Re: Rear deck lid emblems

[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

"Douglas Hurst Quebbeman" <dougq@iglou.com> wrote:

>Back in October, there was a running thread about removing rear deck
>emblems. It was kind of depressing to me to note that so many Audi
>owners would want to remove these "marques of pride".

Did that to my '88 80. I left the rings on, though.

>But the 1980s Audi rear deck emblems don't weather well, do they?
>The brushed aluminum coating/effect seems to leach off. So, I ordered
>a set of new emblems for about $25 each (Audi, 5000, CS, quattro),
>only to find that the original 1980s-type emblems have been
>superceded by the all-chrome types used beginning with the 1988
>model year.

Earlier this year, before I visited the US, I ordered new emblems for James
Marriott's 87 4kcsq. The old style emblems were still available, and even a
bit cheaper than in the US (not a lot, though). I couldn't get a 4000
badge, though, so now it's a 90.

>What a drag that I can't make this thing look original again. So for
>now, my trunk lid is emblemless.

>What I wanted to ask was: those of you who removed the emblems,
>did you do it because the old ones were worn and nasty looking,
>or do you actuall prefer the lid sans emblems?

Mine were the newer type, and a bit worn-looking. I hated the dirt that
always remained in them, and I like the anonimity of an emblemless car.
Also, having a 1.8S is nothing to crow about IMO.

>Have any of you tried painting the emblems body-color, with a touch
>of black to give a drop-shadow effect?

I did that on my old (black) Opel Kadett. It looked quite good, but I got a
number of remarks from people who thought I'd had it painted without taking
the emblems off. On my Jetta, the 'chrome' had almost worn off, so I took
the remainder off and left them black. I'd have preferred to take the
emblems off altogether (it said just 'volkswagen' and 'Jetta', for a base
spec car), but VW (like Opel) had the nasty habit of making ugly holes in
the panels for mounting emblems.

>I'm not sure what I'll do; I may have a brand-new set of the
>chrome-type emblms for sale (all new except the 5000 emblem,
>which I took from an '88 at the boneyard).

It's a shame that the older cars have the lock in the centre of the
trunklid- I like the look of my car with the Audi rings as the only
distinguishing mark. I've seen a couple without them, and didn't like the
effect. It's only possible to put the rings there because the lock is in
the taillight, though. You could look at newer cars that have small rings
on the trunk, and try those in place of your regular emblems.

Take a picture of your car, scan it in and toy with it in an image-editing
app to see what the various combinations would look like... that's how I
did it.

HTH,

Tom

PS another one for (among others) A4 owners- the S-cars have a grill that
lacks the chrome surround. If you want your car to look sportier, try
covering this with black tape to see how it looks. IMO it's very effective
especially on bright-coloured cars.

PPS Fancy some 'badge-engineering'? Alfa Romeo sold a wagon version of its
small 33 for a couple of years, called the 'Sport Wagon'. The emblems on
that are chromed and the typeface looks suspiciously like the one Audi uses
for its late-80s cars. Use the 'Sport' and put a 'quattro' emblem behind
it- hey presto!

 _______________________________________________________________________
 Tom Nas                                          Zeist, The Netherlands
 tnas@euronet.nl
 1988 Audi 80 1.8S, mostly Tizianrot metallic, 215,000km

    They all laughed at Albert Einstein. They all laughed at Columbus.
          Unfortunately, they also all laughed at Bozo the Clown.
                                      -- William H. Jefferys