Stealth
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Joined: 2/18/2007
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By dick Hussey @ allantesource.com
We had an '89 Allante' towed in recently for a transmission overhaul, plus a few other repairs.
We had occasion to open the trunk lid, and found it would not stay up. So I decided to install a pair of used trunk lift struts. Simple enough. I thought I checked them, but the lid would only stay up if you pulled it all the way up, then held it for a few seconds.
So next step was to put in a brand new set of struts. I was shocked when it responded just the same. I again lifted the lid all the way up. Even with brand new struts it would fall down immediately unless I held it a few seconds. I cannot help but dig in when something like this comes along. There has to be an answer, somewhere.
Unbeknownst to the owner, the car had received a rebuilt salvage title back in 1991, and that designation had disappeared by 1993 when it was retitled in another state. I had a friend run a carfax based upon some evidence of previous repair. So I figured maybe the car had been hit in the back and the front, and the deck lid might have had 20 pounds of bondo in it weighing it down. But I pulled the trunk lid liner and there was no sign of any body damage. The hinges were free.
I was really scratching my head. Out of literally hundreds of Allante's I have seen, I had never been through anything like this. As I was pondering it, Ron went to get a magnet. He solved the mystery. The trunk lid on this car was steel, not aluminum! The trunk lid looked exactly the same as an aluminum one.
This was not just the top exterior, but also all the underpinning. My only theory as to how this happened is that GM possibly scrapped an early prototype Allante' at one of the big yards in the midwest, and the yard then parted it out.
When this '89 was rebuilt, damaged enough to be given a repairable salvage title back in 1991, this steel lid might have been sold by a dismantler along with other parts for the rebuilding project.
for more information at allantesource, go here:
http://www.cadillacforum.com/m_18287/tm.htm
< Message edited by Stealth -- 4/6/2008 1:48:58 PM >
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Allante with STEEL deck lid - 
