After removing my "Hybrid" badges from the front quarter panels, I thought that the lines of the car looked much cleaner. However, I later began to have emblem withdrawals since practically no one could identify my car as a hybrid unless they were already “in the know”. I decided to find a happy medium by grafting one of the removed badges to a location on the rear of the car. I removed the old grey sticky stuff as best I could from the badge and reapplied some 3M molding tape to the emblem. I was very careful to cut out small pieces of tape and stick them to the base of the badge so that no material would be visible once the badge was re-adhered to body surface. I bought this stuff at the local auto-parts store and it is pretty much the same structure, color and consistency as the original adhesive. It resembles very thick rubber cement but in a peel and stick form with removable tape backing like other sticky tape types. I have no doubt that this stuff will be as easy to remove as the original adhesive by the dental floss or fishing line saw technique described by Steven, Eski or myself. So if I did not like the result, I would be able to remove the badge without any irreversible consequences.

I placed the old hybrid emblem on the rear of the vehicle above the right tail light on the trunk at the exact opposite location that the “Camry” emblem was placed above the left tail light on the trunk. So far, I think that it looks pretty good and is a good compromise. I now have a hybrid emblem without the disrupting the sleek lines of the vehicles flanks. I would love to hear your input both negative and positive and will not take anything personally. I value your opinions and hope this helps anyone having the “badge decision”. Pictures below…

 

Looks like you did a very nice grafting job. I think that with the upper hybrid badge in place on your trunk lid, I'd remove the lower one. Saying hybrid twice is redundant. Saying hybrid twice is redundant. BTW, your car looks great.

 

I think it looks fine there..
Thanks for posting! I love the Blue - mine's in the mail (so to speak)

Who's John and Phil?

 

Y'all may want to rethink removing any "hybrid" labels from these cars because Toyota has a special bulletin for emergency responders showing these labels and the precautions to be taken if these cars are involved in an accident. Like you, I hate name plates and dealer stickers on my car. The Camry plate came off cleanly but the hybrid plates stayed on for the above reason.

 

Nice stutter Steven.

And I wanted to be the only one with a rebadged rear end!

 

Excellent pictures and result.

I was looking at doing this is a couple of weeks. I even went as far as measuring the size of the quarter panel's HYBRID badge to ensure it would look decent at the same position you chose. And at the same time, I will remove the HSD badge. (I prefer a single HYBRID insignia.)

This will be the first time I've done this type of re-badging. So I don't mess up the paint, but have the badge stay on (but still able to remove it in the future), does anyone have a suggestion on what type of adhesive to use? -- Or use BlueCam's solution?

Thank you for you assistance/suggestions.

 

Here is something a bit different...

 

Hat to sound stupid but what does it stand for??????

 

it is also on the ICE under the hood: Variable Valve Timing with Intelligence.

 

Did you place the VVT-i on the trunk lid to prompt questions, or ...?