I can almost hear the conversation between the body designer (styling), the design engineer (engineering) and the plant engineer (assembly plant) now. I wish I could repeat it in German.
The design engineer says, "Hey, Wolfgang, left and right headlight frames and chrome surrounds are too expensive. The have to be identical to minimize tooling and inventory."
The body designer answers, "No way, Hans. That would mean we would have to stamp a matching groove in the fender on the inside of the headlight. That changes the draft angle, becomes too complicated to draw the sheetmetal and the scrap goes up. On the other hand, we can't remove the groove on the outside of the fender because it runs the full length of the car and the board has already approved the clay."
The plant engineer, Werner, jumps in with, "Why do you guys always have to make things difficult? Just make the headlights the same, tell me how much we will save, and we'll fix the fenders at the end of the line with a glob of lead and a file for half the savings. We just want the plant to get credit for the savings. OK?"
The design engineer says, "OK, lets go get a beer. I'll buy."
Fifty three years later, we are still discussing what was, at the time, an excellent decision.
Been there! Done that! End of Problem!
However, since Herr Friedrich Geiger is no longer with us, perhaps someone might pose the question to M. Paul Bracq. He was probably closer to the problem than his boss at the time anyway.
Tom Kizer
