The emblems finally came! These are brand new emblems that I purchased a week ago off the internet straight from the BMW factory. I actually ordered these last Tuesday, after meeting up with those old guys at Two Wheel Tuesdays at Culver's. Those guys kept giving me crap about cleaning up my bike, you know, what you would expect from some BMW purists. I have been trying, a few days after the first Two Wheel Tuesdays I went out and bought some cleaner and a brass brush to clean the airhead's fins. I realize that I can learn a lot from their experiences and cannot wait to go back next week and show them that I took their advice and could not be more pleased with how my bike looks now!
One emblem was badly faded, almost as if the previous owner tried buffing the surface and accidentally removing the painted surface.
The other side of the tank was badly yellowed and was cracking, which just simply won't do.
Dental floss doesn't only need to be for your teeth. I used a little bit of floss to put behind the emblems in order to sort of slice the old emblems off without damaging the paint. I will say though, I kept cutting back and forth with the floss but found that it wasn't strong enough so I tried the same heavy duty thread for the Datsun's seats. This worked to a point, but I ended up using a small flat head screwdriver and just prying up the emblem enough to get a finger under it and pulling. This worked well without damaging the paint underneath, but I must stress how important it was to be VERY CAREFUL.
The new emblems are installed and they look so much better than the old faded, yellowed emblems. I actually am going to save the old emblems and stick them to my old craftsman toolbox. It seems like that is the sort of thing to do for old license plates, emblems and product stickers so I am sticking with convention.
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