Bonnet badge prices and different fonts

I am seeing that Mick Miller’s 70 quid for a bonnet badge is being laughed at on ebay, where the same metal finish with screw bolts are going for about 20. Sue Miller says the font is different - is she right, is there anywhere else that does the correct bonnet badges for ebay prices? Is it so insignificantly different that, with it being a bastardised Zetec, I shouldn’t care? Why would the ones with different fonts exist? A mistake or for a more recent Lotus - strange, as they are advertised as early Elan badges.

Cheers,
Richard

The later badges were quite different to the 1960s Elan badges…just a change of style for the cars in the 80s. The badges sold by Sue Millar / Paul Matty are the closest you’ll find to the original. When mint original ones come up on eBay (very rare) they fetch anything upto ?100.

Mark

Depressing…I think I need to have the original badge design, even though I have checked both now and see they are very similar - I have no preference for either. Cannot work out why I need to do this on a zetec elan but I think I do. My repro wing mirrors, minilite wheels and XJS seats tell me I am chucking 50 notes down the drain.

this is the one I am referring to

cgi.ebay.co.uk/LOTUS-BONNET-NOSE … 1|294%3A24

You could always display the heritage with pride…applies to original Elans as well as Zetecs!

cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SHELBY-G … ccessories

Mark

As us Zetec owners are the real fraudsters, I guess we should leave it to the real Elan owners to do the right thing and put that one on their bonnets…nice!

… A picture tell it better than …

Top left : Elise design badge + classic Lotus colors on thick chromed brass enameled
Top right : classic Lotus design on thin brass painted - correct for formulas & sportscars - , Elanintheforest’s avatar… but new!
Bottom left : “OEW” badge , original design ; thick chromed brass enameled.
Bottom right : Sue Miller & P.Matty offer ; Thick chromed brass enameled …
Back from Donington with the last one , I still don’t know if I am going to put it on the car …
Christian.

Christian

If you decide not to put the Miller one on within the next 3 weeks or so, by which point my respray should be finished, I would be keen to know if you would sell it to me at a more palatable price than the 70 they charge!

Richard

Richard,

You can still get the original font in yellow/green and black from Lotus direct, well you could not long ago.
The price was quite a bit less than ?70 as well.

I can ask tomorrow if they are still available if you want?

Cheers,
Simon

Two weeks ago , that badge cost me about the same , and anyway I now started a nice collection … Don’t you think so !?!
So why should I sell !?!
Richard , if the paint job on your Elan is worth , the right badge whatever the price will be nothing .
Christian.

Simon

That would be really useful…thanks for offering to ask.

Regards,

Richard

mikecauser.com/

has pictures of all the Lotus badges. You can see the changes during the years.

Many Ebay vendors do not know the difference between the fonts used at different times, and I got tired emailing them. I gues if some one does not know the difference, then what ever they use is ok with them

David
1968 36/7988

David, I’m getting a suspending account message from the link for the different badges. Is there an alternative listing?

Regards

Gerry

Looking through the archives I found this:

mikecauser.org/lotus/parts/paint_codes.html

However, that gets a not found message.

web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.mikecauser.org has a link to an older version of Mike’s web page, but no reference to paint codes or history of badges.

However …

web.archive.org/web/200801191746 … auser.com/

has a clickable link to the history of the Lotus badge!

and

web.archive.org/web/200710292003 … codes.html

has the paint codes.

Does anybody know Mike and what happened to his website? He had some valuable information there.

David
1968 36/7988

All very interesting. I now know that I have the wrong badge :frowning:

Paddy

Hopefully you didn’t pay 70 quid for it then! I wonder if the replacement might…anyway, we are waiting for news from Simon…

Mike was a poster on this forum for a while, Jun 05 - Sep 06, though he was probably more of an Excel man than an Elan man. The last email I can find for him is [email protected] if you want to try and get hold of him.

I know he lived near Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, in the same village as Peter Day.

Tim

Fitted by PO :frowning:

I think I’ll survive :slight_smile: Perhaps it’ll get the right one when it has its next restoration in 20 yrs time.

Paddy

Just checked and they are still available but the prices have unfortunately gone up.

Both green/yellow and black are now ?59.95 + theft so they are no cheaper now.

Sorry,
Simon

Cheers for that…isn’t it more like ?5 for the badge, plus corporation theft plus health and safety theft plus fuel theft plus stealth theft plus MP pension theft plus more stealth theft and finally your 17.5% consumer theft. That’ll be ?70, please. Kerching. Brown wins every time.