Styling Bambina badge for NZ made 500F

[JoopaNZ]

Hi all,

We have a -68 Bambina, which has travelled half of its' overall kms in a container from southern to northern hemisphere and back couple of times.
During our last move it was still under restoration and we lost the 'Bambina' badge on passenger side of the dashboard somewhere along the way.
Bambinas being the NZ made 500's, trying to find badges is like looking for unicorn poop.

Would any of the board members know where to find one or where I could get one made? Possibly the badge from the engine lid could be scaled/modelled to create a copy for the dashboad.
I've checked my NZ contacts and kept eye on TradeMe but with no luck so far

Cheers

 

[Toshi 975]

I spent quite a lot of time in New Zealand in the last 20 years and kept half an eye out for a Bambina badge but even with your feet on the ground they are hard to get and now fetch decent money when one does come up for sale. You could email the Horopito car breakers yard, the last time I walked around their acreage I found five 500s but they have loads of stuff under cover in barns so they may have one.
Another alternative is to make one which may sound daft but when I had a 1937 Talbot years ago the elaborate Talbot badge was missing from the back panel. The originals were stamped out of 16swg sheet brass, had small studs on the back, were polished then chrome plated. I worked alongside a silversmith at the time and she said it was quite possible to cut one out using a fine piercing saw which we did. I silver soldered M2.5 studs on the back, polished it then chrome plated to give a perfect replica. I made a dozen or so in the end and sent a couple as far as Australia and New Zealand. Cutting aluminium would be so much easier but with modern technology there will probably be much easier ways if you can get a tracing of an original. I never kept any pictures of the Talbot badge but in more recent years I did design and make an Alquati badge to go on the engine I had.

 

[Toshi 975]

I assume that the font used on Todd Nial’s book Bambina is based on the badge and the badge is a font used throughout the book. Good book by the way if you have never seen it.

 

[JoopaNZ]

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I assume that the font used on Todd Nial’s book Bambina is based on the badge and the badge is a font used throughout the book. Good book by the way if you have never seen it.

Yep, I have that in the bookshelf.
I did not even think of using the badge from book as template, should be easier to trace & scale than the badge on engine lid.

 

[JoopaNZ]

Any Bambina owners here, who could measure the badge dimensions?
I'm going to attempt to make one, first by just 3D printing a plastic test version.

 

[JoopaNZ]

Well, ended up fiddling around with 3D tools and first test print turned out pretty sweet.
It still needs some fine tuning before I find some CNC shop to do a proper version

 

[Olds cool]

Any luck with the Bambina badge. I have a couple here.
I am in HB in. NZ. I have a 62 500 I’m restoring so have now quite a collection.

 

[the hobbler]

Well, ended up fiddling around with 3D tools and first test print turned out pretty sweet.
It still needs some fine tuning before I find some CNC shop to do a proper version

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With the progress made with '3D'printing, Iwould have thought that it would not be too difficult to have a new badge printed in metal for you, using as you have done, the font on the front of the book (of which I also have a copy) as the "master copy"