Pininfarina number in trunk

[user459]

Chris,
John Baker was a friend and Alfa mentor who passed away before this thread got under way. He had sold his Veloce to some guy in Massachusetts, but his widow didn't have any details of the sale. I kept his information on here just in case it turned up. Also, because his AR # is one of a few oddballs out of the production sequence. According to Maurizio Tabucchi, the 1965 Spider Veloces were numbered AR*390267, AR*390283, AR*390287, AR*390290, and AR*390294 to AR* 391092. As with all other Alfa information, this is liable to be questionable and subject to verification. He also states that the 1964 Spider Veloces were numbered from AR*390001 to AR*390300. That would bring the total Veloces built to 1102 instead of the traditionally cited 1091. ??

Who knew that this PF number discussion would uncover so much interest in Alfa history?

[JohnS]

FWIW there is a 1954 Nash Healey for sale at present which has Pinin Farina body No 13601. As arcane as this undoubtedly is, this might give us a base line for 750 Spider body numbers.

I wonder if PF didn't gild the lily a bit by adding 1 in front of the number. It's hard to imagine they had built 13,000+ bodies by 1954, however.....

Regards
Joh

[jensputzier]

OK; I was just this afternoon informed that even the bumpers were stamped with the Pininfarina number on the underside. I was shown on the car we were standing in front of (750 F spider). Right?

[elsonite]

Frequently but not always there were PF numbers stamped on the bumpers of spider. I would suggest it was as much to keep the pieces of the set together as to match the bumpers to the particular car.

Sorry about the bad photo.

D

[divotandtralee]

There is no suppport for the association of the bumper number stamps with a chassis, to my knowledge. I have owned Bertone and PF and Zagato cars of the period when chassis were handmade. While there are trim pieces on a given car specific to it, the numbers on the trim are mostly a mysterious association, maybe a bin number, rather than a specific chassis number or an abreviated one. Bumper parts that have matching numbers were indeed married for correct fit and overlap, especially early on, but the numbers stamped on them were just arbitrary matching numbers to mate the pieces much as motor parts ( bearing caps/ blocks and cam caps/heads) were mated with arbitrary stampings. None of the other trim piece on the PF cars carried the trim stampings to the extent of Bertone or Zagato beyond the bumpers.

[ossodiseppia]

There has been similar discussion about PF numbers in the boot vs AR numbers in the engine compartment of Duettos.

Roundtail Spiders of sequential AR numbers were not produced sequentially. I hope I am saying that right. As an example, AR chassis number 6 may not have been produced after AR chassis number 4. I believe those production dates were the dates the cars rolled off the assembly line at AR and not PF.

Chassis' were assembled at PF and trucked over to AR assembly plant to receive the mechanical components. Several years ago, I ran across a video about the Duetto. I think it may have been in 2006 to celebrate the 40th anniversary. In that video, there was a small segment showing a transport truck filled with Duettos on dollys. They were headed to the AR plant. I think it was in this video.

[Tom F2]

I find a Pininfarina number in my trunk, the last three digits of which appear on a small plate welded to the underside of my front hood, centered at the rear. I expect to see a similar plate welded to my trunk lid, but don't find one. Should it be there? This numbers matching thing is a big deal in the 356 and early 911 Porsche world, where all of the moveable panels had the body number stamped in, by the way.

[Gordon Raymond]

These are assembly numbers. There is an extensive post on this subject with photo's and explanations.

[user459]

Tom,
What's your AR#, Pininfarina #, and date of manufacture? I'd like to add it to the chart of correlating numbers. Is this the gray ghost or the one in your driveway?

[Tom F2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by user459 Tom, What's your AR#, Pininfarina #, and date of manufacture? I'd like to add it to the chart of correlating numbers. Is this the gray ghost or the one in your driveway?

[jensputzier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom F2 I find a Pininfarina number in my trunk, the last three digits of which appear on a small plate welded to the underside of my front hood, centered at the rear. I expect to see a similar plate welded to my trunk lid, but don't find one. Should it be there? This numbers matching thing is a big deal in the 356 and early 911 Porsche world, where all of the moveable panels had the body number stamped in, by the way.