I'd like to put some real life emblems on the road cars, which use the DEFAULT skins and can freely change color. The problem is, the emblems/markings can look good when a light body color is chosen, but when a dark color is chosen all becomes way too dark.

Is there a way to force emblems/markings on a different, higher layer so that changing the body color in-game does not modify them?

No.

the game uses jpg and dds format textures which are basically flat, so no layering possible. if you limit to clever use of black & white you can sometimes get round some of the issues.

Thanks for the reply guys!