I have read a few times that on the later Alpines, "efficiencies" helped
reduce costs on the cars. I noticed this first hand this weekend. I
pulled off the door panels on the SIV GT to send the metal bits up to
Martha to get new panels. In doing so, I noticed things that were not
present on my late model SV. In particular were the fabric pieces that
were placed over all the holes in the door. Not only were they glued over
each hole, the bottom edge was put in place with those small little clips -
obviously more hand labor and time. Wow, talk about attention to detail.
I guess they were there to keep moisture from entering the back of the
cardboard door panel.
I did notice that the SIV was missing something that my SV had - the
plastic sheet that ran from the bottom of the roll up window down to the
base of the door. It seems as though it accomplished the same thing - it
stopped rain from rolling down on to the back of the cardboard panel.
The way they made the GT door panels themselves seemed like too much work
too. Each cardboard piece had these little metal strips that were attached
all the way around, essentially increasing the size of the panel and
providing a narrow edge. I'll see when they get back, but, I'm not quite
sure why they went to this trouble, and didn't just make the panel itself
larger. My guess is that it just looked better along the edges.
Jay
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 10:15:42 CDT