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Valve Cover finish

W

wframe

Donation Time
I have seen several different finishes on the Alpine valve cover: completely painted, painted with the raised Sunbeam casting polished, all polished, polished with the recessed part of the Sunbeam casting painted (some black some body color). Any idea what was the stock appearance of the valve cover?

Mine is currently all polished and will stay that way for the time being. However, it would be nice to know should the opportunity come up to refinish it.

Thanks!
 
alpine_64

alpine_64

Donation Time
SI-II polished with the recess around the letters painted black I believe. From S3 on the alloy covers were just a plain casting with no letters and not polished.
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
valve cover

the valve cover was not polished and they had no paint on them in stock form.
 
alpine_64

alpine_64

Donation Time
65beam said:
the valve cover was not polished and they had no paint on them in stock form.
Click to expand...

In some of the factory promo shots they are definatly painted inside the lettering.. but might just be for the photos.. in some road tests its looks as if they are.. but maybe thats just dirt building up already? :p
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
valve covers

my response was based on owning many alpines including still owning one that has been in the family since new. i also have an nos valve cover that has never been on a car.
 
alpine_64

alpine_64

Donation Time
65beam said:
my response was based on owning many alpines including still owning one that has been in the family since new. i also have an nos valve cover that has never been on a car.
Click to expand...

I decided to confirm what i wrote earlier and went to check the photos i referenced. As i stated i think i had seen the letteres painted in original promotinoal shots and in early road test photos. I acknowledge that on early cars preperation and finish by the factory may have been a little higher... but.. looking through the road test articles till the end of SII road tests they all seem to be painted;

check articles:
Road & Track May 1960
autocar December 1960
Autosport April 1961
Road & Track October 1961
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
valve covers

i'm glad you have the time to research things like this . i don't.i spend my time doing more constuctive things like restoring more alpines.i don't worry about the color of the valve covers since mine are all polished .i guess the NOS valve cover in my attic must have lost it's paint from laying around since the early 60's. i must say that painting the sunbeam letter area does look good on a modified alpine . i just don't want it that way on any of my cars.
 
alpine_64

alpine_64

Donation Time
65beam said:
i'm glad you have the time to research things like this . i don't.i spend my time doing more constuctive things like restoring more alpines.i don't worry about the color of the valve covers since mine are all polished .i guess the NOS valve cover in my attic must have lost it's paint from laying around since the early 60's. i must say that painting the sunbeam letter area does look good on a modified alpine . i just don't want it that way on any of my cars.
Click to expand...


65beam, i just wanted to justify what i had said earlier. As you had implied i was wrong i wanted to confirm what i had said as being correct. As for researching taking time.. just opened one of the brooklands compiled road test books which i'm sure you would have as well. You may have a NOS rocker cover.. it may be as you have said.. rootes often had variations in their parts.. I'm glad you are kleeping your alpines on the road and restoring others.. thats what its about.. as for painting the letters in looking good on a modified car.. then go for it.. given yours are polished.. thats more modified than painting it anyway :D
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
valve covers

i'm sorry you thought i implied that you were wrong.i said you were wrong based on my 42 years of owning these cars and as far as i am cocerned there is nothing more to be said on this subject.
 
alpine_64

alpine_64

Donation Time
65beam said:
i'm sorry you thought i implied that you were wrong.i said you were wrong based on my 42 years of owning these cars and as far as i am cocerned there is nothing more to be said on this subject.
Click to expand...

I guess all those photos are wrong? Those naughty people at Brooklands books must have spent many hours in Photoshop altering those images to subvert the sunbeam community. Why dont you go look at the images and explain how they are wrong...

I have seen you say so many times on this board people are wrong and used your personal experience as the evidence.. well I’m giving you objective evidence, i guess those cars that appeared in the road test were wrong too? I was not lucky enough to own one of these cars new like you were.. then again i couldn't as i was born over a decade after the last alpine rolled off the line, but i do what i can to learn about them.

If you can't acknowledge that there is strong evidence that there were cars with the lettering painted in then i guess you are happy going on in ignorance.. must be bliss for you.. some cars may not have had them painted.. but some certainly did I guess that makes you WORNG as well… nuff said
 
W

wframe

Donation Time
OK, guys, I asked a simple question. I did not mean to start a flame war.

I have now spent more time reading (and no offense, laughing at) these posts than I spent polishing my valve cover. I must say that all of the discussed options look nice. Since my car will never be a show queen, it really does not matter; I was just curious.

So many other things changed throughout the production, I would be surprised if this did NOT.

Like almost every hobby, the old car hobby is about the journey, not the destination. As I pointed out a couple of years ago, in a discussion about DPOs, these cars made it to the teenage driver scene very quickly. At one point, there were 3 Alpines in my high school parking lot way back in 1966, when some of them were barely a year old. These were bought by the kids not by their parents. Those kids didn't care about the paint/polish/chrome scheme on the rocker cover, they cared about the fact that the cars were COOL. And they still are: showroom stock, vintage custom, or just a really cool daily driver.

Thanks for the entertainment, and MORE importantly, thanks for all the great information that gets passed around on this forum!
 
Nickodell

Nickodell

Donation Time
Ah, Michael; I see you're back from the Middle East. For a time I thought you might have been kidnapped for ransom, and was about to kick in the first $100 to start a fund to raise the money. For them to keep you, of course.
 
alpine_64

alpine_64

Donation Time
Nickodell said:
Ah, Michael; I see you're back from the Middle East. For a time I thought you might have been kidnapped for ransom, and was about to kick in the first $100 to start a fund to raise the money. For them to keep you, of course.
Click to expand...


Nick,

Your crazy people thread is over in the general chat section... this is about sunbeams and originality, you dont ever talk about those, stick to what you do best... being a crazy right wing talk back radio listener.

Oh.. and where did YOU get $100? :D
 
lgurley

lgurley

Donation Time
My air conditioner hoses block my view of the valve covers so I can't see if the letters were painted or polished.
 
lemansvk

lemansvk

Donation Time
The plot goes even deeper than that Michael:rolleyes: . Somehow they managed to alter the images in my factory WSM and my SF Page WSM to look as if the rocker cover was painted - the fiends! And worse, they also managed to do it to the road test that was printed in Wheels Magazine in Australia in the 1960s. Where will it all end? :D



alpine_64 said:
I guess all those photos are wrong? Those naughty people at Brooklands books must have spent many hours in Photoshop altering those images to subvert the sunbeam community. Why dont you go look at the images and explain how they are wrong...
Click to expand...

Cheers, Vic
 
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