Bonnet Badge

The Porsche Bonnet Badge has two pins coming off the back of it which go through your bonnet and then get clamped the other side with a couple of nuts. Some time ago one of the pins of mine snapped off (they are brazed or glued on I think) so it was only fastened on by one pin and had a tendency to swivel around and rotate .. not what you want.

So recently I ordered a new one but when I sized it up against the old one, it looked too new and I decided that I liked the pitted and faded look of the enamel on the orignial one and the more authentic gold colour. I decided to fix my old one with a couple of M3 screws.

Here's the two together. The pic doesn't show it that well but the new badge on the right looks very very new and really doesn't go with the car that well in my opinon.

On the reverse side you can see one of the pins has broken off. I pulled off the existing pin gently with some pliers and then filed down the whole area ready to accept some JBweld epoxy.

Here's my JBweld. Sort of a liquid steel glue that is highly effective for many uses. I first used it welding a caterham oil sump plug in place and it held for mile and miles of rigorous track use. It's application is very similar to araldite and it sets within about 10 mins or so.

Here's my small screws (M2 or M3 ??) set into 2 spots of JBweld. I filed down and cleaned the heads of the screws as well to make for better bonding. I know the screws look a little long but it's what I had handy. In fact, the long length works pretty well because they are still hidden by the bonnets underside and it makes getting a nut on easier.

Here was my planned eventual arrangement: a nice soft spring up against the bonnet underside then 2 nuts on each screw, the first one acting as a washer to lock against.

When my JBweld was starting to stiffen up I placed the badge in situ so as to align the screws properly. The slightest deviation here and if the screws are off angle they won't both go into the holes in the bonnet so its best to set the whole thing with the screws running through the holes. You can see that I left the nuts on and rested them against the bonnet so that the bonnet didn't foul or touch the heads and spots of JBweld. I also supported the lower end of the badge with a cloth.

When it had all dried I pulled the badge out and tackled the black gasket. I tried hot water but I found that the easiest method of getting the black surround onto the badge and getting it to fit was to have an hot air gun (a hairdryer will do) and heat the thing up and then pull it with considerable force around the rim of the badge. I did find this a bit tricky and didn't want it slipping back when fitting the bdage so I applied some glue, got it in place using the heat gun and then left it over night with some clamps on it to dry it in place.

Next morning I then just fitted the whole badge on correctly with springs and nuts fastened from the bonnet underside. The Badge does sit a little proud from the surface simply because the spots of JBweld and the screw heads that I used have a small thickness of their own (in an ideal world you would file the screw hads almost completely flat to a disc rather than a cup with thickness) but it doesn't both me and its not something you would ever really notice. I does though mean that my badge does not tighten hard against the gasket, hence why I felt it necessary to glue it securely in place.