Rotisserie Work Jun 28, 2006
After a six month hiatus building another garage, a quickie Miata project and sorting out our Ranchero project, we are back on the Tiger in earnest. An aggressive goal, but we want to have the Tiger done and ready to run in the Copperstate 1000 next April.
With the body stripped and primed, we have started welding up all the places that have been butchered or buggered over the last thirty years. Look for stories to start in the magazine late this year.
Strengthening the Frame Jul 27, 2006
With the busy summer event travel season over, work has begun in earnest on our Tiger. Earlier in the year we stripped the body and primed it with DP40 primer. We found less rust and more accident damage than we had anticipated.
The next step was to flip the car over (a rotisserie sure helped here). We borrowed one from coworker, Gary Hunter who also did most of the sand blasting and undercoating stripping from underneath the car. Again, we were pleased in the rust department and less pleased in the wear and tear department.
Sunbeam Tigers have a tendency to tear out their panhard rod mounts and crack their front spring hanger mounts from the frame with hard use. Our car had both of these problems. Tigers East/Alpines East tech bulletins show how to fix both problems. A $175 dollar kit from Tom Hall of ModTiger Engineering LLC (www.tigerengineering.net) solved the problems quickly and easily.
With the chassis bare of undercoating you just bend and weld in the lazer-cut pieces that Tom has designed. Yes, you could cut these pieces yourself, as they are just flat steel, but the time it would take quickly makes the Mod Tiger kit look like a bargain. The panhard rod relocating kit actually moves the panhard bar down where it sits at a better angle causing less binding.
Body Fixes Nov 20, 2006
With the frame repaired and braced it was on to the bodywork. In addition to the myriad of nicks, cuts and dents underneath there were a couple of serious problems. First, the front edge of the rear wheel wells on our car had been butchered badly to allow for the use of wider rims and tires. Second, the lower edges of the rear quarters housed the only real rust on our car. A used lower rear quarter from the Rootes Group Depot made this job pretty straight forward, as did a couple of patch panels from Victoria British (www.victoriabritish.com).
Looking at a Tiger's Rearend Apr 3, 2007
With our Tiger unibody out of our way and at The Body Werks for final sanding and painting it was time for us to turn our attention to finding some parts. To keep from going crazy, we find you need to look at parts procurement on a restoration project on a systems basis. Anytime you can break a restoration down into systems, it looks a lot less daunting.
Since we wanted to make our car a "roller" as soon as we got it back from the paint shop we focused our attention on the front and rear suspension systems.
We started by taking our differential to Volusia Drivetrain. While some home enthusiasts can rebuild differentials, we find it to be one of those areas best left to experts. We have worked with Tim at Volusia Drivetrain for a long time and have always been satisfied with the work he has done. In an effort to improve our car, but keep it nearly original, we opted for a 3.07:1 final drive ratio coupled to a limited slip differential. All Tigers were originally equipped with a 2.88:1 final drive with no limited slip. While this rather tall 2.88:1 ratio is probably the best overall compromise for highway driving, we wanted to be able to come off the line a bit quicker and were willing to sacrifice top speed a bit to do so. The next step up, and a modest one at that is the 3.07:1 final drive. We procured these parts from long time Sunbeam Tiger racer, Barry Schonberger (teamtiger21@aol.com).
While we had things apart we also took the ring and pinion gears over to Crane Cams to have them treated with their new Mikronite process. Mikronite is the brand name for a surface finishing process that strengthens, smoothes and polishes materials to enhance their performance. Reputedly, Mikronite improves sharpness, durability, lubricity and impact resistance while reducing friction, resistance and corrosion. Bottom line, our gears would run cooler and last longer with this process done to them. We had to admit, we were impressed with how the gears looked when we got them back. They looked as if they had been chromed. We'll check dif temps when we get the car together. For more details, check out www.mikronite.com for details.
Once apart, we realized we had a damaged axle. Long time Tigers East/Alpines East member John Webber, came to our rescue. He had good used axle that he gave us. We cannot say enough about joining the club as soon as you decide to restore a car. We joined Tigers East/Alpines East (www.teae.org) and signed up for Team.Net's Tiger list. Both have been extremely helpful. There are other good Tiger clubs including CAT (California Association of Sunbeam Tiger Owners, www.catmbr.org).
For used parts we have gotten most of our stuff from the Rootes Group Depot, and most new parts we have ordered from Kurt at Classic Sunbeam Auto Parts (www.classicsunbeam.com). Both have proven to be good honest suppliers.
Anatomy of a Tiger Body Apr 12, 2007
Our car is now painted, and back home where assembly can begin.
Tom Prescott with his helper Casey did all the mud work (an affectionate name for filling and sanding the body for straightness), then final blocking. The entire process went something like this: The entire car was stripped; first with 80 grit to get it bare metal. The underside was sandblasted in our back yard. Then it was primed with PPG DP40 epoxy primer. The key is to use a primer that contains zinc and to prime right after you sand to bare metal. We are not chemists, but are told that the zinc acts as a sacrificial metal and the rust attacks it rather than the steel of the car.
Next, all the hammer and dolly work is done. We went over any obvious rough places, like the right rear quarter that had been damaged. Then Tom and Casey went over the whole car again as needed. You can't leave any bare metal showing at this stage and any scratches need to be again primed with DP40.
Then the whole car was primed with "high-fill" grey primer. After that the entire car is block sanded with 180 grit paper. The car is primed with "high-fill" grey primer again and the car is blocked with 320 and then with 500 grit paper.
From there the car is sealed and then sprayed with four base coats of code 58 Midnight blue PPG base coat/clear coat paint. The color was computer matched perfectly with an original blue piece that we found in the trunk, where the sun couldn't fade the color. Two to three layers of clear coat were applied and then all external surfaces were buffed.
We estimate 300-400 hours of stripping and metal work and the team from The Body Werks had 250 man hours in the paint and prep work. Yes, we have some 600 hours invested in this project, just to get the bare shell painted. That's why concours quality paint jobs cost upwards of $10,000.
Sponsors:
