I'm putting my Impala Emblems on the fender of my 65 and the holes are too small after paint. It seems to be the same in most cases around the car. That equals alot of holes I need to dress up on this car (that's 30 holes just for these letters and the round badge).

I'm considering a dremel with a fine stone.

Any ideas to do this safely and not damage my new paint?

Thanks

Put tape over the holes then carefully drill them out. Should keep the paint from chipping.

Be VERY CAREFUL with the Dremel...try it out on a junk piece of metal with a similar sized hole. The reason being it may catch or "kick" when you stick it in the hole or hit metal. Just being cautious but something to think about.

As suggested above you could lay down some tape but it will only take fractions of a second for the spinning stone to eat through the tape and hit paint. Consider making a small mask out of sheet metal with a window in it so you can access, say, only a couple holes at a time. I would think the holes for EACH letter or number occupy about the same amount of surface area. Make the window just slightly larger.

Put tape down first on the paint. Then tape on the underside and edges of the sheetmetal mask. Then tape the mask to the body..thus holding it in place to free up both your hands. When done with one letter, lift tape, scoot the mask over, tape it down again and have at it.

Even a small round needle file could be used...the key is to only apply pressure to the side of the hole/paint on the downstroke...that way the paint layers will be pulled downward (towards the body metal which supports the paint from underneath) when you are cutting. Slight pressure on the side of the file...and push the file in. Take pressure off...guide file out of the hole. Repeat as necessary. Again, it's easy to get in a hurry with a file, start the "back and forth" motion and have the end of the file pop out of the hole and hit the paint on your next downstroke.

Patience, patience, patience and take it slow.

I bought a cheap set of "diamond tipped" drilling/filing attachments for the dremel tool at a Harbor Freight that came with a coned shaped bit. It worked great for enlarging the holes for emblems. I used a small piece of thin cardboard cut about 3" square, poked just the tip of the cone bit thru and then laid it into the hole and applied light even pressure at low speed and had no problems. Good luck.

I bought a cheap set of "diamond tipped" drilling/filing attachments for the dremel tool at a Harbor Freight that came with a coned shaped bit. It worked great for enlarging the holes for emblems. I used a small piece of thin cardboard cut about 3" square, poked just the tip of the cone bit thru and then laid it into the hole and applied light even pressure at low speed and had no problems. Good luck.
Same thing I did and worked great.:thumbsup:

Thanks for the input guys. I will give these methods a try and let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again,

Agree with the tape and drill.

If that high speed dremel jumps out of the hole and puts a design on your fender youll be real P.O.'d.

KD 2043 tapered reamer. You control the pressure and the cut 'cause it's a hand tool. If you can't find one, holler at me and you can borrow mine.
BillL

STEP AWAY FROM THE DREMEL.

A high speed bit of any kind in a small hole will be hard to control. It's paint for crying out loud, just drill them out. Tape can be used to protect the surrounding paint. Make sure to use some sealer in the holes when you put the emblems back in to prevent rust.

Tom

I had good results with the small round file pglade describes above. I would stay away from any power tool for this - too easy to do damage. With the file, you are slowly removing soft filler and paint and you can immediately tell when you contact hard metal at the edge of the hole. By working slowly around the hole, you will end up with a perfectly round hole in the paint that matches the size of the hole in the panel. You need to make the hole large enough so that the emblem will not bind during install and chip the paint. As Tom says, seal the holes before installing emblems to prevent rust.

Wonder if a low speed drill with a tapered stone would work as in not not grabbing ahold of the paint and ripping it?

Nice post fig bash. I agree. Quit overthinking it and just drill it out!

Get one of the cone shaped step drills. Craftsman has them. You'll need the smaller ones with small incremental steps. It stays in the hole and won't grab and pull the drill bit in. Slow speed on the drill.

I used tape over the holes and drilled them out. No problems. I cleaned up the cuttings and put another piece of tape over the one I drilled through and then sprayed some Rust Encapsulator from the backside to seal the bare metal. I still used some weatherstrip adhesive in the holes before the emblems. It looks good and I think it is sealed well.

I usually over think things that I have not done before. Better safe than sorry. I also agree, nice post figbash.

Thanks all!