Grommets

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

Richard Broughton is concerned about firewall grommets for his 1966 Giulia 
TI; he has "found firewall grommet kits for the more common Giulia models but 
nothing for our rare little TI. Are the grommets from the GTV or the Spider 
compatible with the TI? Is there a standard supplier like Grommets-R-Us that 
could be tapped?"

Probably the worst case is if his car has the column shift. The parts books 
for the TI and later Giulias all show very similar firewalls in the plate 
which enumerates the grommets and retainers, and the later cars have a 
depression (but no hole) where the shift-rod goes through, and all show the 
same forms and locations (though not necessarily parts numbers) for all the 
other firewall grommets and retainers. There were larger firewall changes 
when the pendant pedals came in, but the Duettos and first-series GTVs are 
very similar and the later cars are still largely similar. Parts numbers are 
not the final authority; Alfa in this era sometimes used more than one part 
number for the same part (very commonly for fasteners) and would logically 
have used a new part number for a grommet if the formulation of the synthetic 
was changed, but of nine major TI parts numbers (apart from the steering 
column boot) five show up on either the Duetto or the GTV. For the grommets 
which are harder to find, casting replacements in RTV silicones should not be 
particularly difficult.

Probably the first step is to get photocopies of the plates and parts lists 
from the TI, Duetto, Berlina and GTV parts books.

John H. 

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