My dad's got this old '63 Sunbeam Alpine with a motor thats pretty much wasted. It has been sitting for 3 or so years, and I want to bring it back to life.

Heres what she looks like at the moment:



We plan to swap the motor for an identical one. We wanna keep it mellow. The current motor is really on its last legs and a rebuild will only bring it another few hunderd miles. Not worth our time and efforts.

Wish me luck, this is the first time I have ever swapped a motor lol

 

Great little cars, I worked on allot of weird little euro cars in the past - and used to have a 1971 MG Midget. Enjoy and keep the thread going with an update once in a while. PM me if you need any info/advice along the way.

 

cool car, hope it all goes well!

 

Looks to be a fun project! Not familiar with the car in the least but pretty cool that it has a dual carb and plenty of room to work in there.

 

Or find a small V8 and turn it into the Sunbeam Tiger.

 

Thanks guys! Actually, we hate these dual carbs. These Zenith carbs are extreemly hard to balance and never run properly, BUT they do sell for alot on ebay =D. We plan to replace them with a single downdraft weber eventually, but that conversion is expensive.

Pulled the motor today.....We removed the head for easier access to the tranny bellhousing bolts.













And here is our "new" to us motor. Its a Series IV (old one was a series II) Alpine motor with upgrades such as modern type oil filter, electric tachometer hookup, and some Series V internals.





It looks a bit sad right now because it was actually driven (the death of our old motor: it wasnt driven, all seals failed causing a domino effect everywhere). The guy did an excellent job building it up, no doubt.

Oh and this one has a crank action start on the front, you can see it

 

We've put the new one in...

 

Nice Job. Great little cars. Looks like its been well taken care of.

 

Sorry for not posting in awhile. Alot has happened, but I havn't documented any of it on camera!

Long story short, she's more or less done, we're fixing small oil/water leaks here and there. Nothing too big though.

This photo is before we put the header, intake, and carbs on. We have since done that.




After driving it alot, my dad (who has owned and restored a few Alpines before) agrees that this is the best running Alpine he has ever driven.





Next we plan on doing the dash and interior. As you can see from one of the above photos, it needs to be done.

 

Thats a cool little build, great condition for its age.
My step father had a sunbeam rapier when I was young, I thought that was pretty cool.