Proper Placement of a Porsche Grille Badge

To continue the heritage of the original Porsche 356, Classic Porsche 911 needs a grille badge. Once you buy one, then where do you place it on the grille?

Does the badge belong in the center, right or left? On Rennlist there is post stating that if you have one badge it should go on the right. If you are mounting two badges they should go left and right.

I disagree. I had a single Air Brigade grille badge on my Porsche Carrera for quite a while and after multiple “dry run” placements decided that the upper left was proper when it was by itself. I think this is because you read left to right and it just seemed more natural.

I just acquired a PCA grille badge and was glad I made that decision because the PCA grille badge is larger and needs a more dominant position. Placing it in the center was perfect visual placement. It then provides me with space for one more badge on the right so I have the ideal composition number of three for a visually appealing grille on my Porsche Carrera 3.2.

After deciding placement of the badge, the real fun begins, installing the grille badge. Yes, it is a simple installation with just two bolts, a retaining bar and two nuts, but that discounts getting to the retaining bar and nuts to bolt the badge in place.

On a 911 Carrera you have the air conditioning compressor on the backside of the grille.

You can remove two screws to drop the front of the compressor and your hand just fits in between the compressor to reach the backside of the grille badge to screw the bolts on. The problem is you can’t see and in reality there is really very little room to squeeze your hand in the space and thread the bolt.

First suggestion, place a towel over the engine. I can guarantee that you are going to drop the retaining bar and/or nuts and if you don’t have a towel to catch them, they will be lost forever within the engine. Then it is trial and error. What is the best way to hold the nut, place it on the bolt and start threading it. You’ll be ready to give up and say: “I just don’t need a grille badge” but stick with it and you’ll figure out a system that works. Once you get one on, the second one is easier because you’ve solved the acrobatic puzzle of how to twist your hand and the nut.

Then its easy, slide an open end wrench in and tighten the nuts down. It is a work of art and was worth the effort and cut knuckles from the air compressor grating. I’ll suffer till they heal but in the meantime I’m going to the garage several times a day to admire this new classic look on my classic Porsche 911 Carrera.

The Air Brigade Grille Badge is available at the Store of the Air Brigade web site. The PCA grille badge is available at the PCA Web Site Store.