B9 S4 Front Emblem Painting

[Sinrule]

As I'm sure most of you feel the same way; I'm fed up with not being able to find a quality front black S4 emblem for my black-optics grille.

No, I'm not paying 100 - 200 dollars to Europrice or TAG for their plastic. I have two S4 emblems in chrome and I'm going to take the chance with painting one of them.

What paint and sand paper do you guys recommend to use? I was thinking a gloss black with clear coating, but I am not an automotive painter. I consider my self to be crafty and willing to make mistakes.

I already have a heat gun so I was thinking about detaching the S and 4 from the backing, but not sure if it would damage the rest of the emblem. What do you guys think?

Anyways, if this works out I'll consider removing the V6T from both sides of my fenders and painting those as well.

The most annoying part of all of this is definitely going to be taping around the lettering to only paint the digits since the detail is so fine.

EDIT: I had found this link for a local vendor, but their painted emblem looks like absolute trash. https://www.k-electronic-shop.de/AUD...YaAnHcEALw_wcB

Thanks!

[sbruno624]

https://www.enthusiastbrand.com/prod...-rs5-s6-s7-rs7

I was given the OEM black badges for mine from Audi, except the forgot to include the front S4 badge for the grille so I’ll let you know how they compare. But the ones from the dealership are often times 20% off. Still way overpriced but they are nice.


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[Sinrule]

Did you buy the S4 front badge? What was the back clip like? How did it attach to the grille? The entire issue is the plastic clip in the back has to be a specific size and shape.

[sbruno624]

Did you buy the S4 front badge? What was the back clip like? How did it attach to the grille? The entire issue is the plastic clip in the back has to be a specific size and shape.

I bought it and I’m waiting for it in the mail. That’s also my concern. I haven’t pulled the chrome one off yet because the grille is filled in there, originally I just wasn’t even going to have it but I think it would look stupid with a solid honeycomb there.


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[Sinrule]

Let us know what the quality of the emblem is when you receive and what the rear looks like! I’d be very interested to know.

[sbruno624]

Let us know what the quality of the emblem is when you receive and what the rear looks like! I’d be very interested to know.

Editing this after looking at it a bit more:

Quality is crap, the S4 was just taped to a piece of plastic and you could easily rip them off if you wanted.

They attach with wing nuts and not the clips even though their website says OEM.

Even if you wanted to use them, they wouldn’t fit in the OEM facelift grille since the shape is different than the actual OEM badge and it’s too large.

Disappointed but not surprised. It looks like they somehow got OEM quality letters and then made their own badge? Either way, false advertising and I guess that’s the last time I buy from them.


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[Sinrule]

Editing this after looking at it a bit more:

Quality is crap, the S4 was just taped to a piece of plastic and you could easily rip them off if you wanted.

They attach with wing nuts and not the clips even though their website says OEM.

Even if you wanted to use them, they wouldn’t fit in the OEM facelift grille since the shape is different than the actual OEM badge and it’s too large.

Disappointed but not surprised. It looks like they somehow got OEM quality letters and then made their own badge? Either way, false advertising and I guess that’s the last time I buy from them.


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Sorry this was your experience... I was definitely apprehensive ever since I saw some products on eBay with similar black S4 badging, but it was affixed with screws and nuts instead of the tab.

I have a feeling they don't make their own badge and simply gets it from one of the many chinese suppliers on eBay. Kind of like reselling alibaba products.

Agreed, those emblems are complete trash. Looks like I'm back to arts and crafts!

[Diokhan]

Nothing beats oem quality, fit, and finish. For your front S4 emblem it's part number 8W0071805, which is for the B9.5. For a pre-facelift, you need to remove the S flag and 4 and transfer them to your stock backing plate. Look hard and you should be able to get one for under $100.

If you paint your own or just paint your V6T badges, Audi paints theirs Brilliant Black. I painted my V6T badges with some black Rustoleum that I already had which was a mistake. It isn't black enough. In certain light there is a brown hue to it. I believe I used 2500 grit (don't remember) to take care of any small dust nibs. I topped them with 2k clear. I'll probably redo them at some point with brilliant black.

[Sinrule]

Nothing beats oem quality, fit, and finish. For your front S4 emblem it's part number 8W0071805, which is for the B9.5. For a pre-facelift, you need to remove the S flag and 4 and transfer them to your stock backing plate. Look hard and you should be able to get one for under $100.

If you paint your own or just paint your V6T badges, Audi paints theirs Brilliant Black. I painted my V6T badges with some black Rustoleum that I already had which was a mistake. It isn't black enough. In certain light there is a brown hue to it. I believe I used 2500 grit (don't remember) to take care of any small dust nibs. I topped them with 2k clear. I'll probably redo them at some point with brilliant black.

I actually did have the B9.5 emblem, but returned it to get my money back.

I think I'll attempt to paint the S and 4 from chrome to black at some point. You used 3M sand paper? Were you thinking of buying brilliant black from Audi?

[Diokhan]

I used sandpaper from Meguiars, but I don't think brand matters. I was going to buy the paint from touchupdirect.com. I bought some mythos black spraypaint from them to paint match the front reflectors and I should have bought another black at the same time.

[DreamTFK]

Popped mine off and sprayed it with SuperWrap. It's black and glossy and it was super easy and cheap.

[crhh95]

Popped mine off and sprayed it with SuperWrap. It's black and glossy and it was super easy and cheap.

I need to do the same. Was it difficult to get an even application? I’ve been wanting to do my wheels. Any drip/run?


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[Sinrule]

Popped mine off and sprayed it with SuperWrap. It's black and glossy and it was super easy and cheap.

Thinking of getting the SuperWrap. Did you have to get any clear coat? If so, what worked?

They say not to sand before SuperWrap, did you do any kind of polishing or prep first besides cleaning?

[sbruno624]

Nothing beats oem quality, fit, and finish. For your front S4 emblem it's part number 8W0071805, which is for the B9.5. For a pre-facelift, you need to remove the S flag and 4 and transfer them to your stock backing plate. Look hard and you should be able to get one for under $100.

If you paint your own or just paint your V6T badges, Audi paints theirs Brilliant Black. I painted my V6T badges with some black Rustoleum that I already had which was a mistake. It isn't black enough. In certain light there is a brown hue to it. I believe I used 2500 grit (don't remember) to take care of any small dust nibs. I topped them with 2k clear. I'll probably redo them at some point with brilliant black.

Yeah I got the OEM rings and rear model from the dealership as an apology gift for an unrelated issue but they didn’t order the front model so I was looking for a cheap alternative. Some dealers have them on sale for ~ $80 so I’m just gonna bite the bullet and order it from the dealer.


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[Yousef@LR]

I honestly just used plastidip and looks great IMO. Did the rings and the S4 Logo but peeled off the Red Flag.

[Classyfast]

Trust me- just buy the oem s4 black badges. Went through this 2 years ago and nothing matches oem


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[Sinrule]

Trust me- just buy the oem s4 black badges. Went through this 2 years ago and nothing matches oem


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As much as I would love to, Audi didn’t make black badges for the B9 (only B9.5) and I don’t want to do precision cutting and grafting from one badge to the other to make it work. Just easier to tape the red flag and spray paint everything black.

[Diokhan]

The oem red flag is vinyl, so just remove and reapply if you're painting.

Taking off the black S flag and 4 from the black B9.5 requires no cutting or grafting, neither does removing the chrome S flag and 4 from the B9 badge. They are both stuck on to their respective holder with double sided tape. It's as simple as heating it up a little and using something like fishing line to remove and transferring them. In fact, fishing line probably isn't needed as when heated they pry up easily. This is way easier than painting yourself, trust me.

[Sinrule]

The oem red flag is vinyl, so just remove and reapply if you're painting.

Taking off the black S flag and 4 from the black B9.5 requires no cutting or grafting, neither does removing the chrome S flag and 4 from the B9 badge. They are both stuck on to their respective holder with double sided tape. It's as simple as heating it up a little and using something like fishing line to remove and transferring them. In fact, fishing line probably isn't needed as when heated they pry up easily. This is way easier than painting yourself, trust me.

I don’t have fishing line as I’m not a fisherman. I’m guessing I can just heat up the vinyl and adhesive with my heat gun (carefully) and use small tweezers to remove and replace the emblems?

I feel as if I’m doing surgery.

[sbruno624]

I don’t have fishing line as I’m not a fisherman. I’m guessing I can just heat up the vinyl and adhesive with my heat gun (carefully) and use small tweezers to remove and replace the emblems?

I feel as if I’m doing surgery.

I started with fishing line and then switched to a thin plastic spackle knife which worked 500x better.


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[Diokhan]

I don’t have fishing line as I’m not a fisherman. I’m guessing I can just heat up the vinyl and adhesive with my heat gun (carefully) and use small tweezers to remove and replace the emblems?

I feel as if I’m doing surgery.

Do you floss your teeth? All you need is anything small to get in there. I think I used a combo of fishing line (that I bought just for emblems) and a skin wedge. Since removing everything from both emblems took under a minute, it's hard to say.

[njavier03]

it honestly takes less time to heat up the front emblem (while still attached to your grille) and use fishing line/dental floss to removed the "S" and "4", then to paint. remove the stock plastic badges, and replace with the B9.5 black badges. you don't have to worry about trying to fit your hand behind the grille to pop off the clips. took me maybe 10 minutes. just make sure you get automotive adhesive. also easier to handle than super glue, and will not fall off.

[Sinrule]

F09D3536-7A79-4946-AD24-2C3B74D1F893.jpg2ECE38F0-D6CF-419F-977C-CC0E518304B3.jpg439EEFED-005E-488C-BD5B-7964F7409CFF.jpg

So I decided to take some advice here and use the OEM black S4 on the B9.5 and graft it into the B9 base.

Attached are three pictures. The first pic is all the tools I thought I could use. The second picture is the tools I ended up using and the third is the finished product. Doesn’t look perfect because I messed up cutting the length of 3M double sided tape twice and figured I’d live with it in my second go around.

Total cost for this exercise was about 43 USD for the OEM badge picked up at the dealership. I already had everything else in my toolkit.

I started off with pulling the black 4 off first by using the heat gun and quickly realized it was a terrible idea. The paint on the 4 began to deteriorate and warp so I decided just to use the paint scraper with the red handle to pry the plastic numbers from the base. It worked far better and quicker, I was able to carefully separate the two in seconds by being careful.

I repeated the process for all the emblem components and used wipes to clean up the pieces. I used a very sharp and small set of scissors from my multi tool to cut up very fine strips of tape to fit on the back of the S and 4. The Audi sport emblem was pretty easy as the width of the tape was perfectly sized.

I placed the tape pieces on the S and 4 and let it adhere for a few minutes before placing it in the backing. I used the measurement tool I have to measure the positioning of the S and 4 and it’s all even all around. The 4 is about 1 mm from the S, but even know everything is measured properly it still looks slightly off up close. I think that’s just because I spent so much time focusing on it and applying it.

Other than that, it does look a little weird being black on black with a base that large. This was the best I could do that didn’t involve painting carefully.

Anyways, I’ll get pictures of it installed in the car after I get the car back from the vinyl shop.