DIY Custom Bronco Fender Graphics

Ford has done a great job building trim packages that appeal to a variety of Bronco buyers.  In order to differentiate those packages, they place a handsome badge on the front fenders.  While I like those individual badges, I also like to add my own personal touches to my vehicles.  That’s why I decided to debadge my Big Bend Bronco and add a custom fender graphic in its place.

I really enjoy creating custom graphics, especially using vinyl wrap.  As I have been experimenting with graphics on the other areas of the Bronco, everything seemed to conflict with the Big Bend fender badge.  Instead of working around the Big Bend graphic, I decided to remove that obstacle and go my own way.

Big Bend Be Gone

For those of you unfamiliar with the Big Bend, it is the trim package one level above Base. It provides a nice level of equipment, and is very similar to the XLT package on Ford pickups. That being said, the fender badge interfered with my artistic vision for the Bronco.

Removing the Big Bend fender graphic is very easy.  It is not as thick as a true emblem, but thicker than a decal.  In fact, it is more like the thickness of a magnetic sign.  That makes it more likely to come off easily, without tearing, with a little heat.

As you can see in the image above, I used a heat gun set on the middle heat range.  After about 30 seconds of moving the heat gun around the graphic, the adhesive was soft enough to allow me to gently pull it away from the paint.  After the badge was removed, I noticed a small amount of adhesive residue left on the paint.  The residue came off easily using 3D Gum & Tar Remover. This stuff is pure magic!  It is not cheap at $30/bottle, however, it is more effective than any other product I’ve used.

Custom graphics Applied

Once the Big Bend badge was removed, I “rebadged” the fender with a BRONCO decal I made with my Cricut vinyl cutting machine.  I purchased the Bronco font from an Etsy seller, so it was very easy to design the graphic and size it appropriately.

While I like to think I have a good eye for graphics placement, I often cheat by taping the area where I plan to place the decal.  That prevents me from having to remove the misplaced graphic and create a replacement.

Since this graphic was made with individual letters, I used a clear transfer tape to keep them aligned during application.  After the decal is applied, slowly remove the transfer tape to reveal your final product.

The BRONCO graphic by itself looked good, however, there was still an amount of white space on the fender that bothered me.  Cutting a small horse and centering it below the Bronco lettering seemed to do the trick.

Final Thoughts

If you have seen my other vinyl graphics articles, you know that I like to change my designs often.  That is the beauty of working with vinyl wrap, it is easily removed without damaging your paint’s finish.  Better yet, the material cost is low.  In my case, the vinyl cost for the two fenders was about $0.25.

The debadging and rebadging of the front fenders is not a major change, but I like it because it allows for better graphics integration over the entire truck.  It also adds an OEM+ look to the Bronco.