Hi,

Has anyone installed Rick's S badges on an 04, or at least one that has the lock nut on the front badge? Rick's instructions make it sound easy but, for me anyway, it was a b**ch. Two hours later and with the back of my hand scraped up from the radiator mount, I gave up and took it to the dealer today. Either they can 1) follow Rick's instructions, perhaps with different tools, or 2) drop the front bumper guard and reach the lock nut from behind. This will be the most expensive S badge ever installed but perhaps I'm just mechanically inept. Just wanted to let you know it's NOT as easy as the instructions make it out to be!

Cheers,
Scott

 

i think u warm ur emblem up so the glue will melt with hair dryer and then u use the fish string to run it through the gap and pull it out

this is what i been thaught but correct me if im wrong

 

Getting the glue off was easy. The waxed dental floss sawed thru that in less than 3 mins, with minimal adhesive removal used. It was the lock nut on the back of the mounting posts that I could not get off.

I don't have the instructions in front of me, but at some point (MY 01? 02? etc), the badges were installed differently, with a one-way lock nut installed on the back of the mounting posts. It is this lock nut that I could not get off. It's a very tight fit between the radiator mount and the bumper guard, access is very tight, and you have to do the whole exercise by Braille.

 

This is documented ihere in great detail. -> S Badge Installation - Complete step-by-step (Warning: 2 MB file)
Here is the short version.
This step differs by badge type.
MY00-01: Reach beneath the front bumper. You will feel the clips that
hold the front emblem on. Push up on the bottom of the two clips and pull
from the bottom front of the emblem at the same time and lift out of the
mounting holes.
MY02-03 and Black Chrome: With a pair on wire cutters, Reach
beneath the front bumper. You will feel the mounting post that the push
nuts hold the front emblem on. Cut them as short as you can. Now you
should be able to slip the wire cutters between the bumper cover and the
push nuts and tilt the handle away from the bumper cover. This will force
the push nut up, and off the badge mounting posts. Once both push nuts
have been removed, you can lift the badge from the bumper cover.

 

Yes I read that document cover to cover. Problem is it's not reality (for me at least). I've added comments in {} above.

1. With my wire cutters, I could only cut the posts perhaps 1/16" - 3/32" from the lock nut.

2. No way were my wire cutters going behind the lock nut to pry it off.

Let me re-phrase my original post: If YOU personally have installed Rick's S badge on a car with a lock-nut S badge, please let me know how YOU did it.

 

I did and that was how I did. I do agree, it was a PIA. I was the one who wrote that, so if anyone has any feedback that would make this easier, by all means, please post it.

 

Perhaps Honda uses different badge fastners in different markets.

I was also concerned about the potential problems scott2k encountered. However, my front badge came off easily by pulling the dental floss straight up. It was like the nuts were designed to relax their grip if the badge was slid upward.

 

or perhaps it is different for 04 and 05

 

I was able to clip enough of the pins off to where one clip fell off and the other came off with some pulling on the badge.

 

My dealer ended up dropping the front bumper cover and removing the old badge from behind. Luckily the price wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and the bumper cover was refitted perfectly.

BTW, this isn't a slag against Rick's. The badges DO look awesome. But removing the old badge is not easy!