echo1
Donation Time
Hello All,
Nearing retirement and getting all my project ducks in a row. Will be reaching out to the community for input/advice/experience.
Never driven an Alpine, but I've been a Tiger owner since '70. First rig was a '65, white with black hard top, red interior, I totaled it in '72.
Number 2 was a '66 I aquired it in '75 for $1200, BRG, black HT and interior. The previous owner did a clutch but, put a gear lever on upside down and the shift pattern was wrong (easy fix). Very nice car 35K (?) miles when I sold it to a fella from Holister for $2500 in '77.
Current rig is RHD that I bought from my nephew in '78. It was in poor shape, had taken a bad hit on the left door pillar soon after he got it, rockers rusted fender to fender. He had rebuilt the 260, but the rings never seated and it smoked. His future BIL had just total a '67 Mustang GT fastback, with less than 1K on a mildly warm K code 289, so that ended up in it. He offer it to me for $2 grand. I normally would have passed, as Tigers were around for fair prices then, but this was a RHD car, and at the time there were only 6 or 8 stateside. Also it was a crappy light blue with a "KalKustom" ribbed hood scoop.
While giving it the once over when he first got it, I noticed it had Konis all around, two 1/4"X3" flat bars welded underneath, running from the cross brace to a substancial bracket incorporated into the rear bumper, and a huge ding in the front cross member. I mentioned to him that the rig looked like it had been rallyed when it was in the UK.
I've had it since, 36 years, only put 175 miles on it maybe. I picked a '67 Alipine donor and a clean '65 Alpine (ALGER candidate?) in '80, both of which I still have too.
While hunting for a headlight beauty ring for the '67 Alipine, I came across a bunch of factory service manuals, flat rate books, sales ledger, and remaining parts inventory, from an authorized Rootes repair shop, in Stcokton, CA. Mostly hard parts for early flat four rigs, Talbot, Singer, Commer. Some unusual stuff, glass signal lights/covers, manifold jackets for the "heater" option, water pump rebuild kits, starter bushings/bearings, brake lines. Bunch of parts for equipment that doesn't get rebuilt in the shop these days, all OEM in Rootes boxes.
Other Brit suff I've run, 3 Anglias ('59 was my first car, $50 buckets in '68), 3 Hillman Huskys (1 had LAT 9 rims on it??). But I've made a lot of side ducats building VW motors and Baja bugs. Still running my son's '70 bug.
On the engine stands or dollies in the shop:
260 (the one that smoked)
289 rebuilt short block
351W (Clone Wars Alger power)
2-1600 DP VW rebuilds, if you run VWs, you have to have spare engines
1600 short block (wedding present)
2.0 T-4 VW rebuild, hunting for the RIGHT '72 Westy to stab it in
1200, 1600, 1700 VW cores for rebuild
215 Olds crate moter with rebuilt 2 sp tranny, zero miles since '63, for a 140 Volvo conversion.
I was in STOA once upon a decade, and my middle son and I went to a swap meet at Sunbeam Specialities in March 2012, as we were going to go all out on my Tiger together, and wanted to get caught up on it all. But he passed away that year and it took the wind out of my sails.
Life got in the way, 3 sons, 4 AMXs, couple flying machines. That's the short story. I'm getting after it in 2015 though. PAX
PS,
While at work on an off shift, I met a kid from South Africa. Come to find out, he and his pops have a '64 Alpine. I gave him as many of my spare Alpine parts as he had room for in a cargo container, returning to his company in SA. Blocks, heads, cranks, etc..
Nearing retirement and getting all my project ducks in a row. Will be reaching out to the community for input/advice/experience.
Never driven an Alpine, but I've been a Tiger owner since '70. First rig was a '65, white with black hard top, red interior, I totaled it in '72.
Number 2 was a '66 I aquired it in '75 for $1200, BRG, black HT and interior. The previous owner did a clutch but, put a gear lever on upside down and the shift pattern was wrong (easy fix). Very nice car 35K (?) miles when I sold it to a fella from Holister for $2500 in '77.
Current rig is RHD that I bought from my nephew in '78. It was in poor shape, had taken a bad hit on the left door pillar soon after he got it, rockers rusted fender to fender. He had rebuilt the 260, but the rings never seated and it smoked. His future BIL had just total a '67 Mustang GT fastback, with less than 1K on a mildly warm K code 289, so that ended up in it. He offer it to me for $2 grand. I normally would have passed, as Tigers were around for fair prices then, but this was a RHD car, and at the time there were only 6 or 8 stateside. Also it was a crappy light blue with a "KalKustom" ribbed hood scoop.
While giving it the once over when he first got it, I noticed it had Konis all around, two 1/4"X3" flat bars welded underneath, running from the cross brace to a substancial bracket incorporated into the rear bumper, and a huge ding in the front cross member. I mentioned to him that the rig looked like it had been rallyed when it was in the UK.
I've had it since, 36 years, only put 175 miles on it maybe. I picked a '67 Alipine donor and a clean '65 Alpine (ALGER candidate?) in '80, both of which I still have too.
While hunting for a headlight beauty ring for the '67 Alipine, I came across a bunch of factory service manuals, flat rate books, sales ledger, and remaining parts inventory, from an authorized Rootes repair shop, in Stcokton, CA. Mostly hard parts for early flat four rigs, Talbot, Singer, Commer. Some unusual stuff, glass signal lights/covers, manifold jackets for the "heater" option, water pump rebuild kits, starter bushings/bearings, brake lines. Bunch of parts for equipment that doesn't get rebuilt in the shop these days, all OEM in Rootes boxes.
Other Brit suff I've run, 3 Anglias ('59 was my first car, $50 buckets in '68), 3 Hillman Huskys (1 had LAT 9 rims on it??). But I've made a lot of side ducats building VW motors and Baja bugs. Still running my son's '70 bug.
On the engine stands or dollies in the shop:
260 (the one that smoked)
289 rebuilt short block
351W (Clone Wars Alger power)
2-1600 DP VW rebuilds, if you run VWs, you have to have spare engines
1600 short block (wedding present)
2.0 T-4 VW rebuild, hunting for the RIGHT '72 Westy to stab it in
1200, 1600, 1700 VW cores for rebuild
215 Olds crate moter with rebuilt 2 sp tranny, zero miles since '63, for a 140 Volvo conversion.
I was in STOA once upon a decade, and my middle son and I went to a swap meet at Sunbeam Specialities in March 2012, as we were going to go all out on my Tiger together, and wanted to get caught up on it all. But he passed away that year and it took the wind out of my sails.
Life got in the way, 3 sons, 4 AMXs, couple flying machines. That's the short story. I'm getting after it in 2015 though. PAX
PS,
While at work on an off shift, I met a kid from South Africa. Come to find out, he and his pops have a '64 Alpine. I gave him as many of my spare Alpine parts as he had room for in a cargo container, returning to his company in SA. Blocks, heads, cranks, etc..
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