Technical fiat 600 headlight identification

[justgeorge]

Hi-- I am new to this forum and looking for some help with 600 headlights. I bought a "restored" 1964 fiat 600. It came with a box of new headlight parts instead of headlights installed. Clearly parts are mismatched or missing. I am hoping you all can tell me what I am missing. From online research it looks like I have the large headlights (+- 7in. diameter) but I cant find anywhere which shows some sort of adapter that goes between the black metal cup that bolts to the car body and the light and bezel.

Ideally since the headlights and chrome trim are new I'd just get the pieces I need to use these. Alternatively if these are just the wrong parts then the complete headlight assembly would be what I need . any help is appreciated

Thanks

 

[stocky]

This might help

 

[justgeorge]

thank you. it looks like I am missing the part with the red arrow in the attached picture. Anyone know what that is called, part number, or where to buy? Then are there springs and screws that hold everything together, any part numbers or sources for those would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[stocky]

Try here

https://www.ricambio.co.uk/fiat/52-fiat-seat-600-parts/197-lights-lamps--lenses

 

[justgeorge]

thank you. it looks like I am missing the part with the red arrow in the attached picture. Anyone know what that is called, part number, or where to buy? Then are there springs and screws that hold everything together, any part numbers or sources for those would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

So I bought the parts that the red arrow is pointing at. they are light ring seats. However I am not seeing a way that they attach to the body. See the pictures. They are not quite big enough to fit on the outside of the seam around the headlight opening and cant fit inside. There are no screw holes in the body to mount it (maybe they were welded up during paint?) any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

[justgeorge]

Do I need this part? maybe the light ring fits inside the part pictured below?

 

[summersc]

Do I need this part? maybe the light ring fits inside the part pictured below?

Hey @justgeorge. I dont think you need that part. That headlight bucket is already in your car and painted. You will need to drill holes for the headlight rings, however. Here are pictures of my headlights during my restoration. As it came back from paint, you can see the same headlight pocket you have. Your car appears to be at the same stage as this picture shows:

Then I cleaned up and attached the headlight mounting ring (which looks like the part you bought, but not exactly. I am also in the USA). You do need to drill holes in the fender to mount this ring. The red arrow in this pic shows where one of the screws is for my car (I beleive there are three, and two are hidden in this picture:

Its important to note that the silver headlight mount in the pic above is actually an assembly. It has two sheetmetal parts; one that screws to the fender, and one that holds the headlight. Then there are some springs and special bolts that hold the two parts together. These screws and springs are what allow you to aim the headlight. Here is a picture with the headlight installed and some notes on what is what:

And the chrome headlight bits just cover all of that up.

From the looks of your picture, you are still missing the sheetmetal part that holds the headlight (labeled headlight mount in the pic above), and springs that hold the headlight in place.

Here is another "side view" pic:

And with my new chrome headlight bezel thing:

I hope this helps!

 

[summersc]

oh... one more thing. I seem to remember that on my car, the part that you bought was a very tight fit onto the fender/headlight socket sheet metal. I think i had to bend the painted parts in a bit to get things to fit. In retrospect, i should have checked for fit BEFORE paint, but alas. That also wont help you.

 

[justgeorge]

oh... one more thing. I seem to remember that on my car, the part that you bought was a very tight fit onto the fender/headlight socket sheet metal. I think i had to bend the painted parts in a bit to get things to fit. In retrospect, i should have checked for fit BEFORE paint, but alas. That also wont help you.

Thank you summersc it is interesting that you have a different style headlight assembly than what is in the manual. I looked inside my fenders to see if I could see evidence of mounting holes and I could not, there was a lot of seam sealer in that area the would have obscured it. On the exterior of the fender my headlight openings have a pretty large radius compared to yours. So where your ring clearly registers around the headlight opening and to a flat seat mine has a radius that prevents that. the ring is close to fitting over but doesnt. So I cut the ring to loosen it up and I think it will easily fit over and then with a little washer under each screw I'll be able to fit it on and have a little space for the chrome headlight surround to clip behind it. Thank you for the help! I'll post pictures if it works to close out this thread.

Regarding the radius, it might be comprised of bondo.... or maybe it is an earlier style fender that is meant for the smaller headlights that register on the inside of the opening with clips.

 

[justgeorge]

I sort of solved the issue, and converted to the larger headlights. my headlight rings did not fit over the sheet metal because there was a large radius under the paint and no holes, the large radius could have been bond or sheetmetal. I did hit some bondo drilling the required holes. Anyways I first just cut the headlight ring so that I could stretch it around the sheetmetal. I would not recommend that as it made the headlight ring a larger diameter and then the chrome exterior ring did not fit well at all. So that was a total mistake. The next headlight I left the exterior diameter of the headlight ring alone and I removed as much of the interior as possible while leaving enough metal around the plastic threaded lugs (which are removable) and spring and mounting holes. This eliminated most of the interference with the radius and also allowed the screw holes to be precisely transferred to the body. There were a few plastic washers that fit between the body and the headlight ring, those help space it away from the radius as well. At the end of the process it all worked pretty well although it required heavy modification of stock parts so its not exactly concours quality!

 

[58transformabile]

@justgeorge The black headlight buckets you have are for the Series 1 600 with the small headlights & (obviously) won't work with your other parts. I have at least 1 (maybe 2?) of the outer headlight holder brackets as shown in summersc's photos, as well as the thin metal headlight retainer ring(s?), several of the slotted adjustment screws & the headlight holder spring-clips. I'll check my parts stash tomorrow & take some photos.

Also, if you'd like to sell that pair of black headlight buckets, I'd be interested in buying them from you (trying to help out a friend of mine that needs them for his car).