Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 20:24:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: James Montebello <jamesm@domain.elided>
Subject: Re: New Alfas
On Tue, 10 Sep 2002, Ted Spradley wrote:
You know, that's something I've thought about, too. The old engines
are
"infinitely rebuildable", the gearboxes and live axles are rugged and
rebuildable, even the steering and suspension are repairable. It
would
be wonderful if there were a source for replacements for the one major
part that just rusts away. If somebody could take a rusty old spider,
take it all apart, and make careful measurements of all the
suspension,
steering, and motor attachment points, and create a digital 3-D model
of
that in AutoCAD. From that it should be fairly easy to build jigs to
fabricate a steel tube frame that all the original spider mechanicals
would just bolt onto. Then somebody else needs to construct molds for
making pretty little bodies, maybe something like an early '50s
SIATA....
Pardon me, I must have been daydreaming again.
No, not really. There's an outfit in the UK that makes complete new
bodyshells for a few popular British sports cars (MGB and Spridget,
at least). British Heritage or something like that. They obtained all
of the old tooling from the original works and make a relatively small
number of shells each year from modern, high-quality steel.
Off-topic perhaps, but I must say that I find the British 'cottage
industry' mentality charming and very useful (is it any wonder that
most F1 teams are home-based in GB?). There are places in England like
Guy Broad Ltd. who can build you a BRAND NEW Jaguar XK-120, C-type,
XK-140, D-Type, XK-SS, or XK-150 or a Mk-II Saloon. They have access to
all the body parts and engines and they will fit new Getrag or ZF
Transmissions, disc brakes, and can even enlarge the cockpits for -uh,
more substantial clients. Another British firm re-manufactures XK-Es.
This is really an assembly-line restoration shop. A ratty, rusty E goes
in one end of the shop, and a shiny totally restored one pops out the
other end complete with new 6-speed tranny, new wiring, upgraded
electrics, Air conditioning, etc., at far less than a normal craftsman
style restoration shop would charge. Its too bad that there aren't
places in the USA which could do those sorts of things for Alfas,
British cars, etc. It wouldn't do much good to use the assembly line
technique on cars like Ferraris and Maseratis and the like simply
because no two were alike in the first place, but certainly production
cars would benefit.