New shocks and brake hoses get this old car ready for the street. Four new shocks and three brake hoses went on the car.
Shocks and Hoses
August 5th, 20051967 Sunbeam Alpine
August 1st, 2005Here is the Alpine as it was picked up. It looks better in these pictures than it really is. It is missing a headlight ring that will need to be purchased later. It has wire wheels, numbers matching engine, reverse lights, luggage rack, original tools, and a clock. All correct for this car which make it a pretty optioned car.
1967 Sunbeam Alpine
August 1st, 2005This Alpine looks great on the outside, needs a few interior carpet, and has the wrong engine. This is a Series V and it has a Series IV engine. The engine is a real dog and it smokes a lot. Take a look at this video.
All cleaned up.
July 10th, 2005This project started out with a real dirty car that nobody would want to sit and after a few days work it turned out to be a very nice example of an original Midget.
Carb Polishing
July 9th, 2005The SU carbs can easily and quickly be polished to an almost chrome finish. This picture shows the polished on the left and the before on the right. These may be the cleanest things under you hood and could look out of place if you have a real dirty engine.
Carb work
July 8th, 2005A carb rebuild is usually needed when a car has been sitting for a while and although the car would start right up and ran fine for a few weeks it started to develop problems under hard acceleration. A new distributor cap and wires was fitted at this time also.
The problem turned out to be crud in the gas tank clogging the fuel line and not the carbs. A good flush fixed that.
Ripped off the bottom
July 4th, 2005The large sway bar that was put on this car ended up being too much for the frame. If you are going to use a sway bar that is larger than stock you should reinforce the area. This will be fixed at a later date.
Cleaning
July 1st, 2005Everything is all cleaned and painted and ready to go back onto the car. The bushings for the rear axle were already in great shape and can be reused. New brake cylinders will have to be fitted however.
The dirty job
June 28th, 2005If your doing the brakes might as well take the rear end off too. All these parts will be media blasted and painted. The aluminum carrier will be cleaned up and left as bare metal.
Frozen Drums
June 24th, 2005When found the rear wheels were locked up. The brakes were frozen to the drums because the parking brake was left engaged for two years. Time for a rebuild.
1966 MG Midget
June 19th, 2005This Midget has been left out under a roof for two years. The top was left off and the leaves and critters moved in. The battery was still charged but it did not start. The engine and rest of the car appear to be very original and in overall good shape.
Manifold Coating
May 7th, 2005The exhaust manifold has been sand blasted and coated with a high temp coating. The intake manifold has also been cleaned up.
Big Differences
March 16th, 2005The rear drum brakes have been cleaned up and rebuilt. Most of the parts are new and the drums have been machined.
Some new chrome wire wheels have arrived from Dayton Wire Wheels. They look great on the car.
Alpine Stereo
March 14th, 2005Here is how I mounted a modern Alpine stereo system into the stock console. The speakers are mounted to the sheetmetal which then utilizes the stock mounts for the speaker. Hot glue was squeezed in around the sheetmetal to stop vibration and with a small spacer plate the CD/MP3 player fit in the stock radio hole.
Still the same
March 13th, 2005The front suspension is back together. New stainless steel brake lines have been added. There is now a wire wheels spindle instead of the steel wheel hub.
Below is a comparison of the Sprite rear end to that of a 2001 Mustang Cobra.
