to 2,000rpm again (watching carefully in the rear view mirror for oncoming cars), boot it again etc etc. I'll be glad when I get to 1,000Km and can drive a little more normally (except for constant speeds).

[mrx]

Well, now that I've done a bit over 500km, I can see that all I have to do is not clean off the brake dust and I will very soon have quite dark wheels, so I guess I'll be able to see whether I like dark wheels or not without actually having to do anything. And if I decide I don't like dark wheels a quick wheel wash will return them to their shiny silver state again.

Hehe, I like your style! When the factory pads are worn out I'll definately be going for some Hawk ceramic pads. I saw first hand yesterday (on zz2's car) the distinct lack of brake dust on his wheels since running the new pads for a couple of weeks.

Re the fuel economy, you can quite easily beat your record on the instantaneous fuel consumption display by getting "chipped", and maintaining your current driving "style".

My golf engine seemed to loosen up around the 8000km mark, much the same as Dan said, and it's used hardly any oil since the oil change I did at 7500km. Prior to that it used about a litre.

[gregozedobe]

Jeez, I thought 72.4l/100Km in 3rd gear in the RS was bad enough (but I have seen 99.9 on my van (1st gear, cold, uphill)

[Jmac]

Fishing line is tops for badge removal, thumbs up for that , done HEAPS