Because of a nail the shoe was lost,
Because of the shoe the horse was lost,
Because of the horse the knight was lost,
Because of the knight the battle was lost
And because of the battle the kingdom was lost!
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| The Alfatross in 1969. The trim ring is missing from the passenger side headlight. |
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| Chassis 01848 missing trim ring and headlight lens. www.alfa1900.com. |
What do nails, horses, knights, battles, and kingdoms have to do with the Alfatross? Well . . . read on!
The Alfatross was missing the trim ring around the passenger's side headlight when I bought it. OK, big deal, part missing, add it to the list! All I have to do is find another one . . . or so I thought!
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| Beautiful car, but where is the trim ring around the headlight? Michael Marciano. |
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| The culprits: three simple spring steel clips susceptible to breaking. |
There is always a reason, but it isn't always obvious. This time it was! After cleaning the headlight buckets it was apparent that the one on the passenger side was missing two of the three clips that hold the trim ring to the bucket. And the driver side was missing one too.
In my imagination I could see the series of events leading up to the loss of the trim rings: First, the headlight bulb burns out. The ring has to come off before the lens can be removed. The person doing the work can't see what is holding the ring on or how to get it off (it isn't intuitive!) and breaks one or more of the clips before finally getting the ring off. Now there is nothing to hold it in place, so either it isn't replaced, or it is jury rigged and falls off later.
Looking at the headlight parts catalog sheet Peter Marshall send me years ago I made a feeble attempt to find replacement clips on line using the part number and description. It didn't take long to conclude that there probably isn't a stash of chiavistello "latches" left anywhere on earth so I better get busy making my own.
I removed one of the three surviving clips still in good condition and took its dimensions. The problem was going to be finding spring steel of the right gauge to duplicate the example. Shaping, drilling and bending it and would be easy (I thought!).
I tried a number of pieces of scrap metal and saw blades before Jeff Kramer handed me a common paint scraper and said "Why don't you try this?" The blade turned out to be exactly the right gauge and large enough to make 5 or 6 blanks to allow for experimentation.
I won't elaborate on all the things that can go wrong when you're cutting, shaping, drilling, heating, bending and grinding pieces of spring steel that are about an inch and a half long, but rest assured that Jeff and I discovered them all.
This exercise is a good example of why car restoration is so time- and labor-consuming and hence so costly. The materials in this case cost virtually nothing, but it took days of labor to restore critical parts that may never be seen again.
. . . and all because a tiny piece of steel--about the size of a small horseshoe nail--was lost . . . .
In my imagination I could see the series of events leading up to the loss of the trim rings: First, the headlight bulb burns out. The ring has to come off before the lens can be removed. The person doing the work can't see what is holding the ring on or how to get it off (it isn't intuitive!) and breaks one or more of the clips before finally getting the ring off. Now there is nothing to hold it in place, so either it isn't replaced, or it is jury rigged and falls off later.
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| The exploded view diagram of the Carello headlight assembly for The Alfatross (top). No. 14 in the diagram, "chiavistello" is the clip, or "latch" that holds the trim ring to the bucket, three per bucket. Lose two and the ring will not hold! Peter Marshall. |
Looking at the headlight parts catalog sheet Peter Marshall send me years ago I made a feeble attempt to find replacement clips on line using the part number and description. It didn't take long to conclude that there probably isn't a stash of chiavistello "latches" left anywhere on earth so I better get busy making my own.
I removed one of the three surviving clips still in good condition and took its dimensions. The problem was going to be finding spring steel of the right gauge to duplicate the example. Shaping, drilling and bending it and would be easy (I thought!).
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| The nail that lost the shoe! The 35 mm long, 24 gauge, spring steel clip. Try finding this on ebay! |
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| The spring steel donor: a common paint scraper that just happens to be 24 gauge. |
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| Cutting the spring steel blank with an abrasive wheel on a Dremel tool. Given the small size of the blank, sawing was impractical. |
I tried a number of pieces of scrap metal and saw blades before Jeff Kramer handed me a common paint scraper and said "Why don't you try this?" The blade turned out to be exactly the right gauge and large enough to make 5 or 6 blanks to allow for experimentation.
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Heating the spring steel blank with a MAPP gas torch
in preparation for bending. |
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| Finishing a new retainer clip on the sanding wheel. The pointed tip must have exactly the right shape or it will be difficult (impossible?) to get the trim ring off again! |
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| One of the fabricated clips (top) with the original example. |
This exercise is a good example of why car restoration is so time- and labor-consuming and hence so costly. The materials in this case cost virtually nothing, but it took days of labor to restore critical parts that may never be seen again.
. . . and all because a tiny piece of steel--about the size of a small horseshoe nail--was lost . . . .
