Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Badge Engineering

Having always been pretty disappointed with the crap quality of the cowl badge of my Roadster, I was chuffed to find this new/old stock beauty advertised on a well-known auction site by one of the ex-official Morgan dealers. I checked the pin dimensions - 58mm - perfect! (I think it's an Aero S1 item - although apparently they didn't all get fitted with a cowl badge for some reason). Price agreed - item bought and on its way.

The badge duly arrived, and is a real peach! Infinitely better made than the "new wings" original on my car - which was replaced twice under warranty when new, for the notorious disappearing enamel issue.

Imagine, then, my disappointment when I tried to fit it. The curvature - especially at the wing tips - is too great. Not only can it not lie flush - but the mounting pins are held clear of the holes in the cowl by the ends. Oh me miserum!

Point of the post: does anyone know if there's any way of "unbending" such an item - or anyone who could do such a delicate operation? It wouldn't affect the enamelled centre, as that part wouldn't need to bend, but the chromed wings would. I guess the likelihood is that - even with the application of gentle heat - the chrome would crack?

I'm pretty sure I remember Dave W has carried out this exchange, he'll be along I expect to tell the tale. I think it was a slow cold bending/teasing process from a bad memory.
It might be worth a look in his how to section meantime.

I still don't understand why they exchanged the beautiful old logo for the new one, which looks like it´s from a New Mini.

Me neither

I did this switch on my 2012, and the old badge looked much better than the new.

However when I bought the badge from MMC, it arrived flat, and so I had to bend the wings to fit the curve of the cowl. I did this cold in the vice with plenty of masking tape, and it worked a treat. But it could easily go wrong.

When I got my 2016 trad. I intended to fit the same badge, but sadly, the original badge had been fitted with the paint still soft, which left a vague outline, which I considered to be too deep to risk cutting back, and not worth respraying the cowl, so my 2016 retains the new badge and my old badge was sold to the USA.

I bought a new (old style) badge when I rebuilt the Plus 8. It arrived "flat" and had to be bent to match the curve of the cowl. If it bends ok in that direction, then I don't see why a curvy one couldn't be flattened. Maybe a gentle squeeze in a vice between two bits of softwood?

Thanks for that sage advice all! Sounds as though I could risk bending it. But as it appears to be cast base metal of some sort, plated, which makes me nervous. Although I struck a “bargain” on the price, it was still a kings ransom relatively speaking. I’ve discovered that it would fit rather neatly across the centre bars of the grille, top centre, and imho looks pretty smart (I’ll post a pic when I get a mo’ - see what collective opinion is). As I have a couple of small paint jobs to get done sooner or later, I’m tempted to get the original holes filled and the cowl top painted. We’ll see!

'
Sadly the original classic design was probably 'evolved' at great expense by branding ‘designers’. No doubt, words like 'looking to the future' and 'a new dynamism' were bandied about. Yet, after all the many presentations and invoices it ended up looking a lot like the Aston Martin, Bentley, Classic & Sportscar magazine, and, (as you say) BMW MINI logos.

Depressing that the MMC board was so easily manipulated. Peter and Charles wouldn't have been!

A friend of mine had his built from new with that very approach, a plain cowl with badge on the grill, which I think may have been the method with earlier cars. It looks great. If you don’t want to spray the cowl, you could try fitting a couple of polished stainless domed nuts and bolts in the holes? Worth a try?

The original owner of my Plus 8 specced the car without the badge on the cowl so he could put it on the grill - thought mine was the only one with the badge there! Deejay - your friend wasn't based in Edinburgh with the car built in 2003, was he?