1982 GTV-6 paint, etc.

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

David R. Johnson has responded to notes, mine and others, on the seats and
paint of his 1982 GTV-6.

The use of "leather-cloth", vinyl or other man-made stuff on the non-wearing
parts of leather upholstery is ubiquitous in Alfas and other cars built to a
price. Generally it is a reasonable economy, but one should know it is there,
and also that the "kunststoff" is not of the quality one would use for vinyl
seating surfaces. A bodyshop once got grey primer overspray (ah,
craftsmanship!) on my black GTV-6 leather seats, and cleaned it up with
lacquer thinner. You don't want to know what a mess lacquer thinner will make
of some leather cloths. If redoing such leather seats, it would be reasonable,
to my mind, to use good leather where Alfa used leather and to use upholstery-
grade vinyl in the places where Alfa used artificial leathers.

I applaud David's idea of keeping the blue interior. It is most commonly seen
on silver GTV-6s, and the combination can get tiresome, but with the metallic
black it could have an interesting period character.

I have been trying to sort out Alfa colors, codes, and supplier's numbers to
weed out contradictions and anomalies and spurious information, probably a
hopeless task, but the pile of Service Bulletins and Parts & Accessories
Bulletins I inherited have been a great help. While GTV-6s were apparently
painted in many other colors for other markets, all of the ARI information I
have found agrees that in the USA 1981 GTV-6s came in AR-501 Alfa red, AR-754
silver metallic, and AR-759 grey metallic, while '82-84s came in AR-748 silver
metallic and AR-908 black metallic, '82-85s in AR-530 Alfa red, '84-85s in
AR-545 chestnut red metallic, and '85s also in AR-543 brown metallic, AR-762
silver metallic, AR-913 black and AR-015 white. Some of the differences among
colors with the same names but different codes (AR-501 Alfa red, AR-530 Alfa
red, and AR-555 Alfa red, for example) might be pinned down by a paint mixer
but not by me; ratios of clears to solids, different blends of pigments, even
the production equipment used could account for the differences. In April 1976
four metallic colors kept their same names (sapphire, ruby, silver and
champagne metallics) but got new code numbers because "New production
facilities now permit the application of metallic finishes with a higher
degree of metallic pigment than on previous finishes"; as this was in the
middle of a production run knowing the color name and car year isn't as useful
as knowing the code number from the label inside the trunk lid.

David asks some pregnant questions about fading. Many colors do fade in the
sun, but some will change simply from age. Often one can get the same colors
with mineral pigments which are usually permanent (but often more expensive)
or with dyes, usually cheaper and often "good enough" for products with a
finite life. Metallics introduce a different problem; with non-metallics one
can have a high ratio of solids to the binder, but metallics depend on a
degree of transparency in the binder, and a metallic black is probably
approaching a worst-case condition. I'm guessing, but some of the odd color in
this case may be discoloration of the transparent binder rather than of the
pigments. On the metallic blacks in particular note that the '81 Spider uses a
different paint (AR-907, DuPont code 8107 or Ditzler code 9482) than the '81
GTV-6 (AR-908, DuPont code W8108 or Ditzler code 9483)

Alfas usually had PPG paints; Ditzler is PPG in the USA. At the end of 1978
ARI announced "An agreement has been reached with Du Pont. All pertinent
technical data will be supplied to them and in return the extensive Du Pont
network and field staff will be at the disposal of Alfa Romeo dealers for
supply and consultation". Earlier ARI had recommended Glassurit, DuPont and
Ditzler-PPG equally. The codes listed may/may not be still valid, but any of
the three, or Sikkens, should be able to replicate the original and would
probably have chips. 

Enjoy,

John H. 

------------------------------

End of alfa-digest V7 #363
**************************