BodyThe Berlina body is a steel unibody, built all in one piece with the chassis. It is entirely welded; there are no bolt-on pieces other than doors, trunk and hood, and bumpers and other trim.
The Berlina shape was a heavy restyle (by Marcello Gandini at Bertone ) of the Giulia sedan of 1962. While the two shapes are generally very similar, all the details are quite different. As far as I know, the only common body elements between the Giulia and the Berlina are the windshield and front door glass.
The body is fairly plain, slab-sided, vertical, and unadorned. Styling features on the very square shell are limited to a sloping nose, flared front wheel arches, an indented Kamm tail, and matching canted sections along the longitudinal edges of the roof and the body. The chamfered corners of the hood and trunk echo this angled shape, and also mimic this same chamfering on the GTV's hood and trunk. The Giulia hood and trunk had square edges. And the longitudinal body sections on the Giulia sides and roof were scalloped, rather than canted. A common adornment on US 2000 Berlinas was riveted-on rubber and chrome side molding, usually placed along the body just above the level of the rear wheelwell.
The Berlina hood is hinged at the front, opening from the rear. This matches the GTV and Spider hood. It has one hood latch on either side (both operated by the same cable from the hood release handle), and torsion bar springs and a heavy stay rod to hold it open. There are small plastic emergency hood release cables routed through the firewall near the right side of the heater unit under the dashboard. The Giulia hood had been hinged at the rear, opening from the front, and had a spring-loaded tubular prop.
The Berlina windows are large. The windshield (identical, or close to, depending on the year, the Giulia sedan windshield) is fairly vertical and wraps around to the sides. 1969 US windshields (and all year non-US windshields) are held in by a rubber gasket; 1971 and later US windshields are glued in. The two types of windshields each have different trim. The side windows are flat, though canted in a little. The front windows and vent windows are the same as on the Giulia sedan. The rear door windows are noticeably longer than the Giulia rear windows, and roll down into the doors only about 2/3 of the way, due to the intrusion of the wheel-well.
The rear window wraps around more than is apparent at first glance, though not nearly as much as the Giulia rear window. The rear window is held in by a rubber gasket with bright trim. 2000 cars came equipped with a grid defroster on the rear window.
Berlinas were available in a variety of colors, though the most common colors still around are metallic olive, maroon, white, and dark blue.
Copyright © 1997 by Andrew D. Watry
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