Badges? I know, "We don't need no stinking badges," but knowing that my "79/95" Rover Cooper has probably had some modifications I was curious as to what badging should really be on the bonnet and boot. Right now they match the Mini wings with the Mini Cooper wreath in the middle, but I'm not sure if these were added later when she got off the boat from New Zealand. Any ideas as to what is correct for a 95 Rover?

 

My 1980/1995 SPI Japanese spec Tartan Mini has the Rover badge on the front and a chrome MINI badge on the trunk lid below the handle. Based on the info and photos in the Japanese owners manual and sales brochure these are the original badges. But what was standard for Japan may have varied from your Mini depending on what country your car was originally built for.

 

UK spec Rover Mini Coopers never had any visible Rover badges (a bit like the new MINI has no BMW badges). All had the chrome winged bonnet badge, early 90's had a Cooper boot decal I think, but later cars had the chrome winged badge both front and back like yours.

 

Interesting to me that you're wanting to be period-spec correct with a car that's fundamentally "broken" via the re-VIN. But, I can't fault you for wanting to look correct. Have you checked out the Chris Rees book? That has photos of every year and model. I'd check with someone like MiniMania or GBCarparts as well - they should be able to tell you what proper badging was on a specific model year. Badging was affected by the model you have as well, and sometimes it can be hard to tell - for instance, many og the "Equinox" editions were rebadged and repainted because people didn;t like the paint color or spacy interior fabric. getting THAT car back to spec would take more than year-specific badging - you'd need the actual custom model decals or badges to accomplish that. Just depends on what you're going for.

 

Thanks for the information... I know it may sound like a fool's errand, but I would like to get things back to original order even if the vin is off. I never knew there was so much to learn, but newbies are trainable. It looks like Chris Rees' book is a great place to start.

 

thats whats great about the classic Mini. Unless you have a numbers matching Cooper S, then you can mix and match trim for the look that you like. My 75/95 have badges and grille that appeared on 70's mini. Even got rid of the plastic side mirrors and installed shiny bullet mirrors.

btw, the Chris Rees book is a good reference book.