RE: [alfa] Re: DD parts

[White Anthony <anthony.white@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Wiltshire asked:
"Maybe there isn't enough interest for remanufacture of 164 bits, but surely
there is enough interest
in 105 parts?"

I suspect that 105 coupes and spiders are just about in the same position as
MGBs.  In the research that I'm doing about parts for restoring my 105.22,
(73 GTV 2000) I've put together a pretty substantial list of parts suppliers.
I think all of the body panels are available from places like Wolf Steel in
North America or the 105 Factory in Australia  (The 105 Factory will even
make any panel you happen to want in aluminium).  By the time you've looked
through the parts lists of Highwood Alfa, EB Spares, Alfaholics and Alfastop
in the UK, OKParts and Alfa Hinzen in Germany, Centreline, IAP, Linear Rossa,
Krause and England, and Vick Autosports in the US, I think you'd come up with
most of the parts you need to build a car from scratch.  Whether you could
afford to do it is a different question...

It's only relatively recently that one has been able to build an MGB or an
E-type Jag with nothing more than a pile of cash and a parts catalogue.
There were long periods in which people had to restore old parts, spec build
one-off replacements.  At some point, someone realised that the demand, and
therefore the price, for good used left front sills was sufficiently high
that one could make some good money fabricating them new and selling them.
The conditions need to be that the car has a high enough value to a large
enough number of people -- and there aren't very many cars like that around.
The MGB is obvious, as it's the most successful selling roadster ever.
E-types have the right combination of volume and high price.  MkII Jaguars,
seem to be a similar position in terms of parts availability, some old
Triumphs, maybe some of the American muscle cars like Mustangs and Comaros
(but that's not an area I'm familiar with).  But there really aren't many
other cars apart from the wildly popular classics that have this type of
parts availability.  

With regards to 164s, it's very much a matter of demand.  At the moment, they
are still just interesting ten-year-old cars.  They're likely to go through a
period of sustained low value before enough people with enough money start to
think, "Hey, these are interesting old boats, I'll take one and restore it."
Quite simply, I can't see there ever being enough people who want to do that
for it to become economically viable to start manufacturing replacement
parts.  Sedans don't have a strong habit of becoming valued classics.  

Regards,
Anthony White
Wellington, NZ
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