Captured Headlight Nuts

One area that I have never addressed on the 330 was that all of the captured nuts were missing on the back of where the headlight buckets mount.  Instead, there were clip-on nuts which I traded for 5mm versions.  Having square nuts captured in a small box allows the nut to move around allowing for minor adjustments in position of the bucket.  The other issue was that the headlights weren't centered in the body evenly.

A while ago, I found a source of square nuts (MMC) so I decided to make some boxes to hold these and replace the clip-on ones.  First, I did some measuring and cut out a sample.  It was pretty crude, but allowed my to adjust my dimensions as needed after I flattened it.  You can see it next to the new ones below.

Once I had the proper dimensions, I went back to my neighbors to use his metal cutting band saw.  First I cut strips to width and then cross-cut those to the right length.  After that, I set up a jig and the fence to cut the corners out.

Then I sanded off the rough edges and I played a little until I found the proper order to make the bends so the box came out right.  Once complete, I primed them followed by black paint.  Here they are along with the old screws and clip-on nuts.

Since the 330 is painted, I couldn't weld these on as was done in the factory.  Instead, I just pop riveted them in the right place (which, BTW, is how similar nuts are attached on the fiberglass firewall and floor).   You can see how far the holes were off.

On a couple, the original hole was so large that the nut would have fallen out.  So I had to add a front piece to the box and attach the whole thing.  This one I knew was in the right place as I could feel it fit between the old weld marks.

Here's a side view of one as installed.

Now the headlight fits into the dished area evenly.

Since then, a fellow PF coupe owner, George, found these captured nut assemblies at Ace Hardware and they had them in metric sizes