Bertone Restoration and spare parts information

I wrote to Bertone regarding their new restoration department and also asked about spare part availability. I received a reply today.

Dear Mr. Brown

Thanks for your interest in Bertone Classic.

About the restoration activity, even if our services are definitely open to
any Bertone car, I must say that will be very difficult to foresee
restoration jobs on the high production vehicles like X 1/9, Alfa GT and so
on. This because any restoration project we do imply the complete
disassembly of the car to the bare b.i.w. and a total rebuilding of all the
components. This will mean a very high number of working hours and
consequently high cost, in a range not compatible with the commercial value
of the car. On the other side the shortage of production spare parts you
mentioned, make the restoration very difficult.

The possibility to reproduce parts could be investigated, assuming there are
enough requests to justify the cost of a new tooling.

My best regards

Massimo Chiara
BEROTNE CLASSIC DIRECTOR

The possibility to reproduce parts could be investigated, assuming there are
enough requests to justify the cost of a new tooling.



Superb!

We should speak to the various Fiat and X1/9 owners clubs around the world,and get some feedback on that!!

Oh yes...........repro parts sounds interesting as long as we have numbers. Something to discuss at the camp fire

Maybe someone should point Massimo Chiara to the British Motor Heritage web site. I for one would be interested in a complete new body shell. BMH seem to be making money from producing shells for MG's.

A supply of new shells and body panels at reasonable prices will raise the value of the cars and will lower insurance costs as the rebuild cost will be less. At the moment insurers and owners will scrap a car rather than go to the trouble and expence to rebuild a car , which lowers its value as it is seen as a disposable item. More MG's are being save since BMH started reproducing new shells and panels. On a smaller scale The Monte Hospital has been reproducing spares for the Lancia Monte Carlo for years and seem to be making money from it and the value of the cars is rising.

If this small company can keep a car that only 7-8000 were produced on the road then surely the X1/9 community can keep a car that 180,000 were made on the road. Its not as though any major changes were made during its production as far as the bodywork is concerned.

Come on Bertone, pull your finger out. You produced some of the most iconic cars of the seventys and eightys, do you want to be remembered for a hand full of show cars that are never used. :evil:

If Bertone don't want to produce new spares then they should sell the old
tooling to someone who does. :x

Thats my 2p's worth. I think I need to sit down in a darkend room now. :shock:

Andy

Not as simple as that Andy. The MG's were all built on chassis whereas X1/9's aren't making it much more difficult to reproduce. The tooling was scrapped years ago so we have to be realistic in what we ask for and are able to obtain. At least Bertone unlike MG still exisit but time moves on. Bertone understand the iconic nature of the X1/9 and every so often open their arms to invite their children back but they run a business and if they don't make money then they don't survive. I'm afraid it's all a question of sums. We have to do the best we can and I'm sure we will.

The BMH cars are all monocoque-no chassis- they make the MG MGB,Midget and Mini shells,and seem to be thriving! The MG owners club had a good influence on them starting production and worked closely all the way through development,and I believe BMC/British Leyland/Rover/MG Rover or whatever they were at the time,were most helpful.

Wonder what they would say about reproducing a shell for the car that helped kill the British sports car??

Does anyone know if the stamps and presses are still around?

Ahh, ok, but I still think there are big differences. The tooling from what I heard does not exist anymore. And.........the MG club is reprotedly the largest car club in the world............am I correct there. Even if I'm not, the size and power the MG enusiasts have is far greater than X19 will ever have. Just look at the cost of an MG compared to X1/9. It's all about money mate and power. We just don't have either.

If you add all the clubs together round the world we may have a voice but the difficulty to get everyone round the table is enormous. If the Italian clubs don't get on with each other, what chance to we have.

Forgive me for being so negative but I don't want us going down the fairy tale route because we all know that isn't possible. We need to keep our feet on the ground and understand the realities of the situation.

I think thats right the chances of anyone producinf exxy panels is remote, there is just no money in it.................best tack would probably be to save as many cars from being destroyed before they are stripped of usefull parts.

Ebay to the rescue ? Its market forces that make the world and Exxys ? g o around...