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Barn Find - Getting my feet wet

O

OCMeeeow

Silver Level Sponsor
Pulled this out of the dirt by my brother's house by Bakersfield last month. 1966 with a 289. Dragged it to my house in Orange County and trying to revive it. Hasn't run in over 20 years. It does run, but only on 7 of 8 cylinders, and there's a coolant leak somewhere on the driver's side of the block. Probably a freeze plug. Pretty sure I'll need to pull the motor. Couple questions: 1) Stick with the 289 or swap in a 302 or 347 stroker? Would 347 be too much? My goal is to have fun, but not be stupid. 2) Windshield.... Any suggestions? The only sites I've found that list them say they're on back order and at least six months out. I'd like to get something in there quicker. Thanks!
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Greetings and 'grats on the new acquisition. I suggest that before you delve too far into resurrecting what may be a Tiger, you dig a bit into its authenticity.

First glance at the single pic posted the car appears to be a B382 MKIa — if a Tiger — but has a bakelite (plastic) steering wheel. I don't see the padded upper door cap on the right door nor any of the tell-tale holes for the Tiger-specific side stainless and rear badge. But this could have all been deleted or changed by the OP over the years since I don't see holes in the front fender for the script, either..

NO JUDGEMENT BEING PASSED HERE! Plenty of guys have taken the painstaking process of converting a 4-cyl Alpine to V8. But you might want to do due diligence if you believe this is a genuine Tig.
 
volvoguys said:
Greetings and 'grats on the new acquisition. I suggest that before you delve too far into resurrecting what may be a Tiger, you dig a bit into its authenticity.

First glance at the single pic posted the car appears to be a B382 MKIa — if a Tiger — but has a bakelite (plastic) steering wheel. I don't see the padded upper door cap on the right door nor any of the tell-tale holes for the Tiger-specific side stainless and rear badge. But this could have all been deleted or changed by the OP over the years since I don't see holes in the front fender for the script, either..

NO JUDGEMENT BEING PASSED HERE! Plenty of guys have taken the painstaking process of converting a 4-cyl Alpine to V8. But you might want to do due diligence if you believe this is a genuine Tig.
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Thanks! Yeah - I have a lot of questions about this car. Based on some google searches on the tag numbers it looks legit, but who knows. I'm hoping to find some Sunbeam enthusiasts close to me who can help me decipher everything. The previous owner did a bunch of stuff to it, so it's likely some kind of frankenstein. But it was free, so worst case scenario I have a fun driver and a tinker-mobile!
 
OCmeeeowser, WOW. What a GREAT project!

If you get desperate on the windshield, contact me ( PM ).

I have several that are markedly better than yours.

PS, Can't remember seeing rear view mirrors mounted there before.... Hmmm.

DW
 
MOSS currently shows the windshield in stock. It may be from the Victoria British stock they acquired.
 
I'm thru OC this week like to have a look. Could and would point out Captain Obvious and most of the not so obvious Rootes methodology.
 
Wow Mr. Volvo guy you'd think many here had seen the often posted side by side Jensen identifiers.
And yes my comment was fashioned in the style of Norm M. riddle me this fashion. I have also sent the OP a PM and would fwd the local TAC guys information. Now we all know that the WWW Tiger Rootes1 site pages only live somewhere in a Google cache, those don't qualify as Captain Obvious pointers anymore.
 
Warren - thanks for the offer. I'm sorry I missed it - work and personal life have been keeping me really busy. Last week, my wife and I took a drive up to San Jose for a mini-vacation and visited Sunbeam Specialties while we were there. Spent about an hour with Rick and Cathy. Some of the nicest people I've ever met. Got an up-close look at his project Tiger - Mk II right-hand-drive with all the factory options. Really special.
 
As to your original question, I have a Tiger with the original 260, stock cams, but changed Edelbrock intake and carb. I love it exactly as it is. The V8's torque and roar is absolutely intoxicating. The rest of the car is in great shape, all bits of the suspension are correct. I enjoy fast aggressive drives and long comfortable drives. But then, it is the only car I have that I haven't taken on the track.

Is it fast by modern car standards? Absolutely not - that's no longer a standard for old cars (Tesla blew that for everyone). Yes, go fast parts for Ford are pretty cheap. But I'd suggest you will over power the brakes and suspension pretty quickly. And a well balanced car is a great joy.

The next issue you'd face is heat. More power = more heat. Tigers already are known for heat problems. Of course those can be addressed - mine works perfectly in even the hottest days. But then, I have a 260 with a lot of metal added to control air flow through the radiator.

Of course, my Alpine has about 30% more power than a stock Alpine, and possibly more hp/lb than a stock Tiger. So I'm not being a purist here.
 
Jay Laifman said:
As to your original question, I have a Tiger with the original 260, stock cams, but changed Edelbrock intake and carb. I love it exactly as it is. The V8's torque and roar is absolutely intoxicating. The rest of the car is in great shape, all bits of the suspension are correct. I enjoy fast aggressive drives and long comfortable drives. But then, it is the only car I have that I haven't taken on the track.

Is it fast by modern car standards? Absolutely not - that's no longer a standard for old cars (Tesla blew that for everyone). Yes, go fast parts for Ford are pretty cheap. But I'd suggest you will over power the brakes and suspension pretty quickly. And a well balanced car is a great joy.

The next issue you'd face is heat. More power = more heat. Tigers already are known for heat problems. Of course those can be addressed - mine works perfectly in even the hottest days. But then, I have a 260 with a lot of metal added to control air flow through the radiator.

Of course, my Alpine has about 30% more power than a stock Alpine, and possibly more hp/lb than a stock Tiger. So I'm not being a purist here.
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I believe what I have is an Alpine with wrecked Tiger parts swapped into it. I'm pretty well convinced it's not a true Tiger although all the paperwork and VIN plate say it is. Pretty sure the previous owner carried that over and registered it as such. Not cool in my opinion, but it is what it is. I'm not going to claim it's a Tiger until I get some experts to look at it up close. Once I get it running and legal, I'll get it to some gatherings. The casting numbers on the block indicate it's a 289. Thanks for the input on heat - I'm going to just refresh the motor at this point and not worry about making it a dragster. The radiator also doesn't quite fit right, so that's another indicator. The previous owner bent some mounting tabs over to stuff it in there. And I definitely need to fabricate a shroud and stuff for air flow. This tiny fan by itself ain't gonna cut it.
 
I figure you have already sent pictures of the engine compartment and other locations to people to help quickly ID if it is an Alpine body. But feel free to send here if you want.

For the heat, the key is to stop air from NOT going through the radiator. The air slips around through the horn holes on either side of the radiator, and under the radiator as well. It's easier to block the horn holes. But you really need to get a lot of sheet metal and create a box around the bottom of the radiator so all air that comes in those two big openings has nowhere to go but through the radiator. That makes the biggest difference.

I also have the LAT hood, which helps because the air gets trapped against the firewall.
 
The thing I always ask and splain is the differences between stock personalized and modified. Although that latitude bar is subject to the whim of whoever is running the Tigers United. The tip of the iceberg is a Hokansen aftermarket front end which by definition is modified that was a Lord Rootes winner despite running in personalized. But as to the OP's posting and where to start, Barn find it's where is it at now. Lots of cars lost their original pieces like the fan shroud etc. Go figure heat problems take off the shroud. Sure a more efficient one can be fashioned. Looking at the level of "personalization or customized," plus budget can often dictate what class the car ends up in .
Lastly to quote several over 300 HP Tiger guys , "you can't get enough tire under the car to use it." Personally I think that number is more like 250 to 275 HP.
The club auto X runs are designed to keep you out of trouble. Track Willow or otherwise is a different matter. If you can afford track insurance premium a 20% or more deductible, or run bare as it's called in the ins. biz. then that's a different matter.

I wouldn't call myself an expert but I've been hanging around while they TAC cars for 12 years. Look at the car on CAT that's a Tiger but a round corner car with a later square tag ...
Lots of Hokey pokey in the past.
 
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