Re: Chris' crunched spider

["Jay Mackro" <jmackro@domain.elided>]

Christopher Keen had written>
>Well, this morning I had the spider towed in to take care of that stripped
>stud on the FI oil filter housing.
>As the tow truck driver pulled out of our sloped driveway, he, um, squashed
>the exhaust between the driveway and the body of the car, which crunched
the
>rear valance panel under the bumper.
>......so of course they want to do it themselves.

Chris:

I would be very leery of having a general-purpose shop do bodywork on
a collector car.  Not that working on Alfas is any harder than working on
Fords (OK, maybe for coachbuilt 1750's).  It's just that the general
public's standards for patching up the inevitable fender bender on their
commute car is a long way from your expectations.  Plus, any shop that
employs drivers so dumb as to not notice the spider's protruding tail
pipe probably employs bodywork personnel of equal ability and
attitude.

Not that my Alfa ever needed to be towed (I didn't inhale either), but
if it ever did, I would specify a flat-bed tow  This is one area where
Alfas ARE different from more pedestrian cars.  Often, the cradle that
they try to put under an Alfa's front wheels to hoist it up will interfere
with the oil pan/sump guard.  And, of course, there's the protruding
tailpipe problem.  Err - at least, that's what I've heard from friends
who had their Alfas towed.

Good luck - Jay

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