Assembly variations

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

I appreciate the added remarks of Andy Kress, Pat Braden, and Henrik Johansen
on the mix-and-match parts issues.

Pat's comment that "Especially near the end of Alfa's time in the US, many
cars sat in the port awaiting buyers. Some of these cars were sold a year or
so after they were manufactured" applies not only to the last years. After I
bought my fairly old new 1971 GT Veloce with its faded paint the dealer mailed
me a $400 check for the ARI rebate he had not known about at the time of
purchase; it was the first time I ever heard of factory rebates to unload
unsalable cars, and that was during one of the golden years.

Henrik Johansen, responding to George Graves' remark about the plastic filler
panel between the taillights, writes that they were, to the best of his
knowledge, an aftermarket part made by Shankle. I don't know who made them,
but they are one among many aftermarket parts offered by ARI and fitted by ARI
to some cars - Chastain Shaddow window louvers, Momo steering wheels, Ronal
road wheels (and several other non-factory alloys), Maratona kits (which were
offered separately for retrofitting as well as being installed at the port of
entry on the "real" Maratonas) and other enhancements - shifter knobs, radios,
anything which might sell. Some "original equipment" was dealer-selected as
well as dealer-installed; when I bought my new Berlina in '72 the dealer had
two cars; the one I didn't buy had a black vinyl roof. ARI and US-dealers were
not alone in all this; Britain and Australia (and undoubtedly other markets)
had local variants, including a vinyl-roofed, rectangular headlight version of
the GTV. The other specific variable George Graves mentioned- the third
brake-light- may well have been something which the factory left for ARI to
handle at the dock, like the rear-seats-not-to-be-used stickers on the 115 GT
Veloces.

I won't deny that there may have been variations at times other than the end
of a nominal model year, but I will never believe that they were ever as
casual, spontaneous, and expedient as sometimes assumed.

Cordially,

John H.
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