Building a rotisserie...

[v6spider]

mdrburchette: Thank you for posting the pics! VERY APPRECIATED!!! Although I noticed your 72 has the later model mountings for the bumper. Mine has basically a stud for mounting of the bumper shock for the early style bumper that is attached to a plate that covers the frame ends on the front and rear of the car. When i get a chance I will post some pics of it so everyone can see. One of the studs is stripped so I will have to cut the bumper shock off of it or some thing. Another one is broken completely off. I am not mounting a bumper any way, so it really doesn't matter to me about the studs. As I am going to do it Abarth style anyway.

Thanks!
Rob

[mdrburchette]

Rob, the Spider in the last pic is my 78, in case that's the bumpers you were referring to. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[v6spider]

Rob, the Spider in the last pic is my 78, in case that's the bumpers you were referring to. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Ah! That explains it. did you ever have your 72' on the rotisserie?

I am going to do what curly suggested for the front and attach the mounting to the frame mounts for the cross-member. for the rear I am going to remove the studs and cut out the steel that covers the frame on either side. Then slide the mounting inside the frame like your 78'... the front frame is not as stout and i think it won't support the weight very well on the first 18" of it... at least that is how it look to me...

Rob

[mdrburchette]

Yes. The mounting bar was specifically designed for the 72 with the original 72 bumper mounting arms welded to it in the perfect spot to make the car completely balanced. They are offset just a bit to ensure balance:

[v6spider]

Ok so here's the pics...This should help explain what I am talking about. Just four studs no hole for the bumpers to slide into. As you can see the passenger side stud is broken completely off. One of the rear ones has the threads broken off.





This is why I am going to cut the rear out and mount to the crossmember mounting areas in front...just makes sense...

[mdrburchette]

That's not a 72. It looks more like a 74 with the thin bumper shock mounts. The mounting holes on a 72 and earlier are narrow slits and the mount bolt to the side of the frame rail. Here is the same car getting ready to go to the sandblaster. I was showing how the Abarthe bumper blocks looked and you can see the slit for the bumper mount:

You can see where the mount comes through to the side and bolts to the side and not the front of the frame rail:


Ron looked at your pics and has another scenerio. He thinks someone opened up the holes and welded studs on there to mount different bumpers.

[v6spider]

mdrburchette: The chassis designation is 124BS1 with a manufacture date of October 1972 and the engine code is: 125BC040 which is a 1608cc. Which makes it a late year model 72' according to wikipedia. However, as far the mounts are concerned I don't think they were added. Definitely looks factory as there are no provisions for the slide in type of mount and all of the welds mainly spot welds are represntative of what the factory would do. I had a 74' originally and the bumper mounts slide into the end of the chassis but there was no slit in the nose like yours. the hole was rectangular. and the piece that slid into the frame end was rectangular as well with a more sophisticated shock mount. the ones on this spider are basically a rubber pad that goes underneath the bumper strut and is sandwiched by the body mounted stud and bumper strut.

Interesting non-the-less...

Rob

[mdrburchette]

That is interesting. I have two 71s, a 70, 72 and I have parted out two other 72s. All had the slits vs the rectangular holes for the bumpers. Wonder what the 73 has? I'll ask Bernie. His is a 73.

[v6spider]

Even more interesting is that I checked my copy of Essential FIAT 124 Spider & Coupe And it also confirms what I found on Wikipedia. According to the book it would seem that 72 to 74 is a weird period for Manufacture. Designation 124bs1was made July of 1970 to September of 1972. 124cs was made for a short time from Sept 1972 to July 1973. 124 cs1 was made Aug. 1973 to July 1978.

So Bernie's 73 could be a cs or cs1 depending on the date of manufacture. it will be interesting to see if his has the same style of bumper mount as mine...I'm think it is a good possibility the cs has the same bumper mounts as mine. I swear my car has to be the last BS1 off of the line. According to wiki the first cs is number: 059592 and the last is: 063307. Mine is number:061785 But it is clearly marked 124bs1 for the model.

rob

[mdrburchette]

Bernie just confirmed his bumpers are mounted on shocks in rectangular holes. Tell me, does your car have the long taillamps or short ones? The 1608s were supposed to have the long taillamps, but the car on the rotisserie in my pics have the short taillamps.

[v6spider]

The taillights on the 1608 are supposed to be two piece - one red, one white. However, mine has the three piece design of the cs and cs1. I spoke with Brad(brad131a4) last night and near as we can tell the car seems to be part cs and part bs1. the tag says it came with a 1608 engine... but the block that we pulled out was an 1800. The head and intake might be 1608 but at this point we are not certain. I think brad was going to run the numbers and see...

Rob

[mdrburchette]

If it's an 1800 block then you should find the head is from a 1592cc or 1800 since they are of the same family. The 1608 won't work on the 1800.

[v6spider]

If it's an 1800 block then you should find the head is from a 1592cc or 1800 since they are of the same family. The 1608 won't work on the 1800.

It will be interesting what Brad finds..

Rob