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MG MG Y Type - M.G. badge

Today i have seen an M.G.badge that measures 81mm (three and three sixteenth inches) across, with white background, centre M.G. in black with silver border, black outer, edge again outer of silver. It has usual curvature and one central fixing bolt. The owner say's to have owned it for 30 odd years but has no idea what car or maybe club it belongs to. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Mike Burden

Mike - It could be the hubcap medalion for the spare tire on a TF. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Send me a photo of it (front and rear) in high detail and I'll see what I can research for you.

Paul
Paul Barrow

Taking of MG Badges why do YAs seem to be the only MGs with a Cream and Copper(gold)badge? TDs/YBs etc tend to have Cream and Brown and TFs on Black and White.
John

John

YAs, YBs and YTs all had the same badge, probably because the TCs had the same one!

Magnette ZAs ZBs and ZBVs all have black and white ones too.

Black and white are much cheaper to enammel and BMC, like BL after them, would do anything to save a penny here or there.

Cannot think of any other reason why, so this also approximately dates Mike's badge to post 1953 too. At a guess this may be a BMC after-market grille badge, but I do not know at this time.

Paul
Paul Barrow

This also could be a TD Mark 2 medalion
Rob R.

My 1950 YA has a copper colored badge and I've seen other YAs the same but my two YBs have brown the same as all MGs up to the TF.The YA badge is also slightly flatter.
John.
John

I can confirm that I too have seen 2 types of badge on the Y - I once bought a second hand boot lid (not sure if off a YA or YB)and it had a copper coloured edge to it whereas the replacement one I bought years later to replace it after some damage was a brown edged one. I think the copper is the early original type and the brown a later development possibly post/late YB. My car is a '52 YB.
Does Dave Lawrence's book mention this - must have a look.
Happy New Year to everyone.
David Mullen

The cream & reddish-brown MG badges on radiator and spare mount prior to the TF were not enameled, they were made by a process called "cloisonne" (sp?). In these, the colored portions are actually a form of glass, which is fused to the metal under very high temperature. The later black & white badges are merely enameled and baked at a much lower temperature. The difference in cost between the two processes is considerable!! (So is the difference in appearance!)
Carl

Hey Carl, thanks that is a most interesting fact that I doubt many people knew! Thanks for that.

Do you have a Y then?

Paul
Paul Barrow

Glass fused to metal: this is the one and only enamel technique; cloisonné being a special type, mostly employed for jewelry. It consisted of erecting "walls" of gold sheet soldered on a plaque of gold, the fields thus separated being filled with differently coloured enamel to create patterns or realistic pictures. The industrial variant of this technique, probably used for MG badges, too, was making a pressing or casting (brass?) featuring similar separations which were filled with enamel and baked. The surface was then ground and polished.
The other meaning of "enamel", paint baked in an enamelling stove, is just a derivation or even a metaphor. That kind of enamel is always a sort of resin, while true enamel is glass. The difference is clearly visible when you see damaged badges sold at autojumbles: Those which are bent but the surface undamaged must be "enamel paint", those with chips missing and typical break patterns like glass are (or were) "true enamel".
Remo Peter

This latest thread explains why you have to be careful when you tighten up the nut that secures the badge to the bootlid - I had an original type copper coloured badge on my car but managed to crack the 'glass' by overtightening the screw that secures it. I had to replace with the(cream/brown) type. Moral is: be careful with the box spanner when tightening the screw.
David Mullen

Hi Mike

Thanks for the photographs. I am more convinced than ever that this would probably have been some sort of a “Dealer freebie” possibly than a “car radiator badge”. The stem on the back seems far to short to be a grille nose piece badge, and possibly too short for it to have been some sort of boot badge, although this does have some possibilities. I seem to remember a similar badge on the back of the MG 1100 Sports saloon. My only concern would be whether it was a single threaded bar and nut or the more conventional two (or more) spikes and pinch washers to hold it down.

Best wishes,

Paul
Paul Barrow

This thread was discussed between 30/12/2003 and 04/01/2004

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