help identify these lights

Hi, Mark. Here I am.

Now that I have seen the full rear view of your (beautiful!) car, I no longer think that your tail lights are the same as the Triumph Italia or Lancia Appia. And if they were made by Hella, that may suggest that they match some German car (maybe even a VW?). I'll look through some pictures today and see if anything looks like a match.

Can you confirm that the tail lights presently on your car at least APPEAR to be original to the car?

In some ways, they look quite a bit like Fiat 1100/1200 Sedan lights, but the proportions aren't quite right.

 

I'm horrible with older cars, but for some reason they look like some kind of Triumph lights.

 

Going by the comments here and after doing some research I think they are VW Karmann Ghia 1959+ lights. Maybe they are specific to that market (UK?) with the amber top section.

http://www.oldbug.com/349%20358.jpg

 

I thought about this quite a bit today. I felt pretty sure that the Fiat 1100/1200 lights looked like a possibility, but I couldn't figure out why Hella would be making lights for a Fiat, instead of Carello, or Altissimo. Then it occured to me: Not Fiat, but NSU-Fiat, the German branch of the company. I checked the Fiat light in some books here, and cross-referenced it against Chris Obert's site, and came up with Fiat part #4058373.

Here are three pictures: the lights on the rear of a Fiat 1200 Sedan, the lights on the rear of an NSU-Fiat (they flipped them upside down), and the light assembly from Obert's site.

By the way, if this light DOES appear to be correct (or almost correct) Obert's site says he has four in stock, at $227 each.

What do you think? Mark, can you come up with a close-up picture of your tail lights?
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In case a little more detail will help, here is an exploded diagram from the Fiat 1200 parts book.
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Great looking AC Mark.
Jeff, do you think the alloy trim around reflector is removable, or is it just pic quality? It seems several of those lights are identical, but the trim around reflector is really not as prominent as on close up. Unless flare from reflector in pics washes out alloy glint?
+1 on the ID though.
L
Fiat 1200 parts book...
There are no meds for this.

 

Well, that's why I asked if Mark had a closeup pic of his lights - it's the only way to tell if my guess is correct.

I was missing that little trim strip on one of my Multipla tail lights, so I made one of them by cutting it out from a Sprite can. You can't tell the difference.

Yes, it IS rather amusing to find someone with a Fiat 1200 parts book at hand to investigate mysteries like this. I obtained several boxes of old Fiat manuals and parts books for free from a dealership that was throwing them away. This was 30 years ago.

 

I have similar collections of ephemera. I agree closeup would help, just trying to decide how photos look so different. Optics is a hobby.
To truly be correct on the Multipla, you should have cut the piece from one of these-the first Italian beer cans on the market, from '50's. Probably what half our cars have in them.
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Bump? Mark??

 

Thanks, Mark!

I don't know if there is a source for the actual Hella lenses, if you want to be 100% correct. It would help to have a contact in Germany. I suppose there might be a club for NSU-Fiat (Neckar) owners. The same lights were used on Weinsberg (Fiat 500 based) and Europa (Fiat 1100 based) models. Would ANYONE know that AC used Hella lights instead of Altissimo lights, unless you told them? On a one-off car????