Birth of a Giulietta
Probably from an insert in Quattroruote;
We are just not sure.
Enjoy.

Photos by unknown

We apologize if we can't give credit to the photographer, or even the source of these photos. No doubt the rights lie with Alfa Romeo, though, and if so, thank you Alfa Romeo.

These photos are taken from an insert advertisement, probably in Quattroroute magazine, in 1961. The pamphlet consists of 79 photos which illustrate the complete assembly of an Alfa Romeo from raw materials to a ready for the road product. We reproduced only a few, as the pamphlet was on a grainy pulp and most of the photos were not clear enough for our scanner and photoshop.

Bearing in mind that this was a photo-op and the workers and foreman knew to clean up their act beforehand, nevertheless one must be impressed by the overall cleanliness, and the pleasant appearance of the assembly line workers. And there were many workers, as in the days before robotics, almost everything needed to be hand assembled, welded, cast, adusted and tested. The employees seem to be carrying out a useful and somewhat technical task, and knew that they were putting together a car which was respected around the world.

Today, most cars are assembled from rather than produced. Not so at the old Alfa works, where virtually everything was produced in-house (a Ford idea). The carbs, electrics, gauges, lights, and some interior items were made by outside suppliers such as Bosch, Marelli, Weber, but at least on the Berlinas, virtually all mechanical items and body panels were produced in the same factory. Think of that in terms of the GM engined/shared GM platform as used today on the new Brera.

After the casting of the heads and block, the heads proceeded on a line where the valves and cams were installed.

The motor assembly line. Here the worker puts the plugs and wires into a Normale 1300.

Almost everything was made at the Portello factory, including the cast aluminum brake drums, rear ends, and transmissions. Then assembled by hand.

Alfa was among the first to employ a unit bodied construction. Here the floor stampings are stacked after pressing, ready to be sent to the chassis construction section.

Front end of a Berlina is being welded together. While Alfa made the Berlina bodies, Pininfarina, Bertone and Touring constructed the Sprints, Spiders and 2600s in their own factories and shipped them to Portello for final assembly.

Setting up the jigs for mating the body panels to the platform chassis on a Berlina.

Painted and out of the oven, the Berlina is polished.

Installing the brakes and suspension.

The engine and transmission were installed together, at an angle. This is the way to do this at home, as well.

Checking and filling the fluids, the final step before testing each car.

One Alfa truckload of Giuliettas on the way to the market. Don't you wish you could still buy one, brand new?