Ben's badges

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

In AD7-143 Ben Dixon, most lamentably debadged, asks "does anyone know what
sort of Alfa Romeo logo badges should be on a '68 1750 GTV (euro production) -
do they have the word 'milano' written on them or not?"

Fusi says, and my experience agrees, that the plastic badge came in in 1960
and the "Milano" was dropped in 1972, in honor of Pomigliano d'Arco and the
Alfasud. At the same time the name was de-hyphenated on the badge: ALFA-ROMEO
became ALFAROMEO. The vitreous enamel on brass had gone out in 1960. I believe
that this was true on all production cars; that cloisonne badges on the
post-1960 cars were afternarket enhancements added by proud owners. I did have
an enameled badge on a 1958 Sprint parts car, but the '(used) '62 Spider, '67
Super, '71 GT (etc) which I have owned have all had plastic badges which
conformed to Fusi's chronologies..

I am of course sorry that the paintwork was damaged in the theft of the C-
pillar Quadrifoglio badge, but I still believe that the cars were nicest
without badges there. The racing heritage of the quad earned it a legitimate
place on the GTAs and T.I.Supers, but beyond that it seems akin to using, on
the late Spiders, "Veloce" to say the car has leather seats instead of vinyl.
Badges had well-defined functions once, to distinguish a Fiat from an O.M.,
but much beyond that they become decorations which tend to simply muddy the
pure line. Given the depression and mounting holes, there is no real option of
deleting them between paint jobs, so replacing them is the simple course.

This is a minority opinion, of course, like my prejudice against logo floor
mats; floor mats are to absorb the dirt (and worse) that adheres to shoes, and
I feel that the words "Alfa Romeo" deserve something better than that. Maybe
"Porsche' logo floor mats, except that I don't really dislike Porsches that
much.

Enough, too far off topic. Plastic Alfa-Romeo Milano badges are concours-
correct for Ben's beauty. Enameled ones, less authentic, but an eminently
respectable honoring of a noble history.
- -----------------------
In a later posting Ben asks further "does anyone know the part numbers for all
the badges that belong on this car?" As of 1974 - -

the grill badge (distintivo per mascherina) was 2400.51012;
the rear deck badge (distintivo per cofano)) was 2400.51010;
the right C-pillar quadrifoglio badge was 105.44.62.500.00
the left C-pillar quadrifoglio was 105.44.62.501.00

I understand that the Alfa parts numbering system was completely discarded at
some point after the takeover anf that all Alfa Romeo parts now have different
part numbers. Whether tehre are effective cross-references I do not know.

John H. 

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End of alfa-digest V7 #144
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