2023 Club Calendar Monthly Car Articles

[65sunbeam]

This thread is where the car owner whose car is featured each month gets to tell us the rest of the story!
Our January calendar feature car belongs to member Silver Creek Sunbeam.

 

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

So I guess my car is Mr. January....
I got my calendar today and everyone did a great job AGAIN.

I will briefly recap history on my car (which I shared here on a previous year) and then to change things up a little I will talk about the shoot and the changes I have made to the car.

I have been a Sunbeam fan by proxy since the early 80s, since my father (Russ Wheeler) who had been a fan since the 60s bought his first Tiger, followed within a couple of years by his purchase of his first Alpine.
My Series V is a survivor. It was produced in Nov 1966 and registered as a 1967.
The history that I know of it goes like this:

A very close family friend and cousin by marriage of my father purchased the car from someone in the Atlanta area in the very late 80s or very early 90s. (I'd love to find out who that person was).
When purchased, the car had just had a mechanical restoration and when our friend go it he had it painted (by another Sunbeamer friend), although it was not a frame-off restoration.
He also made some changes to the interior, including putting some sort of Dodge, velourish seats in it ( I know, I know), as well as adding a set of Superior, wire basket/knockoff wheels to it. They weren't to my taste but it wasn't my car.

He drove the car very sparingly until the very early 2000s and then parked it...fortunately in a garage/shop space that he an my dad rented.
Fast forward to 2019 and I received a call from my dad who was with the owner at the time. We talked for a few seconds and the next thing I heard was, "Tony wants to know if you and Brant (my son) want his Alpine".
I was pleasantly shocked because this was gift, not a sale. You can guess my answer to that question!

So, I had just officially become a Sunbeamer. There was definitely work to do. The car had been sitting for at least 15 years. So with some TLC, rebuilding of the hydraulics, and the replacement of some very dry-rotted tires, I was on the road. Since that time, I have made the following changes/upgrades:

- The wheels aren't Chip Foose but they are one-offs. LOL
Being on a budget, I tossed the wire baskets, polished the tubs, found some blank center pieces on eBay that would work, had a guy in the on eBayUK make die-cut Rootes emblems for the centers and voila....Wheeler one-offs that are about the first thing I get asked about at most cruise-ins and car shows.

- I've installed a full Pertronix system; distributor, coil and ignitor.
- I've refurbed the fuel tanks and replaced everything forward of the cross pipe while installing an electric fuel pump. I loved the old mechanical pump but it cracked at the base/outlet, so I moved ahead.
From the cross pipe: all new ethanol rated fuel lines/inline cut off/pre-filter/Carter Pump/filter/pressure regulator up to my original carbs. The pressure regulator has two outlets, so I eliminated the infamous "T" and ran individual lines from the regulator to each carb. I also installed a fuel pump blank/cover from DanR.
- I've installed a British Starter high torque, gear reduction starter...world of difference.
- I've installed a Rebel wire wiring harness from Sunalp (Steve Shuttleton) as the car shut me down three times on the roadside and the original harness had been chopped and spliced beyond recognition, so that was an easy call.
- I installed LEDs from Joe Parlanti all the way around and rebuilt my front parking lights. In addition, I eBayed period Lumax rally lights and found a really cool Lucas branded light switch that I mounted under my crash bar. I also came up with a set of period Wipac reversing lights and installed them.
- I also did a Spidya conversion on the tachometer.
- Finally, I installed a purchased by my dad for his friend but never used Laycock OD transmission. It was still in the crate that Jeff Howarth shipped it in back in the early 2000s.
- Miscellaneous trim under the hood and things such as a water pump replacement, a heater valve replacement, and various brake parts were done and sourced from SS, Classic Sunbeam, and Jerome in the UK.
- Cosmetically, I ditched the Dodge seats. I purchased original seat frames from Eric and all of the foams and under the seat supplies from SS, and the seat covers and console cover came from Marth Christiansen (Wheat). I also purchased from her a boot cover and vinyl to do the rest of the upholstery, including recovering the crash bar and making from scratch a padded roll (remember I'm on a budget). I also put my own vinyl covered, two-tone touch on the dash to match the rest of the interior.
- Before installing all of the above, I stripped the inside of the car, coated it with POR-15, and installed Noico (think Dynamat) sound and heat deadner.

Those are the primary things I have done. Along the way I have picked up various parts and MUCH advice from club members. I will not try to list them all here (some are listed above) but they know who they are and hopefully I've adequately conveyed my appreciation to them. This club and the forum are awesome and along with my dad, who is a walking Sunbeam encyclopedia, the guidance I have received from many on this site has been invaluable to me in getting my car where it is today.

As I mentioned earlier, my car is a survivor...a driver...but I don't see how I could love it any more than what I do. There are much nicer Sunbeams than mine around and I honestly appreciate being included in the calendar.

So the shot itself went like this. I am in North Georgia and I drove to Alabama to a friend's cotton farm to you know, represent the south. I did a full photo shoot of my car over there. Driving back, I noticed the old gas station that is about 20 minutes from my house and though...nah, that's the shot. I pulled in, did about 60 shots in about ten minutes time and was off and away. The result is what you see.

 

[Mike O'D]

Great story - great picture!

 

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

Great story - great picture!

Thanks!

 

[65sunbeam]

And here is the February cover car belonging to Aladin Sane

 

[Greggers]

The theme for this year's February photo is a Sunbeam getting its heart. Get it? Valentine's Day? Heart? Is this thing on?

 

[Aladin Sane]

Ok, I guess it's my turn to supply what back story I can for my car which is featured this month. When I was a kid growing up in a small midwestern town, I would from time to time see a little BRG sports car driving about on nice summer days. It was a Sunbeam, but for the life of me, I am not certain if it was an alpine or a tiger. That started my quest to posses such a car, but it took almost 50 years to see that happen. As some of you who have read my "Now I'm in for it" build thread, I had been casually looking for an alpine hoping to do a V6 conversion. Tigers at this point had appreciated in price beyond what I was willing to pay. About three years ago, I was looking around on ebay, and came across this car which someone had started a V8 conversion on. It was located in Virginia. The seller was a broker, and not the originator of the project. He has limited knowledge of what had been done to the car. I had been looking at the V6 conversion, but here was a car that seemingly had had the hard part of the V8 conversion completed. I had pictures of the car with the V8 fitting snuggly in the engine bay. It had a removable trans tunnel which displayed a C4 automatic, which I had planned to dump in favor of a 5 speed, because sports cars should have an manual trans. Some body work had been completed, the car was in primer and supposedly ready for paint. I put a modest bid in on the car and the wife and I went into a movie theater and watched Ford vs Ferrari. When we came back out, I checked my phone and I had won the car.

Now I had to figure out how I was going to get the car from Virginia to Iowa. The broker I bought the car from hooked me up with a buddy of his who had a side gig transporting motorcycles from the Milwaukee area to the east cost. He was making a run and rather than return empty, he would deliver the sunbeam to me for a very reasonable fee. I got the car in December of 2019. I did a complete inventory of all the stuff that came with the car. I was surprised to find how complete it was. It came with a 302 out of a 1987 Mustang GT. The picture in the calendar is from when I pulled the engine out and I am getting it mounted on an engine stand. In May of that year, I trailered the car to a paint shop in my home town, about 2 hours away from where I currently live. They had redone a 1969 Charger for my wifes brother that turned out spectacular. Little did I know the car would languish in that shop for two and a half years.

I got the car back in my garage in November of this year. The paint looks great, but boy was it a long wait to get it done. I started installing a new wiring harness I had bought from Steve Shuttleton (sunalp). He has been great to deal with. I have a new set of VDO gauges all set in a new berled walnut dash. I have new carpet and a new interior all ready to go in. I am currently having a shop modify a Dana 44 rear end out of a 70s postal jeep. I will be converting it to rear disc brakes thanks to Dan Richardson. I have almost finished installing dynamat all over the cockpit. I am hoping I can get her on the road this summer, but I have a long list of things to make that happen.

Thanks so much to all of you who have helped me to get to where I am with project so far.

Brian (Aladin Sane)

 

[65sunbeam]

And here is the March cover car belonging to tigereater who will soon tell us the rest of the story!
This is Invasion Month as well-so mark you calendars and come join us.

 

[tigereater]

My husband and I own the Sunbeam Alpine, SI, featured in March in the SAOCA 2023 calendar. We are honored to have her included. My backstory goes as follows:



Fifty years ago, my father took me to look at a used car for me to drive. It was the first time I had seen or even heard of a Sunbeam Alpine. That little red 1963 Sunbeam Alpine GT SIII became my first car. The one he taught me to drive in and I got my driver's license in. Circumstances, about 5 years later, led me to sell my beloved car and to try and put it behind me. Fast forward to 1994 and I met a wonderful guy that loved little old British cars just like me. When we married 2 years later, he surprised me on our wedding day by suddenly disappearing as we walked out of the church and then driving back up in a shiny red Sunbeam Alpine! That SII was the first of five we eventually would own. Not all are drivers. Some are parts cars and one would become our NHRA championship drag car, Tiger Eater. The last one we acquired is this month's calendar car. We call her "Greta Cargo", Greta for short.



In 2013, in the midst of trying to cope with having our home being flooded, we took time out to go look at a Sunbeam Alpine my husband found listed in the local Craigslist. At the time it seem like just a quick diversion from working on our damaged home, but needless to say, we bought it. It's an early 1959 Sunbeam Alpine, SI (SN B9000875). The body being much better shape than the first car, we decided to make this one our reliable driver. One we can drive daily or take on long trips to sight see and car invasions. He has spent countless hours working on improving the car from how we found it. He swapped a blown, rebuilt engine with the one from the SII. The original overdrive transmission was replaced with a Borg-Warner T5 transmission that he also had in the SII. He made a new gas tank, refurbished the wire wheels, installed the smaller SII steering wheel, to name just a few of the endless things that seem to need doing. A few years back I stitched up temporary seat covers until we can completely reupholster them. Each winter a bit more gets done. This year, the center steering rod has been replaced and he is finishing up going through all the electrical for the gauges, while he refurbishes the dashboard. He's even got the self canceling turn switch working for the first time.



One day soon, we and Greta will be able to join you all at the Sunbeam Invasion. Until then, watch for us to be driving around the Rocky Mountains on day excursions to Estes Park or Buffalo Bill's grave or a quick trip for ice cream at DQ!



TIGEREATER

(Gina and Lucky Snyder)

 

[belmateo]

Well, here we are in April already and it is my turn to tell you about the calendar car you see "PEGASO". I was going for a more eclectic look and feel for this Alpine that was modified by me. Many hours were spent hand forming the body panels that you see here. At first the plan was to go with an anphibian vehicle, hence the rounded fenders and hidden wheels. However that turned out to be just too much fabrication, but the body panels looked good to me. It took the harsh edges off the car and gave it a smoother look. Of course the wire wheels were a must. The hardest part was reconfiguring the hood to open from the front and deleting the bumpers. Since it is 2023 the plan was to take this car to the next level and fill the engine bay with batteries to move the TESLA™ motors and get the car going down the road in record time. You have never seen so many wires in your life! Once it was done, it really made the dashboard easy and clean. All you need is a monitor for the onboard computer. Speaking of the interior, gold and black fabric was used (Corinthian leather of course) in a classic diamond pattern. First thought was to go with tuck and roll, but the interior as you know on these cars is not very wide. This included the permanent hard top and door panels as well as the trunk panels to hide where the saddle tanks used to be. It took about five years to get this done and now you can travel over four hundred miles on a single charge and the charge plug resides behind the driver side tail light that "pops" out like they did with the CADILLAC'S and 1956 CHEVROLET BEL AIR. Since yellow is my favorite color, this car had to be painted with seven coats, four color and three clear. As you can see, it buffed out rather nicely. Thanks for featuring my car in April, it is quite an honor and I look forward to the next build to take it to another level!


One las note, APRIL FOOLS!

 

[belmateo]

Hello gang, time to give you the back story on my modified Sunbeam Alpine which is labeled SUN2K. The name came from the donor chassis which is a 2003 Honda S2000 and my interpitation of how the year 2000 Alpine would have been built if the company was still in business today. The initial plan was to strip the chassis and move the drivetrain into the beautiful british racing green Alpine that you see here.

British Racing Green: 1967 Sunbeam Alpine

Many car publications/forums say the answer to any car related question is the Mazda Miata. If the Miata is too mundane and you need something with more s

dailyturismo.com

Once the donor was taken completely apart except for the engine and transmission, the plan changed. The more research I did and the more I wanted to keep modern aspects and comfort features, it was better to move the body of the Alpine onto the chassis.



So the next couple of weeks were spent putting the chassis back together.
The lines of the Alpine are so classic and unique, it had to be done this way. After all what is the sence of building a modern car with classic looks and not have Electric power steering, positraction, four wheel disc brakes, four wheel independent suspension, ABS, Electric windows, Air conditioning, key fob, about 243 horsepower and an immobilizer for security from thieves. The car had to have an open top, but I did not want to replace the convertible top every 5 years or so and no way was it going to be a removable hardtop. So the search began for a retractable hardtop, a Mercedez SLK became the donor for the top. Six months were spent carefully taking the top off the car and all the wiring, plumbing and fuse/relay boxes. This is the first look of the top on the car after much fabrication, now I needed new windows to mate the car and top together. One year wasted waiting for custom windows to be made that never happened after many false promises and excuses.




It was time to search for other viable candidates and the more I looked at the Mazda Miata MX-5 NC (2007-2015) it looked liked the windows were very close to what I had already! I was able to find a complete top, deck lid, hinges, motors and sensors on Ebay™ and the seller was located less than two hours away in Sacramento. Jumped in my truck and brought everything back home. The first order of business was to ditch all that hard work grafting the Benz top. wiring, plumbing and fuse/relays which was now garbage to me. The top of the windshield of the Benz was alreay grafted onto the chassis so I had to get a new Miata windshield frame to make the top work on this chassis. Another drive, this time to a dealer in Santa Cruz and got to work. Unfortunately the rear quarter panels had to be cut quite a bit at the trunk opening to fit the Benz top, which by the way would have occupied the entire trunk and left little room for anything more than a blanket. On a trip for a Nephews graduation in Southern California picked up another rear clip to put on the car.



First order of business was to get the top to line up with the windshield and doors and it was very close! The Miata windows were mated to the Honda window regulators via an adapter. That was a very exciting moment after wasting a year waiting for this moment. I was able to use the wiring for the convertible top as well as the controller for the Power Rectractable Hard Top after changing out the connectors. The only thing that was not to my liking was that the car had to be stopped and the parking brake applied to operate the top. The way this top works is the deck like behind the top has to lift up and back before the top can be stowed. Wiring and relays were fabricated to accomplish this as well as a second top switch mounted to the console. Keep in mind that the wires for the deck lid had to be the same length or the two motors would not be moving at the same rate due to a voltage drop in the wires.


Next order of business was to rebuild the back half of the car from scratch for the second time I think. The saddle tanks had to be kept for appearance and driving range and the spare tire I wanted mounted in the floor of the trunk. That was accomplished by flipping the tanks side to side and moving the crossover tube to the front behind the axle and tie it into the main tank. After that was rerouting the vent lines to the top of the tanks and keep the system sealed.
The front of the car was pretty done by hand fabricating everything except the headlight housings. Lots of cutting, shaping, fitting, welding, and sanding. The grill is made out of a stainless steel mesh with fog/driving lights at the outer edges. The grill surround was made by using a solid piece of stainless steel bar stock shaped to match the opening and welding studs into it, then sanding and polishing it for a nice shiny look.


After the car was pretty much done except for final body work and paint, it took a flawless trip to Mendocino a couple of times and down to Los Angeles for the summer show where I got to meet John "Toyanvil" and some other members from SOACA.



Lastly was the addition of a Paxton style supercharger to get about 340 horsepower, keep in mind that the red line on this motor is 9000 rpm! It has four valves per cylinder and thanks to V-tech all four valves kick in at around 6000 rpm for a real kick in the pants!
Thanks again SOACA for allowing my car to be featured on the 2023 Calendar, it means alot to me!

 

[tractordealer]

Its May and greetings from Canada!

It all started in about 1966 with a 1959 Series 1 Sunbeam Alpine. It had been abandoned in a farmer’s front field after his son came home one night in the Alpine after staying out much too late. The farmer took his tractor and pierced the fuel tank with his front end loader. And there it sat for a couple of years.
The farmer was a customer of my dad’s farm equipment business and when he inquired about the little car in the field, he was told to just take it. My father was also a class “A” mechanic, welder and had experience with body work and paint. So this became a learning experience for his two rather reluctant boys. At first I wondered what we were getting in to. But I too enjoyed working on mechanical things and eventually we made it road worthy. I was sixteen when we finally got it on the road and licensed.
I drove that little car (and fixed it) only in the summer and it lived in our barn in the winter. Every fall I would pour light oil down the carbs until it stalled and in the spring it always fired up. I had patched the hole in the fuel tank but it would plague me for several years as rust had entered which resulted in changing a fuel filter rather frequently, sometimes on the side of the road. A few years later I found another car that was rusted badly but had a brand new fuel tank in it! Still had the Chrysler part number stickers on it.

I sold it when I was going to university as I just did not have the time to keep up with the maintenance and the body was getting rough again.
Fast forward to August 2012. I had been looking for a few years for an alpine to revisit my teenage years and was specifically looking for a Series V. Finally found B3950009683 in St. Mary’s Ontario and with a quick deal the Alpine was mine. During the test drive, I said to the owner “ This car smells just like my old Alpine”. Many of you will know what I mean.
The car came with a spare newly rebuilt overdrive transmission, Minilite style wheels (not installed) and a trailerload of spares.
Back at home I decided to pull the engine and rebuild it, then reinstall with the rebuilt OD. Fortunately I had all the OD parts including the relay and the column switch. Over the winter I managed to get everything done and the Alpine was on the road in 2013.

After a couple of years of happy motoring, I had seen there was a good resource out there for repowering with a Cologne V6. My first new car was a 1974 Capri with the 2.6 Cologne, and I had done a lot of work to that engine so I was very familiar with it.
After some searching, I found a complete 2.8 engine, with the correct bellhousing, 5 speed Tremec, and all the extra parts needed from an elderly gentleman that was going to repower a MG. He was selling as he did not think his skills were up to the MG modification.
Fortunately there are many resources on this forum for the Alpine “DarkSider” repower and I took full advantage of them.
There are lots of little issues that crop up when doing a full engine and transmission swap. Another long winter in my shop as I had to rebuild the V6 and reseal the transmission, then locate headers, motor mounts, etc. I found an Offenhauser manifold on ebay and bought a new Holly 4 barrel 390 to top it. Dan R was a great resource and I used his modified Offy water neck, motor mounts, clutch slave cylinder mount, headers, etc. My wife Barb became very efficient at running the engine hoist as I probably took the engine out and in 10 times until we got everything lined up perfectly. Since I had to relocate the brake lines at the front of the car, I decided to install a dual circuit brake master for safety.

The repower was a huge success. The Alpine has a lot more power and torque and the 5 speed makes for a great cruiser. AND it does not leak a drop of oil!
Since then I have added LED lights all around (thanks Joe) a Mini wind deflector(highly recommended), a walnut dash, gas struts on the trunk lid (I know it is a “boot”), coilover fronts, all new bushings in the front end and rebuilt the rear springs including new shocks. Last winter I added a GPS speedo, electronic tach and voltmeter sourced from ads in this newsletter.
Many people stop me and when they see the dual tail pipes ask “ is that a tiger?”. No it is still labelled as an ALPINE however the side shields on the front fender and the trunk lid have Alpine V6 logos.
Looking under the hood, you would think the Cologne V6 was made to be there. It fits like a glove even with headers.
Barb and I really enjoy cruising the countryside with the top down on a nice day and especially enjoy the comments wherever we stop.
Sometimes when driving the Alpine I think back to that high school kid in his bright yellow Series I, stuck on the side of the road changing a fuel filter and then smelling like gas all day at school. Then I remember that those experiences led to this moment driving along with the wind in our hair and the sun on our faces.
Karl Davis

 

[Series6]

Good looking car and looks like a well done conversion. Great story too.

 

[bulldurham]

Really nice car and good work. What wind deflector did you use and what needed to be modified to install it?

 

[tractordealer]

Mini wind deflector - had to make up some brackets that bolted on the side and cleared the soft top frame. Not a big deal no other mods.

 

[Aladin Sane]

I am thinking I could attach one of those to my roll bar.

 

[puff4]

Mini wind deflector - had to make up some brackets that bolted on the side and cleared the soft top frame. Not a big deal no other mods.

Very cool. I have a MINI Cabrio with that same wind deflector. Any chance of getting some close-up photos and/or measurements of your brackets?

 

[husky drvr]

Very cool. I have a MINI Cabrio with that same wind deflector. Any chance of getting some close-up photos and/or measurements of your brackets?

Kevin,

From the Sunbeam Alpine channel.

HTH,

 

[tigereater]

Great Alpine! Thought I'd posted before, but I really like seeing cross use of car parts, like the deflector. What soft top cover are you using?
Gina

 

[DanR]

Karl, has created a beautiful V6 Project Car that makes me proud to have provided the basic components for the V6 Conversion.

Another stunning Beauty...... Keeping-them-on-the Road,

DanR