Wildcard

I'm starting work on a 1960 Sunbeam Alpine that has had most of a 73 rx-3 stuffed under the hood (engine, trans, diff, rear axle, radiator, brakes, gauges, etc).

Its been sitting for 10 years apparently. The gas was flushed and they tried the ignition and it apparently caught which is sort of suprising. Today is flush the brake lines, figure out if I need to replace the hoses, take a look at the brakes themselves.

However, once that is done its time to also take a look at the motor which should be exciting. How likely is it that the seals are in any reasonable shape after a near decade sitting? I suppose I can feed the engine a bit of oil and turn it by hand a bit and check the compression.

Normally I'd be pestering Alpine owners, but since there is almost nothing mechanical left that is stock Alpine seems this is a better forum.

So, for a complete rotary novice, what are the tips for me to tackle in starting to try to bring this puppy back to life?

PERTANO

this one sat in a field for over 10 years just like this. I poured some marvel mystery oil down the intake and plug holes, let it sit for a few days then turned it over slowly. Did it again with the marvel mystery and made sure the motor turned over nice and free then fired it. It fired right up and ran great once the smoke cleared. Oh and smoke it did for a few minutes!!!

Tanjo

Edit

Never mind, I just said almost exatcly what he^ said.

Put some pics up!

Wildcard

Some pics coming this evening.

Wildcard

Okay. Here are the pics I promised.

The car is in way better shape than I expected. Body rust is very minimal. There is a tiny amount of bubbling on the paint, but it looks more like a bad paint job than rust.

Since this is a rotary forum, I'll start with the couple pics I took of the engine bay. Amazingly the transmission fluid looks and smells fresh. We had to push it up a hill and it held with its brakes on a pretty good angle, so while we'll still go through them they seem in better shape than I thought they'd be. Gas was flushed and was clean and barely smelled a bit stale.




The thing looks like it belongs in there. I haven't gotten under the car. I'll try and do that in the next day or two. Right now its off to pick up a cover and some Mystery Oil. How much should I feed it before I let it sit?

For those who want to see the car itself. Here are some more pics. (The thing even has the original black plates.)


Custom dash to hold the rx-3 gauges, and hey is that an 8 track? Also are those rx-3 seats? They certainly aren't Alpine seats. The car has so many different donors, I'm not sure what comes from where.

lov-2-rev

iTrader: (87)

Excellent find! The owner of a local repair shop had a Tiger sitting out back for years. I allways dug the look of Sunbeam roadsters. Kinda reminded me of the late 60's Datson 2000's.

Wildcard

Just to check on a few things:

1. MMO in intake and plugs: Roughly how much Mystery Oil would you put into the engine to sit at a time?

2. Battery: Is there a preferred battery/batteries for the rx-3?

3. Brakes: Anything particularly quirky about rx-3 brakes? I'll probably either be digging into them tomorrow or the day after, but forewarned is forearmed and all that.

4. Anyone recognize those seats? Are those rx-3 seats? They resemble racing seats and the buckles have an 'm' on them, but all I know is they aren't Alpine seats.

Once I get to look in more detail at the engine and carb and such I'm sure I'll have more questions. I don't even know what sort of carb is mounted on it yet.

mike_rudy

Beautiful car, my father has a tiger with a ford 260v8 that was number 6 off the assembly line.
That engine is a really old 12a that most likely has the 6mm carbon apex seals and super heavy rotors. Which is probably a good thing when i pulled apart the same motor the internals were like new.

Wildcard

I feel really lucky to have gotten the car and at a good price. The fact that the guy who did the conversion actually taught mechanics is a nice thing too. I'm actually suspecting it _might_ be possible to get this thing roadworthy a bit quicker than originally expected. I'm just shocked the gas/oil/transmission fluid all have seemed clean and the gas was the only one that seemed even a little stale given its sat for years. Maybe its the mild climate here in No Cal.

Personally I prefer the early Alpine look to the later ones including the Tigers. Love the big old fins that got tempered a bit after 63.

The whole rx-3 internals on an Alpine though make it even more fun. Luckily I'm not worried at all about stock

Was it something in the pic that told you its an old 12a, or the fact its from a 73 rx-3? Also do the 6mm carbon apex seals require any different treatment/attention?

SouthSideSlider

very nice this is aout as close as you could come to having a rotoary Cobra wthout being cursified. LOL

rxtasy3

iTrader: (2)

great find. kinda resembles the 50s T-bird.

BENDER420

Hey, Neat little ride you have there!
To answer a couple questions of yours, No those are defiantly not RX-3 seats. Looks to me like a set of old racing buckets (I like them BTW) As for the engine, the top mount starter and the "twin dizzy" are a dead give away that its a early 70's 12a
Cheers M8! Hope to hear you get the ole girl running again!

Siraniko

iTrader: (13)

I say drop it off to me and let me restore it.

Wildcard

*laugh* What fun would that be? I need to be learning how to do this myself. And besides, half the point of this is an excuse to grab friends together and drink beer (and brew beer) and spend some time together.

Right now I'm going through the numerous manuals that came with the car. I really don't want to get into problems via ignorance any more than needed. The original owner was great. Luckily he also has his handwritten notes on the wiring harness and such.

Here are links to the collection of manuals. I left the pics a bit larger so didn't want to imbed:

http://star.walagata.com/w/shazam/Alpine/Manuals1.jpg
http://star.walagata.com/w/shazam/Alpine/Manuals2.jpg

The top manual in the 2nd pic is interesting. Its a plastic binder and nice printing/paper for 73 when it was printed.

Siraniko

iTrader: (13)

I hear ya. I do the same ****. Where in CA r ya

Wildcard

Oakland. You a Cali type too?

RX2fan

Awsome find. sorta makes me think like its a Cosmo from the 50's. thoughs fins remind me of amphacar. What exactly are you planing for it?

Wildcard

I think cars should be driven, so 1st get it up to be a driver (not daily probably, but regular). Still this is my first car to work on, so a lot is learning, including what changes I might want to make. I'm happy to get feedback and ideas.

Down the road thoughts in no particular order:

• Play with the engine once more comfortable and figure out if I want to keep it as is, or port it.
• Convert from automatic to manual trans (this will probably have to go to a shop)
• Dash is currently a rough custom dash with rx-3 gauges. Get a dash made that better mirrors the Sunbeam Alpine dash but with an rx-3 layout or put in Alpine gauges and rewire/configure them to suit. Dunno bout this one.
• Its got very light rust, so deal with that perhaps blast the chassis, repaint, rechrome bumpers (beautify it).
• Since its already so far from stock, I'm considering putting in keyless entry/power windows.

What I don't want to do is, replace with a non-rotary. This car has had a rotary in it for 25-30 years, it is part of the reason I got it and is part of its history. I'm even considering SCCA once I've got it up as the thing already has racing seats, roll bar, extinguisher. Its almost like its saying 'pretty please'.

Anything else I should be considering?

MadChad

What a fun project, the diamond tuck reminds me of my 57' chevy. I'd like to see it updated with a 13b 4 port done old school n/a 48 weber down draft---MadChad.

RotorBalls

iTrader: (1)

Damn that's a nice find. Always interesting seeing what people did in years past like this. Those manuals are pretty cool and prob worth some coin too

Wildcard

I'm going to show my newbie status here. With the engine still in the car, what is the best way to hand turn the engine? The MMO has sat a couple days. I'm probably being over cautious but I'd rather ask than assume.

Bumping the ignition might be possible, but would be a bit more risky as the original owner set up the power and ignition on switches and not having seen it run, I'm not sure how much control I'd have to 'bump' the ignition switch to get a minimal turn.

RotorRican

Nice find!

Its going to be a blast to drive that car!!!

Wildcard

I agree. And its moving along. Hoses look good. Fluids are flushed. Brakes have a bit of surface rust on the front disks. I haven't gotten the rear drums off. (Even with an impact driver, the phillips heads don't want to come out. But I'll get to them in the next days.)

Continued through various parts and so far mechanically it seems sound.

Was getting ready to turn the engine after putting in some MMO, so bought a new battery and went to attach it. Noticed some of the wires off the negative were showing bare sections, so taped them up. (Car is set up as a negative ground system. Not sure if the original rx-3 was or not.)

Here is where I'm still easily admitting to being utterly and completely new to this. Attached the positive, then when I touched the negative connector to the battery got a pretty healthy spark. The original owner had put a hidden power switch in, so I tried it in all 3 positions and got the spark in all three whenever the negative connector touched the battery's post.

I'm going to have a friend who is more experienced at this come down and help. I'm new to working on cars, but not overly timid. I admit that having to go into the custom wiring job is a bit more intimidating than picking up how to strip apart the brakes. Luckily, the original owner did leave a complete wiring diagram of how he set up the harness.

Fun to learn as you go. So, any thoughts of what I should look at first before I can get more apt friends down here?

Wildcard

Quick update.

Figured out the electrical. Have battery in. Haven't tested all the different fuses, but seems good so far, and definitely have power to things like the lights and hazards and dash.

Tomorrow will try to bump the ignition with the plugs out to turn the engine with the MMO that's been sitting and get the 'gunk' out. Should I stuff rags in the spark plug holes to prevent the oil shooting out and coating the engine bay?

(I gotta say, its fun learning something new from scratch and being able to ask the most beginner questions without feeling too self conscious.)

Wildcard

As a sidenote, the reason I'm planning to turn it using ignition rather than by hand is that the engine is pretty tight in the Alpine bay. No real room to get a bar in to try and turn it that I can see without taking the engine out.

But still want to avoid oil just shooting out as I bump it, thus the question on the rags.