LagondaNet

[jonc]

I have been looking into grille badges recently.



When I bought the wheel trims for 008, I was able to buy three of the original badges for them. I needed one more. I have been waiting for AML to restock with the one with 'Aston Martin' on it and then planned to use the new one on the grille, and put the old one on the remaining wheel trim.

On the right is my new badge:



The difference between them is not obvious from the photo. How about this one:



The badge is curved. This would be the shape for the later grille. Here is the early grille from 13277, and the later one from 13379:




The grille shape is exactly the same, but the earlier grille has the badge mounted on the flatter part, whereas later badges were mounted higher up - on the curved part. The later, curved badge does not say 'Aston Martin' on it. The higher mounting of the badge came in at 13338, but the 'Aston Martin' had already been dropped by 13284 - when the pepperpot wheeled cars arrived. This was possible because there was a flat non-Aston badge fitted to the boot, so this could be used at the front too (and 13007 has one).

A 'flat' badge measures about 3mm thickness in the middle:



and the new curved one is 6mm:



So.. have AML made a mistake? There are only two badge options in the parts catalogue for the grille badge - 'Aston Martin' or non-Aston. The non-Aston one is for the later grille.

I took this up with my friendly parts supplier at HWM. The answer came back that the 'Aston Martin' one was supposed to be flat. It seems they have made a mistake!

However, I asked David to remove the badge from 008 and sent it to me:



Its curved! 5mm not 6 like the new one, but now I am confused. They did make a curved 'Aston Martin' one in period.

Either a curved 'Aston Martin' one was a mistake then, or it was used on later cars in some regions. I recall that AML put Aston Martin branding on the earlier cars because the Lagonda brand was considered unknown. Maybe they continued this in some regions?

[jonc]

Incidentally, this is why a flat badge matters to much:



The badge on my moon-disc wheel trims has a curve bent into it in the other plane so it matches the curve of the wheel trim.

[Lagondanet]

What are AML Parts able to supply now then?

[Vincent]

I bought a badge - aston martin LAGONDA - in 2007/8 at AML. It was a flat one...
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