So my wife recently graduated with her doctorate degree and all other prior degrees from the University of Texas in Austin so she joined the Texas Exes Association as a life member. She just got a brand new vehicle this month and the Texas Exes gave her a license plate border and also a metal emblem that has 3M tape on the back. Every vehicle I have ever seen with an emblem like this has it attached onto the painted surface on the rear of the vehicle. I know 3M tape is some strong stuff and just wonder if there are any issues to installing it on the painted metal. Not sure how hard it would be to remove down the road if we needed to. I have never put something like that on any of my vehicles and just wonder if there any issues to doing so.

Shouldn't be any problem, but may be a real bear to remove cleanly.

Hated removing them when I worked for a dealership.
Fishing line is probably the easiest, followed by a wheel attachment of some sort that takes the adhesive off really well.

Also, congrats to your wife!

As long as the 3m tape is the gray colored stuff, it will stick to the painted surface more or less permanently. When the time comes to remove it, you might need kind of solvent to quickly remove the residue. I recommend a citrus based spray marketed as an air freshener called “pure citrus” (at Walmart). No petroleum distillates and absolutely destroys adhesives without harming a cars paint/clearcoat.

Kroil will remove it when the time comes.

Sounds good. I appreciate the information so far and will take any other information. Hopefully this is her last vehicle, but you just never know so I would rather research something before I do it.

An adhesive eraser wheel and some goo gone will handle it no problem.
If you are super worried about it you could always put it on the back glass.

A heat gun and fishing line to remove emblem. Goo gone to remove adhesive.

If you do a nice job removing, the paint underneath looking better because it doesn't have x years of UV exposure like the rest of the paint. You'd have to polish all of the other paint to make it look close to as good.

The tape should not hurt the clear coat on your car's paint, if the car paint is already in good shape to begin with. Best to clean that spot locally with a mild cleaner of any type friendly to paint before attaching it, so that there is a clean paint surface for the tape to bond with, as well as facilitating a safer removal if you ever want to take it off. As others have posted, taking those guys off is safe as long as you do it properly and carefully using those techniques, as upper level auto detailers do it all the time without a problem.

And congrats to your wife. A PhD is a lot of work. I hope you can still call her by her first name.

Removing is best done with either dental flos or idealy with 20lbs mono. The residue can then be removed by soaking with 3M Adhesive Remover then wiped off. I think Goo Gone is almost as good but more elbow grease is required. The fish line and 3M is how I debadge before bodywork and painting at my brother's bodyshop.

Lots of great ideas. I never would have thought of fishing line, but I have also never done this. Now I have great information for the future of any related type project. I love SigForum. Happy New Year!

Another vote for sticking it on the rear window.

You won't have to worry about delamination or residual buildup affecting the clear coat.

Fishing line and Goo Gone will get it off when needed. Alcohol will get the Goo Gone residue off when you're done.

I will bring my wife outside to see where she likes best. I hope I can convince her the window will be good as that is what I thought of before I posted this question, but I see so many put it on the metal. We will see.