Monday, 17 July 2023

MGB Badges

 The GT- LE is fitted with special red-ground "MG" badges. Mine had faded to orange and the colour had worn thin, although the black "BGT" of the boot badge was unfaded.

I removed the badge- it does just pull off, but I detached the trim panel inside the tailgate and tapped the pins out from the inside using a small pin drift.

I cleaned the badge in the sonicator, but this removed all of the red colour revealing undamaged chrome underneath. The black enamel "BGT" was undamaged. This further underlines the fact that the red is clearly not a red enamel but apparently painted on.


The badge was clean so I degreased it. I am aware yhat paint cant stick well to chrome plate  but I didn't want to rub down the chrome recesses as this risked scratching the visible raised areas; anyway MG clearly didn't do this. I used Hammerite special metals primer which can adhere to chrome, ⁹ and painted it carefully within the recess with an artists brush. I used 2 coats and followed this with red Humbrol enamel paint. Finally I buffed off any overpainting and applied 2 coats of  lacquer.






Note: the front badge is not so easily detachable- really you need to remove the front rubber bumper to get at the fastenings behind. If you're swapping or repairing the bumper then fair enough! However, I was just painting the badge so did the best I could with the badge in position.- not perfect but much improved. Mask it off to apply the lacquer.