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Problem with the hood decal

BimmerDriver

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Not sure if I should blame Ford, the dealership(s) that had the car and their wash people, or just me and how I used soap and water to wash the car. But there are some light scratches in the center of the hood decal on the Dark Horse. I had another thread about simply removing the decals here, but it was about 50/50 and the wife says to keep them on, so they're still on.

It's really hard to photograph, as it's not that distinct and the camera simply can't focus on it well. The phone camera seemed to do better. The marks in the center of the decal, toward the front of the car, where I've got the ceiling lights reflecting well on it:

S650 Mustang Problem with the hood decal PXL_20251208_145319261


Here is a crop of the section I'm referring to, perhaps you can see it here?

S650 Mustang Problem with the hood decal cro


And again:

S650 Mustang Problem with the hood decal highlight



They are a set of horizontal marks going across the decal. I haven't tried to do anything with it. I can polish paint, heck I can even sometimes do decent with wet sanding and compounding out scratches, but this is just a plastic sticker, so I figure anything I do will just make it worse.

Ideas, suggestions? TIA!
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Gojiras breath

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I can't see myself obsessing about it but people have different standards. Maybe order a new set and put it in a closet. Removal makes sense now so you don't have 2 different shades of paint. If you don't like it, install the new one.

As an owner of a 2003 mach 1 i know decals don't last forever. Plenty of people removed their mach 1 hood decals and some had them painted on. I did nothing and its peeling on the edges.
 

smurfslayer

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Not sure if I should blame Ford, the dealership(s) that had the car and their wash people, or just me and how I used soap and water to wash the car. But there are some light scratches in the center of the hood decal on the Dark Horse. I had another thread about simply removing the decals here, but it was about 50/50 and the wife says to keep them on, so they're still on.

It's really hard to photograph, as it's not that distinct and the camera simply can't focus on it well. The phone camera seemed to do better. The marks in the center of the decal, toward the front of the car, where I've got the ceiling lights reflecting well on it:

PXL_20251208_145319261.webp


Here is a crop of the section I'm referring to, perhaps you can see it here?

crop.webp


And again:

highlight.webp



They are a set of horizontal marks going across the decal. I haven't tried to do anything with it. I can polish paint, heck I can even sometimes do decent with wet sanding and compounding out scratches, but this is just a plastic sticker, so I figure anything I do will just make it worse.

Ideas, suggestions? TIA!
I see what you're looking at, and agree, it's a little unsightly, but I'm not sure what I'd do about it.
I think if/when the decals start to deteriorate, if I have some spare pennies laying around, I'd get the decals removed and have the hood painted with something.
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