Re: tea trays

[Richard Bies <bies@domain.elided>]

Dark grey or flat black gets to be a close-call (though the trim in the
promotional shots of the red car surely looks black) -- however, I have
seen no metallic flakes.

Not an ordinary plastic, however...

Suppose the release cable --and the back-up <both> break?  The tea tray is
a bolt-in piece which can be cut-out to provide access to the latch bolts,
releasing the hood.  No body-work required....

That's how I discovered that the tray is not an ordinary plastic, but
fiberglass.  I suspect that this "feature" got there (or remained there)
for a variety of reasons, among them that somebody probably launched the
plenum on a prototype -- the fiberglass panel is an ideal foil.
Initially, who knows?  Perhaps an early rendition devolved from a
familiarity with the carbureted V6 -- a relief for an air-filter housing?
Or perhaps the entire hump was first fabricated of fiberglass on an
Alfetta hood, and this tray what remains -- for reasons in part
obscure....(just when, in the development process, did Alfa finally freeze
the fuel supply choice?)

r.m.bies
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