I decided to start this thread separately from the 'engine compartments only' thread which has been hijacked for all sorts of other reasons.
Quoting well known celebrity forum member replying to me in that thread.....
'Tim, If you are looking at 750/101 cars ..as a group it would be like looking at a crowd in St. Peter's Square and asking why they aren't all wearing papal red. Sorry you have to be very specific to the year, type, and model before you depend on pictures for guidance.. and then you have to used some written and published references in addition to be more specific and even then you might be close but not 100% correct.. but certainly have a basis to do what you do.'
Why is it that people seem to be so down on 'originality'? Another member has been called a 'snob' for suggesting that originality is important, and also that originality is 'dull and boring'. Well that's one way of thinking and that's fine if chroming your engine is your thing. You're welcome to do that, but you should also accept that there are some merits in attempting to return our cars to something close to originality however vague that concept may be.
You can call me all the names you like but there are plenty of people reading this forum for exactly that reason - to attain a reasonable level of original appearance for their cars. I'm perfectly aware that there were many variations coming out of the factory so it's not an exact science, but if you had a Porsche 356, which I had for 24 years, you could buy Brett Johnson's 'Porsche 356 - A guide to authenticity', or 'Original Porsche 356' by Lawrence Meredith, and get more information in detail about those cars in a couple of hours reading than you could get about our 750/101 cars in several days of trolling through Alfa forums. There is no similar resource for our cars, so this forum is very important, and accurate information is what many of us are after.
If you had the choice of buying two Giulietta spiders - one a completely untouched two owner car with a full history, the other with a fully chromed 2 litre engine, wide wheels, flared arches and bucket seats, which would you rather have. I don't think I would be wrong in assuming that the majority of us would go for the former, however 'dull and boring' that choice is!
Quoting well known celebrity forum member replying to me in that thread.....
'Tim, If you are looking at 750/101 cars ..as a group it would be like looking at a crowd in St. Peter's Square and asking why they aren't all wearing papal red. Sorry you have to be very specific to the year, type, and model before you depend on pictures for guidance.. and then you have to used some written and published references in addition to be more specific and even then you might be close but not 100% correct.. but certainly have a basis to do what you do.'
Why is it that people seem to be so down on 'originality'? Another member has been called a 'snob' for suggesting that originality is important, and also that originality is 'dull and boring'. Well that's one way of thinking and that's fine if chroming your engine is your thing. You're welcome to do that, but you should also accept that there are some merits in attempting to return our cars to something close to originality however vague that concept may be.
You can call me all the names you like but there are plenty of people reading this forum for exactly that reason - to attain a reasonable level of original appearance for their cars. I'm perfectly aware that there were many variations coming out of the factory so it's not an exact science, but if you had a Porsche 356, which I had for 24 years, you could buy Brett Johnson's 'Porsche 356 - A guide to authenticity', or 'Original Porsche 356' by Lawrence Meredith, and get more information in detail about those cars in a couple of hours reading than you could get about our 750/101 cars in several days of trolling through Alfa forums. There is no similar resource for our cars, so this forum is very important, and accurate information is what many of us are after.
If you had the choice of buying two Giulietta spiders - one a completely untouched two owner car with a full history, the other with a fully chromed 2 litre engine, wide wheels, flared arches and bucket seats, which would you rather have. I don't think I would be wrong in assuming that the majority of us would go for the former, however 'dull and boring' that choice is!