Re: rhinoplasty

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@xxxxxxxxx>]

John Hertzmann points out the difficulty of converting a step-front 105
coupe to a smooth-front: 

> the fronts of the fenders, parking lights, lamp-houses, and a
> lot more would need to be changed.

My first thought was simply about the shift in historical perspective,
and how different it must have been when one's Alfa suddenly became
"last year's car."  

My second thought -- being someone who always preferred the step-fronts
anyway -- was that it would actually be easier than John suggests for a
competent body shop to convert between the two cars.  Specifically, it
reminded me of the twin seams I found when stripping my 105.30 down to
bare metal three summers ago.  

There was a weld just above the driver's front-wheel centerline, and a
matching weld just inboard of the right-hand "step."  Neither was
apparent under the paint, which was remarkable given the somewhat lumpy
quality of the welds.  This, coupled with the fact that the last layer
of color-coat that I removed from the section between the welds was a
deep cobalt blue, compared to the pale acqua that was the last color
coat on the remaining 80% of the car's bodywork.  (By the way, for any
would-be home restorer who's thinking of stripping the paint off a
Sixties era Alfa -- don't.  I'll explain why in another posting.)

So it occurred to me that, for example, had the unfortunate previous
owner of my GT driven straight into whatever he hit, rather than
clipping it at an oblique angle, he or she might have been an excellent
candidate to have a matching seam over the passenger's side wheel, and
the whole front clip replaced. 

As I think I've mentioned here before, my amateur Sherlocking indicates
that this happened in 1974.  Why?  The wheel at that corner is
date-coded 1974, where the other wheels are date-coded 1971, and the
quality of the work was such that it must have been done when the car
was still new enough to be worth fixing well -- it had not been done
recently enough that the car had appreciated in value, a fact I can
state definitively because a) the paint applied immediately over the
surgery was deteriorated massively by the time I removed it, and b) --
but that's another story that I don't think I've posted here yet...

- --Scott "This is how one posting turns into three" Fisher

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