Porsche – original 1970s RAYDEK vitreous enamel badge restored and remounted onto a new leather keyfob

Original Porsche keyfob badges which will have been made by RAYDEK in Birmingham in the 1970s which we had restored some time ago .

The badges were re-plated & re- enamelled in vitreous enamel .

We then remounted the badges onto new keyfobs in full grain black leather as can be seen in the photos .

We have several of these keyrings to offer – when they have all been sold then this listing will be cancelled. 

These few keyfob badges came to us some time back together with other keyfob badges which had been in storage since the 1970s .

The storage conditions had not been ideal so we had to have the badges restored .

The nickel plating was re-plated and re-polished and the badges were then re-enamelled in the original vitreous enamel – the superb standard of this restoration can be seen in the photos .

This work was carried out here in England – so far as we are aware there is now just one small firm left who can carry this work out.

We then remounted the badges onto new keyfobs in full grain black leather .

The badges were produced by RAYDEK of Birmingham in the 1970s – so far as we can determine the very well known firm of badgemakers – Melsom Products – became RAYDEK for a short time in the 1970s .

Melsom Products Ltd of Kyrwicks Lane, Sparkbrook , Birmingham were the most prolific producer of car keyrings in England in the 1960s and very early 1970s .

Shortly after the early 1970s their keyring production seems to have ceased and they then moved to RAYDEK House in Saltley , Birmingham .

It appears that they then traded as RAYDEK for a very short time – the only keyfob badges which we have ever seen marked RAYDEK are these Porsche badges and an occasional BMW badge .

So these badges were in effect produced by Melsoms under a different name .

In the 1960s and 1970s almost all keyrings for British & European cars were made in England by just a few manufacturers of whom Melsoms had become the largest following the demise of Castles Unit Development Co. ( CUD )

Porsche motor cars were still relatively rare on UK roads in the 1960s and 1970s with the result that very few Porsche keyrings were made ( Porsche themselves did not have their own keyrings made in Germany until much later )

CUD had made just a few Porsche torpedo keyrings in the mid 1960s and then Melsom Products Ltd made some Porsche keyrings shortly afterwards.

We have listed and sold a few examples of original Melsom Products Porsche keyrings ( and a few examples of original restored badges remounted onto new leather keyfobs )

The design of the original Melsom Porsche keyfob badges was exactly the same as these slightly later RAYDEK badges .

Obviously the RAYDEK badges were produced from the same dies.

In January 2023 we listed and sold the only completely original Porsche RAYDEK keyring which we have ever seen which had come to us from a private collection .

This keyring still had the badge mounted onto the original keyfob which was embossed ‘KEYFLIX’ in the leather beneath the badge .

This was Melsom Product’s trademark name and original Melsom Products Porsche keyrings with the badge mounted onto a keyfob in either black or tan leather had Melsom’s trademark ‘KEYFLIX’ stamp embossed into the leather beneath the badge .

It would seem that this ‘KEYFLIX’ emboss was carried over onto the RAYDEK keyrings .

We have not embossed this KEYFLIX stamp onto the new leather keyfobs to avoid any chance of the keyrings being confused with original examples .

We find it difficult to imagine better keyrings than these to actually use as intended with any classic Porsche car .

Original restored mint condition badges ready for the road again now mounted onto fresh new leather keyfobs which will last for very many years into the future .

Available at what must be a pretty reasonable price considering the value of original Porsche keyfob badges and the amount of investment and work which has gone into producing the keyrings .