mackzknife
Donation Time
I figured I would follow the example of afsanders and put regular reports on how my Alpine project is going. Picture links to follow.
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Progress on my Alpine project
- Thread starter mackzknife
- Start date
mackzknife
Donation Time
The story so far....
Hi I am Mack and I'm an Alpine addict.
I caught the bug a little over 10 years ago when a friend showed me a video of the Tiger and I was hooked. I searched for a car for all this time and finally came across a great one in Vancouver BC Canada which had no engine or transmission. I picked up the car on November 13th and brought it back to the Island where I live. Since I live in a condo and we have strict rules about no working on cars here I have it stored on a friends farm about 45 minutes away, but where I can make as much noise as I want and I have access to pipe benders, welders, tools and a tractor.
In researching my Alpines history a lot of strange coincidences have popped up:
1. It was built during the week of August 19th 1966 which was my Mums 19th birthday.
2. My Mum dated a fellow in Scotland in 1966/67 who had an Alpine
3. My Alpine used to belong to a professor at the University of Victoria. My friend who has the farm's Mother went to UVic and remembered the car well.
4. The President of one of the Alpine Owners clubs I joined and I have the same name.
Hi I am Mack and I'm an Alpine addict.
I caught the bug a little over 10 years ago when a friend showed me a video of the Tiger and I was hooked. I searched for a car for all this time and finally came across a great one in Vancouver BC Canada which had no engine or transmission. I picked up the car on November 13th and brought it back to the Island where I live. Since I live in a condo and we have strict rules about no working on cars here I have it stored on a friends farm about 45 minutes away, but where I can make as much noise as I want and I have access to pipe benders, welders, tools and a tractor.
In researching my Alpines history a lot of strange coincidences have popped up:
1. It was built during the week of August 19th 1966 which was my Mums 19th birthday.
2. My Mum dated a fellow in Scotland in 1966/67 who had an Alpine
3. My Alpine used to belong to a professor at the University of Victoria. My friend who has the farm's Mother went to UVic and remembered the car well.
4. The President of one of the Alpine Owners clubs I joined and I have the same name.
mackzknife
Donation Time
Work so far
So far I have managed to completely inventory the parts that had been dumped in the car after a previous restoration that was abandoned over 10 years ago. Everything went into ziplock bags, was numbered and listed on a spreadsheet. One thing I will be doing in future though is putting an index card in the bag with the item description and where it came from. I have managed to identify most of what was found. Sadly some parts were beyond saving due to them being dumped in the car.
* I have completely removed the soft top which was water damaged beyond repair and to strip and repaint the soft top bows.
* I did my first bit of bodywork on the car, removing a dent in the drivers headlight area. This is actually the first time I have ever done anything of this type so I was pretty nervous and I think I stood staring at the dent with a bodywork hammer in my hand for about 20 minutes before I worked up the courage to do it.
* I have removed some of the rusted parts (headlight buckets, trunk latches, and so on) and stripped and repainted them.
* I have cleaned up the bumpers including stripping and repainting the brackets. The hardest part was getting the 42 year old bolts off.
Since the drive up to work on the car is so long I usually bring back parts to work on at home and then bring completed ones back on the next trip.
I'll be posting a link to the picture albums as I get them organized.
So far I have managed to completely inventory the parts that had been dumped in the car after a previous restoration that was abandoned over 10 years ago. Everything went into ziplock bags, was numbered and listed on a spreadsheet. One thing I will be doing in future though is putting an index card in the bag with the item description and where it came from. I have managed to identify most of what was found. Sadly some parts were beyond saving due to them being dumped in the car.
* I have completely removed the soft top which was water damaged beyond repair and to strip and repaint the soft top bows.
* I did my first bit of bodywork on the car, removing a dent in the drivers headlight area. This is actually the first time I have ever done anything of this type so I was pretty nervous and I think I stood staring at the dent with a bodywork hammer in my hand for about 20 minutes before I worked up the courage to do it.
* I have removed some of the rusted parts (headlight buckets, trunk latches, and so on) and stripped and repainted them.
* I have cleaned up the bumpers including stripping and repainting the brackets. The hardest part was getting the 42 year old bolts off.
Since the drive up to work on the car is so long I usually bring back parts to work on at home and then bring completed ones back on the next trip.
I'll be posting a link to the picture albums as I get them organized.
mackzknife
Donation Time
New picture links
http://picasaweb.google.com/mackssunbeam
I put up all the pictures and video that I have so far.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mackssunbeam
I put up all the pictures and video that I have so far.
mackzknife
Donation Time
This week on Macks Alpine
Well this part week I have removed all the gauges and the dash pad and knee bolster, removed the speaker box and trim that the previous owner did and started sanding the grey primer that was spayed over the paint, and windows etc.
The dash cover has now been recut in a different colour (tan) and the knee bolster foam replaced and a new cover in green made. I have also made a vinyl skin for the door panels and planned out the new scheme.
I am still reading up on all the mechanical and bodywork stuff I need to learn to be able to get the car where I want as well as reading all the back posts on this forum.
Well this part week I have removed all the gauges and the dash pad and knee bolster, removed the speaker box and trim that the previous owner did and started sanding the grey primer that was spayed over the paint, and windows etc.
The dash cover has now been recut in a different colour (tan) and the knee bolster foam replaced and a new cover in green made. I have also made a vinyl skin for the door panels and planned out the new scheme.
I am still reading up on all the mechanical and bodywork stuff I need to learn to be able to get the car where I want as well as reading all the back posts on this forum.
afssanders
Donation Time
molds
Howdy
I noticed you were doing some molding. I think I can help you out here a bit.
burmanfoam.com is a great resource for molding materials in small and fairly large quantities if you live in the USA. Silicone is an awesome molding compound for taillight lenses and comes in many shore hardnesses and a couple of type. Tin and Platinum based. They also sell a non yellowing water clear polyester resin that is tint-able.
Hope this helps. good luck
Howdy
I noticed you were doing some molding. I think I can help you out here a bit.
burmanfoam.com is a great resource for molding materials in small and fairly large quantities if you live in the USA. Silicone is an awesome molding compound for taillight lenses and comes in many shore hardnesses and a couple of type. Tin and Platinum based. They also sell a non yellowing water clear polyester resin that is tint-able.
Hope this helps. good luck
mackzknife
Donation Time
Taillight project
Thanks for the recommendation. The latex that I had for some other work ended up being too flexible and the first lens came out wrong. I will be picking up some of the 2 part silicone mold maker in the next few weeks.
The plan for the lights is to smooth out the seams on the taillight lenses and they will be all LED with the upper and lower rounds being marker/turn and the center section being brake.
Thanks for the recommendation. The latex that I had for some other work ended up being too flexible and the first lens came out wrong. I will be picking up some of the 2 part silicone mold maker in the next few weeks.
The plan for the lights is to smooth out the seams on the taillight lenses and they will be all LED with the upper and lower rounds being marker/turn and the center section being brake.
mackzknife
Donation Time
Lights and Sounds
Well some progress has been made over the last two weeks...
My door panel upholstery is now complete and I will be cutting the door panels next week when I come back from being at sea.
I have built and upholstered a panel in which my Pioneer DEH-7000 UB CD/Ipod/receiver will go and made a Dummy speaker grill which will hide my Ipod, Iphone and Nav system when not in use. I got the idea from the Aston Martin DB5 that Bond drives in Goldfinger with the panel that hides the tracker screen.
I still have to design and fabricate hinges that will slide and hide the grill.
My plastic dash was so badly cracked that I will have to make a new one, but I always had in mind doing a Walnut look dash anyway. I am also going to go another route with the guages, Art Deco style numerals on white background.
Also the old Lucas switches are going to be replaced with ones that look similar from Cole Hersee but have better design. I even found indicator lights that look a lot like the original ones but can be dimmed.
My headlights have now been sorted out, mostly. The buckets required a fair bit of work to get them properly squared away and are now the proper shape. My new projector lenses arrived today and fit well into the buckets but a little notch will have to be cut to accommodate the wiring for the marker light. Hopefully the rest of the kit arrives soon so I can test and plan the wiring run and location for the ballasts and starters for the HIDs.
I have also made up a set of brackets to hold the fog and driving lights that will hide under the front bumper.
The housings for the front turn signal are going to be a bit of a project to sort out. They both have rusted through holes in them and the chromed lip around the lens had been badly trimmed by a previous owner. I am going to see what I can fab up.
Well report over for now, I have to go and mold the minds of some young sailors and introduce them to a ship.
David sends
Well some progress has been made over the last two weeks...
My door panel upholstery is now complete and I will be cutting the door panels next week when I come back from being at sea.
I have built and upholstered a panel in which my Pioneer DEH-7000 UB CD/Ipod/receiver will go and made a Dummy speaker grill which will hide my Ipod, Iphone and Nav system when not in use. I got the idea from the Aston Martin DB5 that Bond drives in Goldfinger with the panel that hides the tracker screen.
I still have to design and fabricate hinges that will slide and hide the grill.
My plastic dash was so badly cracked that I will have to make a new one, but I always had in mind doing a Walnut look dash anyway. I am also going to go another route with the guages, Art Deco style numerals on white background.
Also the old Lucas switches are going to be replaced with ones that look similar from Cole Hersee but have better design. I even found indicator lights that look a lot like the original ones but can be dimmed.
My headlights have now been sorted out, mostly. The buckets required a fair bit of work to get them properly squared away and are now the proper shape. My new projector lenses arrived today and fit well into the buckets but a little notch will have to be cut to accommodate the wiring for the marker light. Hopefully the rest of the kit arrives soon so I can test and plan the wiring run and location for the ballasts and starters for the HIDs.
I have also made up a set of brackets to hold the fog and driving lights that will hide under the front bumper.
The housings for the front turn signal are going to be a bit of a project to sort out. They both have rusted through holes in them and the chromed lip around the lens had been badly trimmed by a previous owner. I am going to see what I can fab up.
Well report over for now, I have to go and mold the minds of some young sailors and introduce them to a ship.
David sends
mackzknife
Donation Time
Oopps
Sorry made a mistake there, the Headlight switch I am looking it is Cole Hersee, the paddle/toggle switches and indicator lights I am looking at are made by Pico of Canada
http://www.picocanada.com/
The indicator light I have decided on is this one, but I found a marine one that you twist to dim but they were in a bin and no manuafturer name (old stock)
http://www.picocanada.com/catalogue/9414.asp
Here is the switch http://www.picocanada.com/catalogue/9436.asp
Not sure if you guys in the US can get Pico locally.
Sorry made a mistake there, the Headlight switch I am looking it is Cole Hersee, the paddle/toggle switches and indicator lights I am looking at are made by Pico of Canada
http://www.picocanada.com/
The indicator light I have decided on is this one, but I found a marine one that you twist to dim but they were in a bin and no manuafturer name (old stock)
http://www.picocanada.com/catalogue/9414.asp
Here is the switch http://www.picocanada.com/catalogue/9436.asp
Not sure if you guys in the US can get Pico locally.
mackzknife
Donation Time
Headlights are done
This week my HID kit finally arrived and so I went to work on making the lights up.
The nice thing about the HID kit I got is that it uses original headlight plug to power the lights. I got a kit with H4-2 lights in it, the low beam light is a High Intensity Discharge (HID) {like the new Mercedes have} and the high beam is a Xenon bulb. The lamps are designed to fit in any headlight that takes H4 bulbs, which the projector lenses I ordered do.
On the headlight buckets I previously sanded down, painted and reshaped them as the car had been backed into at some point in the last years of being in storage. The wiring was replaced with new headlight connectors run through the original grommets and holes were drilled to accommodate the "city lights" in the new projector headlight lenses and a hole drilled in the back of the bucket for the HID wiring to run out.
In order to make the headlights a bit better for water tightness (I think this is an issue judging by the rust that was inside the buckets) I used some of the liquid latex I used for mold making to make gaskets between the lenses and the inner bucket and another for the chrome retaining ring.
By far the hardest and most time consuming part of the project was designing and making up an adjustment mechanism. The original buckets had no clips for this and my search for some proved fruitless, instead I made some up using nuts, washers and Magic Putty.
Click here for the photo album
This week my HID kit finally arrived and so I went to work on making the lights up.
The nice thing about the HID kit I got is that it uses original headlight plug to power the lights. I got a kit with H4-2 lights in it, the low beam light is a High Intensity Discharge (HID) {like the new Mercedes have} and the high beam is a Xenon bulb. The lamps are designed to fit in any headlight that takes H4 bulbs, which the projector lenses I ordered do.
On the headlight buckets I previously sanded down, painted and reshaped them as the car had been backed into at some point in the last years of being in storage. The wiring was replaced with new headlight connectors run through the original grommets and holes were drilled to accommodate the "city lights" in the new projector headlight lenses and a hole drilled in the back of the bucket for the HID wiring to run out.
In order to make the headlights a bit better for water tightness (I think this is an issue judging by the rust that was inside the buckets) I used some of the liquid latex I used for mold making to make gaskets between the lenses and the inner bucket and another for the chrome retaining ring.
By far the hardest and most time consuming part of the project was designing and making up an adjustment mechanism. The original buckets had no clips for this and my search for some proved fruitless, instead I made some up using nuts, washers and Magic Putty.
Click here for the photo album
mackzknife
Donation Time
Yipee progress
Well the Alpine Project has been slow going of late but yesterday some great progress!
A friend of mine found and grabbed for me an engine yesterday. It is from a 1977 Mustang (2.8V6) which has only 240,00 km on it and has new starter, water and fuel pumps. I won't have then engine in my hands until September though when he makes a trip back out to the Island.
I also lucked in and got a large sheet of Plexiglass to do the hard top windows. Best part was I got it for free because it was going to be disposed of.
In another bit of great news I have a new job where I am working as a Facility Manager and liaison for a major government construction project. The job is an interesting challenge for me as I deal with a number of civilian and government departments and has been taking up all of my free time lately.
In the meantime I have been doing little projects at home like sanding down the trunk lid and refurbishing parts from the hard top.
Oh yeah,have to thank Jim E for the CD with all the pics of V6 swap, now I just have to learn what it all means, I am somewhat mechanically declined. I understand weapons systems and naval guns but engines are a mystery.
Well the Alpine Project has been slow going of late but yesterday some great progress!
A friend of mine found and grabbed for me an engine yesterday. It is from a 1977 Mustang (2.8V6) which has only 240,00 km on it and has new starter, water and fuel pumps. I won't have then engine in my hands until September though when he makes a trip back out to the Island.
I also lucked in and got a large sheet of Plexiglass to do the hard top windows. Best part was I got it for free because it was going to be disposed of.
In another bit of great news I have a new job where I am working as a Facility Manager and liaison for a major government construction project. The job is an interesting challenge for me as I deal with a number of civilian and government departments and has been taking up all of my free time lately.
In the meantime I have been doing little projects at home like sanding down the trunk lid and refurbishing parts from the hard top.
Oh yeah,have to thank Jim E for the CD with all the pics of V6 swap, now I just have to learn what it all means, I am somewhat mechanically declined. I understand weapons systems and naval guns but engines are a mystery.
Hey Mack, I was looking at your pics from when you started and noticed something that may help when you reassemble the soft top. Looking at view 11 of 43 of Alpine 7. In the center of the photo is a large piece of "rusty/ white" material. I assume that is the top material. It looks to me that the material was captured under the short aluminum strip on the side of the rear area. This is NOT correct installation. The top fabric is captured by the long aluminum curved strip across the back, but NOT by the side strips. The top get tucked under these strips as it is folded down. I can see it even more clearly in picture 13 of 43, looking across to the passenger side. You can see the fabric is under that short strip. Wrong!
Tom H
Tom H
mackzknife
Donation Time
Thanks Tom
I am a ways away from putting a replacement top on but am very glad of the tip.
I am a ways away from putting a replacement top on but am very glad of the tip.
