When Rolls of Rolls Royce died the company changed their iconic RR emblem form red to black. I was digging through my parts and found a grill emblem that has the V12 in gold. It's perfect, in that it has NO rock chips and very bright in color. I went to replace the one on my 87 and found it to be silver in color... ODD. I don't remember what year I took the gold one from... fact is I don't remember EVER pulling it off ANY car ( old age sucks ). Bottom line, I DON'T want to replace the original if there is a significance associated with it like the Roll emblem. Anybody out there know the reason for 2 different colors for this emblem?

 

During the 80's it was common place for some dealers and owners to have some emblems, nameplates etc. " gold plated ". You do not see this done anymore as it has gone out of style but my guess is this is what you have. If you like the look of it put it on as it can always be switched out if you decided later to do so but usually if the V12 is gold you have seen the nameplates on the trunk in gold also.

 

Or maybe not so odd.

The Ser III XJ6/12 grille emblem is the Jaguar growler on a black background. The growler face begins life as bright gold....and gradually fades to silver.

Not sure if the XJS actually used two different colors ....someone will come along who knows for sure...but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that the gold just fades to silver as the years go by.

Cheers
DD

 

Here an old vs. new comparison showing silver (elderly) and gold (youthful)

Cheers
DD

 

add a few inset diamonds while your at it.

 

Is that badge still available in 'new'?

 

LOL - I wouldn't put gold on my cars, but damn if it doesn't look good on the metallic browns and even claret.

 

I think Doug hit te nail on the head. The 2 emblems shown in his pics looks like what I've got. THANKS TO ALL.

 

Yes, after seeing the photos that Doug posted I agree that the factory made some if not all of the V12 grille badges gold to start and the gold faded off to look silver. Strange enough I have seen this happen many times on the gold finish that was applied after the vehicle was produced. It is like the exposure to the sun just eventually thins off the gold finish to where all you see is the color before the gold finish was applied.

My suspicion is that the V12 grille badge came on some cars from Jaguar with the gold finish and the rest of the nameplates were silver or chrome finish.