Can I put a 1969 Fiat 850 bumper set on a 1972?

[Jim McKenzie]

The title says it all: will a 1969 "straight" bumper set fit a 1972/3 850 Spider without a lot of hassle? The 1972/3 had the center overrider.

In other words, can I put these bumpers on the blue car to replace the bumpers on the orange car, without cutting or fab work?

 

[Loren Field]

Hi - I think that then can be swapped in their entirety but you cannot swap the center piece with the wing pieces (there were some slight changes in the depressions to accommodate the turn signals, and when those changed, the compatibility is lost. I suspect that if I am remembering incorrectly someone will correct me

 

[Jeff Stich]

The title says it all: will a 1969 "straight" bumper set fit a 1972/3 850 Spider without a lot of hassle? The 1972/3 had the center overrider. In other words, can I put these bumpers on the blue car to replace the bumpers on the orange car, without cutting or fab work?

I'd say leave the front bumper on the blue car alone (but ditch the whitewalls & goofy generic wheel covers), & enjoy the car as-is!

But to answer your question...first off, that blue car is a '71 model not a '69 (the front bumpers, turn-signals & sidemarker lights are different between these 2 years). So if you're actually pillaging this blue '71 car, then yes, you can swap the entire front bumper assembly with brackets & turn-signals straight over to the orange '72.

If you're actually taking the front bumper from a '69 (not the blue car shown), there are a few other issues to deal with, but it can be done, as well. Here's a '71/'72 Spider project that I helped a friend with about 20 years ago - we didn't have any '70s bumpers on hand, so we converted the car to '68/'69 bumpers (minus the overriders) & front turn lamps, which I had plenty of back then (turn-signal wiring conversion was needed, though):

What your orange car really needs is the front bumper center "blade" section, 2 bumper brackets & 2 front turn-signal mounts from a '70-'71 Spider (plus the 2 overrider blocks if you want to retain that look). Doing this, you can still use the '72 bumper-end (corner) sections & the turn-signal units.

 

[Jeff Stich]

***One more note...

If your orange car is a '73 & not a '72, you can't re-use the front bumper corners as I described. This is because on the '73 bumper, the corner section & the small "blade" section (between the corner section & the overrider block) are cast together as one unit, rather than 2 separate pieces like on the '72.

 

[Jim McKenzie]

Thanks much guys, I appreciate the help. I'm trying to finish up my car in the next 60 days, and live in an inspection sticker state: Massachusetts. I think I "need" a bumper set...the one with the car was rust in the shape of a bumper .

I'd prefer in order: a bumper-less car, a car with just a strip of rubber across the front (anyone ever done that?) maybe glued to the "lip" or in the front depression, or the bumper Jeff shows above, which is just beautiful.

BTW the blue and orange cars were just Google photos, here is my car. It had the 1973 bumpers, with the center over riders, and 1973 metal dash but the VIN says its a 1972....so no idea really what it once was.

 

[NM850]

Ni

Thanks much guys, I appreciate the help. I'm trying to finish up my car in the next 60 days, and live in an inspection sticker state: Massachusetts. I think I "need" a bumper set...the one with the car was rust in the shape of a bumper .

I'd prefer in order: a bumper-less car, a car with just a strip of rubber across the front (anyone ever done that?) maybe glued to the "lip" or in the front depression, or the bumper Jeff shows above, which is just beautiful.

BTW the blue and orange cars were just Google photos, here is my car. It had the 1973 bumpers, with the center over riders, and 1973 metal dash but the VIN says its a 1972....so no idea really what it once was.

Nice looking car.
I got rid of the over riders as Jeff suggested. Since the chrome on the bumpers was good I just used stainless steel hole plugs where the over rider bolt hole was. My car now looks like one in Jeff’s photo except for the hole plugs.
I think no bumper only looks good if a lot of prep is done first , i.e. body bumper mount holes filled etc...it’s very rarely done nicely in my opinion.

 

[kmead]

Perhaps because I grew up with the chrome bumpers and the cars were drawn with them as part of them design, I find a bumperless version of these cars to be less attractive than the straight line bumper Jeff shows.

These cars were meant to have a bit of jewelry across their front and are better for it.

Getting rid of the over riders would be a huge improvement.

 

[Jeff Stich]

I'd prefer in order: a bumper-less car, a car with just a strip of rubber across the front (anyone ever done that?) maybe glued to the "lip" or in the front depression, or the bumper Jeff shows above, which is just beautiful.

IMHO, bumperless only looks good on early covered-headlight type race cars (with no front turn-signal issues to deal with). Upright-headlight Spiders just look odd without bumpers - they NEED that thin horizontal line for aesthetical "balance".

A similar look as on that silver car in my photo can be done using the '70-'71 bumper pieces & turn lamps as I noted, & is likely easier & cheaper to do than sourcing the earlier bumper & turn lamps (the early turn lamps were also used on high-$$$ Italian exotics of the era). Simply removing the overriders really cleans up the look. For example, here's Thad Kirk's '71 850 Racer with stock front bumper & turn lamps, sans overriders:



A good comparison shot of this front bumper style with & without overriders:



Same bumper treatment on the rear:

BTW the blue and orange cars were just Google photos, here is my car. It had the 1973 bumpers, with the center over riders, and 1973 metal dash but the VIN says its a 1972....so no idea really what it once was.

I think I remember this car...the one with VIN tags & registration that didn't match the stamped chassis VIN? 1972 & 1973 had similar bumpers & alloy dash panels, with just slight variances in parts between the 2 years.

I've always disliked the '72-'73 bumpers with that ugly crossbar - it was a cheapy & easy fix to meet U.S. bumper-height requirements, but unfortunately they ruined the look of the car.

 

[tomnj]

I've always disliked the '72-'73 bumpers with that ugly crossbar - it was a cheapy & easy fix to meet U.S. bumper-height requirements, but unfortunately they ruined the look of the car.

Agreed, but did you see what the British were doing with their cars? Even worse, they took the Spitfire/GT6 front bumper and mounted it higher, changing the entire look of the car and hiding the grille. At least Fiat kept most of it's original style.

Fortunately the 850 Coupe and Sedan front bumpers didn't change much, except to integrate signal lights in them and standard bumper guards.