Is My Chassis Different

[murramor]

I attach two pictures.  One is of my car with the left rear wing removed and the other is from an earlier post by Oetker.  My chassis appears to be slightly different from his which looks as if the the luggage compartment does not have a steel 'wall' between it and the fibreglass panel.  Does this mean that mine is an early version or am I comparing my 1.6 to a 2.2 liter car?

MY metal is rusted but not perforated and I was a little worried that the metal is thin.  After seeing Oetker's picture it seems like I don't have to worry!  I apologize if this comes through twice - my first effort was rejected because my photo was too big.

regards

[murramor]

Thinking about my post, perhaps I did not make myself very clear.  Oetker's car looks like it has a sheet of dust proofing plastic where my car has rusted metal.  Am I interpreting the photo correctly? If so, I wonder why there would be a difference.

[JL]

Hi Ron
My 1.6 is like yours with a solid panel but I have seen a 2.2 with the plastic panel so maybe it is a weight saving design to help with a heavier engine. I am sure someone will have a definitive answer soon.
Regards
John

[Oetker]

Both my cars (1.6 81 and 2.2 82) and the breaker have plastic.
If I look good I see a welding on the left.
I never saw one without the plastic.

Herman

[murramor]

Basically, this is good news for me.  Even if the metal is thin it is still stronger than the plastic.  So as long as I kill the rust, I do not have to worry about strength in this area.

[jlg]

It is probably an evolution of the design. I'd expect the plastic sheet to have been used on earlier models and the later ones used metal. It happened this way on the Bagheera.
Also, early Murenas had "cardboard" protection behind the rear lights when later ones were part of the chassis.

JL.

[murramor]

That's interesting, JL.  I had expected the chassis to have little or no development because the Murena had such a short model run.  One learns something new every time one explores the car a little further.  I discovered that the gearbox has a dipstick for the oil today level while I had it up on the hoist looking at it from below - neat!
regards
Ron