Boxster logo on trunk
 

We all know that this is easily removed with dental floss. And if the car is new, the 'glue' they used cleans up with just a little elbow effort. But what if you remove the logo from a 15 year old car? You are left with a 'ghost' Boxster' shadow on the trunk and no amount of elbow effort seems to remove it. I suspect paint fading, glue hardening and just plain age is the culprit. In any case, any suggestions on removing the 'ghost'?

I still have the emblems on my 02 S, but on my old BMW Z3 I debadged it and just used plain old rubbing compound and a lot of elbow grease and eventually the shadow from the emblems faded.......

If the ghost is only an unevenly dull reflection of the surface (outside surface of clear-coat), it should be entirely possible to restore it using paintwork correction techniques.

(If it's actually an unevenly faded basecoat color due to UV exposure, it may not be easily correctable. However, Porsche is known to use very good quality basecoat+clearcoat paint on these cars, I'd give the paintwork correction a try!)

You can get as fancy as you want for this. One-stage, two-stage, three stage, by hand of by machine, are all options...

Here is an example of a machine-applied, three-stage* paintwork correction process I used to remove scratches on a hardtop:
http://986forum.com/forums/539976-post12.html

For a 2-stage paintwork correction option, skip the compound step, and just go to the finer polishing step. It will work Ok if the scratches aren't too deep.

For a 1-stage option, use an "all-in-one" wax+polish product. Sometimes these are called "cleaner waxes".

(*Note that I'm not counting all the steps, like the initial wash, dry, optional clay bar step, etc. it doesn't mean they don't matter, or it's safe to overlook them, though!)

As you might imagine, the more involved process you throw at it, the better the achievable results are. You may however be perfectly satisfied with a simpler process. No need to overkill.

Of course, you could have a professional detailer do the work. I actually think it would be pretty easy, but the risk is if you restored the paintwork of just this one area of rear deck, and make it really nice and glossy/perfect looking, you may feel inclined to continue on and do the rest of the car, to make the rest of it "match"!

Removed it on my 14 year old car with a machine polisher.

Step 01 - Megs 105 compound and a cutting pad

Step 02 - Megs 205 polish and a polishing pad.

All gone. Easy peasy.

Couldn't get it completely out of mine, 20 years of Aussie sun left a faint but visible to me colour difference in the black paint even after buffing, ended up sticking a new one over it again.

I had some scratches in the badge area which needed a light wet sand/polish anyway. 5000 grit sandpaper + Meguiars Ultimate Compound, and the ghost logo is all gone.

When i removed the Titanium badge and the glue from my Speed Yellow S I was amazed at how much more yellow the paint under the glue was. 18 years outside has the effect.

Once I fitted the new chrome effect badge all was right in the world again

Brings up a a question tho: is slightly faded factory paint better than having the car repainted?

have to sart a thread on that.

new paint or not
 

Yellows2000:
As for me I would want to purchase a car with the faded original paint.
I believe this because I consider a fresh coat of paint to be a 'red flag'. Unless it has been done by a high end pro paint shop (receipts please), it is likely to be used only to impress an intended buyer or it is used to hide other damage.
A re-paint, if done properly would be very expensive, maybe more than some 986's are worth. like so many things with this car, it has to be a labor of love because you will (most likely) never get your money back
I would like to hear from a "pro paint shop individual and get their opinion.