Part of the enjoyment for me of owing an older car is finding out about its journey from new to arriving into my possession. As cars get older it's nice to find and preserve the history for future custodians to enjoy and add to. My previous 1947 car which I bought in Australia came with no history except the name of the previous owner and a couple of pictures and with a lot of research I compiled an extensive folder starting with it being built in Solihull then shipped new to Sydney to being bought as a wreck in the 80s, to its body off restoration and eventually winning awards in Australia and the car now has the last 74 years of history which has been passed onto the new owner.
My 850 was originally bought by a Lt.Col in the British Army stationed in Germany. From my research the troops were know as the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). I decided that a BAOR grill badge would be a fitting tribute to the car and the original owner but after searching I have found there is no such badge. There are window stickers available but I didn't want to go down that route unless I had to so I had to think outside the box this time.
eBay provided the answer in the shape of an award given to the military for recreational sporting achievements and I bought one of the awards to experiment with.
My newly purchased award arrived today and I was disappointed to find that it wasn't the brass or bronze award I expected it to be. My plan had been to solder a couple of bolts to the rear to enable it to be fixed to the grill but as it was made from aluminium I had to compromise.
Hacksaw, file, drill, sandpaper and an hour's work and I now have what I presume to be the only BAOR grill badge in the UK.
