Debadged. No Emblems Left Except for the Nissan Logo.

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I went through with it and debadged the Maxima SE emblems from my trunk. It took me over an hour because it was really cold outside and I don't have any way of getting a hairdryer out into the parking lot. Therefore I didn't use any heat to soften the adhesives. Instead, I just used dental floss after letting some Goo Gone ($5.22 from Walmart) soak in behind the emblem. Actually I used a lot of floss because it kept breaking. Most of the styrofoam padded backing between the paint and the emblem was still on the car after debadging and that took the most time to remove. I did prepare the adhesive by spraying liberal amounts of Goo Gone and let it soak for a few minutes, but it still took a lot of work to get everything clean. I used an old credit card to do the heavy lifting and remove that thick padding material. Once the layer of adhesive was pretty thin, I sprayed some more Goo Gone and used my thumbnail to make things nice and clean. My thumb still feels like I've been playing video games for three days straight.

After getting most of the adhesive off the paint there was still a noticeable outline, which I expected. It might be hard to see in the photo to the left, but the outline was obvious from a little distance. To remove the silhouette, I used a four-step detailing process on my trunk.

1. I applied some Meguiar's Paint Cleaner that I've had for many years and then wiped it off with an old t-shirt
2. Next I put some Meguiar's Polish down. After a little bit I wiped that off. The outline was starting to go away.
3. My new Meguiar's G1016 Smooth Surface Clay Kit ($16.27 from Amazon.com) was ready to go. The Quik Mist spray lubricated the paint and then I used the clay bar to clean the surface. It seemed to pick up some dirt that was missed from the other steps and the paint was now super smooth.
4. The final step was to put down some Meguiar's Carnuba Wax to protect my work.

In the end, the outline or silhouette was only noticeable if you put your face right near the paint and looked for it. Although it took longer than it should have, debadging makes the car look pretty good and it will be easier to detail without having to go around any emblems.