Wednesday 20 February 2019

GRILLS AND BADGES

The Stag badge that sits proudly on the front grill of Stella, was in a disgraceful state and new ones have been as rare as hens teeth. the last time I had the grill off the car I realised the badge was loose, I removed it tarted it up and securely stuck it back into the chrome surround, but it was still cracked and tatty. However at the end of last year, re-manufactured ones were being offered for sale by the usual Stag suppliers, well done the Stag Owners Club.

 
Having removed the grill again, I prised the old badge out, and with a small chisel removed the clumps of Look no Nails from the inside of the surround. I then polished the surround and finally cleaned it with white spirit. I removed the protective paper from the adhesive on the back of the new badge and firmly pressed the new badge into the surround, I decided to leave the grill and badge in doors in the warmth for the adhesive to cure fully.



There was another small problem with the grill. There are four small brackets in each corner so that the grill stands proud of the metal work, only the two top clips had disappeared leaving a couple of metal blobs where they had been soldered/welded onto the grill. I bent up and drilled a couple of replacement brackets from 30x2 mm ali strip. I decided to glue these brackets to the grill using Gorilla Glue, I ground off the blobs of metal and sanded clean the back of the grill before gluing and left it a couple of days before reattaching to the car. Unfortunately at the first wriggle when screwing the grill back on, both brackets came unstuck, useless. I considered pop riveting them on, but that seemed a bit brutal, so I ordered a tube of PU18 polyurethane bond/sealant and re glued them, success, they are now really stuck fast.



The little plastic squares that the screw are protruding through are cut from a marg tub and keep the screws in place when the grill is being offered up to the car for re-attachment.

With that job done I thought  I would like to attach, to the front of Stella, my MAC (Midlands Automobile Club)  badge that Jacquie bought me at the Goodwood Revival for Marjorie, my Morgan Three Wheeler build. (Mac being my name of course) The perceived wisdom is not to attach anything else to the grill and restrict the airflow to the radiator, nor to drill into the front bumper to fit a badge bar.

I decided to make a bracket from the ali bar that I used for the grill and fit it to the bumper bracket. It looked good, but I like symmetrical and decided I needed another badge for the other side, a STAG OWNERS CLUB badge, that'll do it.




Having bent the brackets to the correct angles I was not happy with the dull grey finish, so although the brackets will hardly be seen I decided I would polish them. However they were very resistant to polishing, the strip of aluminium has obviously been coated with a very tough covering, which I had to scrub off first.


I used my electric drill first with a flap wheel to get rid of this coating and then I could use the polishing wheels on my bench grinder to get the finish I required. Both pieces of equipment clamped to my workmate.



That's better, both brackets nice and shiny and ready to mount on the the front of Stella. The first photo shows the difference between polished and unpolished and the second photo they are both done.

 


I think the 'Stag Owners Club' badge needs to stand about an inch higher to match the MAC badge, so I will probably make up a new bracket at some point.


At the moment though, I have a slightly more urgent job as Stella had to be rescued and piggy backed home the other day, as she failed to proceed. I was only a mile from home, but suddenly after a couple of hiccoughs she just stopped. No spark! A new coil is on its way and hopefully that will sort the problem, but the very helpful guy  at Pertronix said it is possible that the failed coil might have taken the Ignitor with it, in which case a new Ignitor will also be required, fingers crossed.

I have to say that the breakdown service provided by my classic car insurance company 'RH' was excellent. They kept in touch whilst I was waiting for the truck to arrive, ensuring that I was safe and OK. The breakdown guy not only got us home, albeit a short distance, but got her up the drive and helped me back Stella safely into her garage, I couldn't ask for better.

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