When I purchased my 92 500E it had a gold MB star and 500E emblem on the trunk lid. I have purchased the original silver ones and am about to install them. I hope my procedure is correct.
1.using a qtip work some 3M adhesive in around the edges
after the car has sat in the sun a little to warm the trunk lid.
2.Using my heat gun carefully warm the emblem as I use a plastic
drywall knife to pry it away from the body.
3. clean all solvent and dry before installing new emblem.
Does this sound okay ???
Alan

__________________
92 500E Silver 66k
82 Porsche 911SC 84K
68 Cadillac ( Gone Now )
03 Suburban Z71 200K
85 300SD 217k From Original Owner ( Dad )

Alan:

You might want to search on this on emblem removal. A heat gun can burn the paint, and a plastic drywall knife can scratch it. Most people seem to have used the technique of heating the deck lid on the inside with a hair dryer rather than a heat gun, to moderately warm temperature. Then use dental floss or fishing line sprayed with Final Inspection, slick Stuff, or Quick detailer, and floss the badge off. (The center star doesn't floss off - it removes from inside the trunk by three little white plastic nuts).

After the badge is off, WD40 removes the old glue without damage to the paint. Then use Mequiars #9 and # 7 to do a final clean up of the area and remove any trace of the WD40. Install the new star, and check out the look from a distance to see if you like it better de-badged, or want to install the new one (or maybe a 300D badge ). To me, the rear end looks cleaner and wider without a badge, just a center star.

Here is what the rear of an '87 300E looks like with the badge removed:



Lots of other tips in the search function, in more detail, but this is pretty much a summary of what I used. Good luck!

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

JCE is right on the money, don't use the heat gun.

__________________
Jason Priest
1999 E430
1995 E420 - retired
1986 420SEL - retired

Hair dryer works just fine. You can use the plastic putty knife, but what you want to do is keep it between the emblem and the adheasive tape, not between the tape and the paint. You run the risk of scratching the paint. Once you remove the emblem you can use Goof Off adheasive remover to remove the adheasive tape. A good polish like Zaino/Zymol or Meguires will polish up the area once the adheasive has been removed.

Oh, one word of caution, on older cars, most likely your paint has faded a bit, so once the emblem is removed and the area has been polished, you may still see a shadow of the old emblem due to the paint under the emblem being darker than the surrounding paint (because of fade).

good luck