[Alpines] Chrome H/L rims and mldg clips

[rande]

First, someone was looking for a source for Tiger side moulding fasteners.

Assuming you're not looking for the very original rivets, and are drilling holes
in the position the rivets were originally, one source, of course, is Rick at
Sunbeam Specialties.

If for some reason you can't wait for Rick's to ship, there's another local
source. A very nice clip was used on most of the models of 1975 and 1976 Volkswagen
Rabbits sold in the U.S. The VW part number is 155-853-585. It's identical to
Ricks, with the added benefit that it has a rubber o-ring that, when pressed
in, will seal against the hole that was drilled. I keep them in the same bin
at home that I have Rick's.

As for the individual (hanjan?), I thought their response was a little too categorical
about chrome headlight rims without attribution, so I asked Brian Postle of
Sunbeam Spares (and STOC). His own car, #605 (one of the Hartwell Six), has
painted rims ( it was Orchid Green, now a metallic blue), but numbers 633 and
632 both have chrome headlight rims. These are, respectively, the highest and
second highest I.D. number cars, near the very end of production. He said, as
far as he could tell, he thought all Mark II's originally used the painted rim.


Someone pointed out to me that there was just one part number in the January
1968 parts catalog covering 'first production Mark II' and the last 1,200 Alpine
V's!!!!. No supercessions, no optional numbers, no 'second production Mark II'.




As a side note, a seller from Quebec recently auctioned off a pair of slightly
marred NOS chrome rims for $333.25. Ouch. I asked the seller, before the end
of the auction, what the part number on these NOS rims was. He said they didn't
come in a Rootes/Chrysler or Lucas package, but he quoted the Rootes number
from the catalog. In other words, he didn't know.