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1963 Sunbeam Harrington Lemans

Alpine Bob

Donation Time
Very interesting, I went to look at a SV with a 1800 Toyota & 5 speed, and a SII parts car at a farm here in Georgia. The SII parts car was so rusted when he picked up the rear end of the car with a front end loader it broke right in half. Must have been rusted like the Harrington.
 

AlpineIan

SAOCA Founder
I'll get pictures up here soon, but I have a new body under this Harrington roof now. Kind of neat to see it making progress.

Need to get it mounted to the body so I can start stripping the old paint off the roof. The new body has a fresh coat of DP40 on it and still needs a little bit of repair to the lower rear quarters, other than that it's very solid.

Will get pictures up here soon.
 

AlpineIan

SAOCA Founder
Bad picture, but you can see the new body with the old roof resting in place. Still have a lot of work to to... first being to get the entire car mocked up with roof attached and trim installed to make sure everything is in the right place. Then I will remove the chrome and strip/prep the roof while it is still attached to the car. That's the plan right now.
 

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mikephillips

Donation Time
You ought to make a mold from one of those Harrington tops while you're at it. You'd be able to supply repair panels and complete tops in the future.
 

Ken Ellis

Donation Time
Hmmm... how about a clip-on Harrington hardtop? Remove trunk lid, and have it attach to windshield, door posts, some clamps back by the fins, and a hatchback that opens with the trunk latch. Sounds like a great way to lose a lotta money fast!

Ken, in jest...
 

mikephillips

Donation Time
I'm certainly not suggesting you start producing them in hopes of selling, as pointed out a great way to lose money. But you'd have what you needed if a car needed serious repair or replacement of some or all of it's existing top. And you could make new one on an ordered and paid basis. Just a thought since you currently have 2 complete tops.
 

AlpineIan

SAOCA Founder
No, no reproduction tops. Too much work and the effort. Besides... it dosen't stop with the top. You need to make glass, chrome trim, rubber, wood framework... too much to do.
 

65beam

Donation Time
harrington tops

ian is right about the lemans tops. the conversion to a lemans was very extensive compared to a harrington alpine. the wood frame in the top itself is rather complex i had to replace the wood in some areas on my red car . there are also other wood frames attached to the steel body that were used to attach the top , along with angle braces , latches for the hatch, hatch props ,etc. there are a bunch of parts that were probably not standard on any of the cars.i found differences in the way the top was attached on my two cars .the bacic idea was the same but there were some differences including the release for the hatch . the cable on the red car is run thru a series of clamps while the cable on the moonstone car runs thru a tube in some areas. it would not be an easy,short term job to build a lemans without a donor car with all the pieces .i like the large hammer work done to the top of the wheel wells in order to set the top.crude but effective.
 

AlpineIan

SAOCA Founder
Right Bob... The Harrington Alpine is quite extensive too. It's not just a top... It has wood framework as well as a modified rear bulkhead with drain channel to replace the large boot lit with the small Harrington one. ANY Harrington conversion is not a simple hard top. There is a large amount of work involved to make one fit properly and once the conversion has been done there is no going back to the convertable Alpine.
 

65beam

Donation Time
harrington top

i would tend to think that with the removal of more of the body for the lemans that it may have been easier to add some of the parts than to work around the full rear wings. the major feat was that they were building a car that was metal and fiberglass. i can remember a time 25 years ago when very few sunbeam owners even knew what the car was. i would like to know what sealer they used between the metal and fiberglass.i do know that it really hardened up.i'm glad they didn't make the tops out of aluminum.i knew i wanted one when i first saw bruney's back in the seventies.
 

alpine_64

Donation Time
Hmmm... how about a clip-on Harrington hardtop? Remove trunk lid, and have it attach to windshield, door posts, some clamps back by the fins, and a hatchback that opens with the trunk latch. Sounds like a great way to lose a lotta money fast!

Ken, in jest...

There is such a solution.. the "astro" fastback top. See the link..







Ian do you have one of these.. i think Eric G might.
 

bernd_st

Bronze Level Sponsor
One of our club associates over here in Germany has found a real Ashley Hardtop. He put it on a S1 Alpine body. Looks terrific even though in need of restoration. Will try to take some pictures and post them later. At least another "option" if one only could find one...
 

AlpineIan

SAOCA Founder
There is such a solution.. the "astro" fastback top. See the link...

Ian do you have one of these.. i think Eric G might.

No, I don't have one. Eric does though. I tried to get that one down under, but the shipping fell through. I'm pretty much becoming just a Harrington guy now. I don't have much interest in the convertable alps anymore... at least not fo myself to own. Of course, I still have interest in them.

My current situation is causing me to thin out my collection and I really want to keep my Harrington Alpine and this new Harrington LeMans. I'm pretty exited about Harringtons right now due to the activity they are currently seeing. I'm really looking forward to finishing Dave Kelloggs HA and helping Scott fix up the LeMans he just bought.

It will be very nice to have all these Harringtons restored to top knotch condition. Having these cars restored correctly and not over presonalized will really help to boost their reputation and increase interest in them.

I was talking to Rick Kellett at the United about organizing an exclusive Harrington gathering here in the US in the near future. We need to pick a location and see how many Harrington owners we can get to come. Maybe we could get a few unknowns to surface. We should plan this a few years out to give people time to get cars on the road...
 

65sunbeam

SAOCA Membership Director
Diamond Level Sponsor
Ian a Harrington gathering is a great idea. How about celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Harrington? I would organize an event at Dillard, Georgia for that if all concerned think it is a good idea. Until then we can "Invade" various Rootes shows with our Harringtons. It is nice attending an event with a variety of Harringtons to compare and contrast changes during the model years......Eric
 

AlpineIan

SAOCA Founder
Eric,

That's a great idea! That would be in 2011... is my math correct? Very good idea. This gives us plenty of time to restore your Wedgewood Blue LeMans, right?

I think Dillard would be a nice place to have it. Would the CA guys come?

I'll start a new thread on this topic.
 

Harrington Jan

Donation Time
Ashley hard top

One of our club associates over here in Germany has found a real Ashley Hardtop. He put it on a S1 Alpine body. Looks terrific even though in need of restoration. Will try to take some pictures and post them later. At least another "option" if one only could find one...
To Bernd and some others.
There's a site called harringtonalpine.org . Take a look quite interesting, there are pictures too. No names are presented unless the owners tell us to do so.
Jan
 

AlpineIan

SAOCA Founder
Correct Jan... there is an Ashley category on the registry there too.

Back to the '63 Harrington LeMans that this thread is about...

What do you make of this car? I was going through stuff with Jan Servaites recently and I don't know what to do. The car was painted Carnival Red as an Alpine and it looks like it was painted Pippin Red as a Harrington. Paint on the roof was too flakey to see what the base color was.. although looks like Pippin Red to me. The interior spaces were Carnival Red, up to where it was exposed... anywhere that there was exposed paint it was pippin red. Data tag was partially destroyed by corrosion and the paint code was too worn away, but it looks like code 39 to me.

The seat piping and carpet bindings looks dark, like Pippin red.

LeaAnn has still not been able to find the original registration tags, but she did get me a title. Her father had painted it white, so that is all she remembers it as.

I'm pretty convinced that I will be painting the car Pippin Red, but not too sure how to deal with the data tag. This tag is in such bad shape that a reproduction will need to be used. Do I stamp it 39 or 26? What do you know about the other Pippin Red Harringtons that are out there?
 

bernd_st

Bronze Level Sponsor
To Bernd and some others.
There's a site called harringtonalpine.org . Take a look quite interesting, there are pictures too. No names are presented unless the owners tell us to do so.
Jan

Know about the site and really love it. Especially the period pictures. My proposed pictures will just be for those interested to see how an Ashley Hardtop has exactly looked from the inside and show some details.

This is one thing I have learned over recent investigations for all conversions. Everything is about the details...
 

napa 1

Donation Time
To Bernd and some others.
There's a site called harringtonalpine.org . Take a look quite interesting, there are pictures too. No names are presented unless the owners tell us to do so.
Jan

Jan and Ian, harringtonalpine.org is truly a work of art. I browse it often, lots of great information and photos. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's worth the time to browse through it.

Thanks.
 
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