51 replies to this topic

[Al*]

Ok so here goes... a little over a year ago i picked this car up for my dad as a restoration project... I've had his garage tied up with minis and various projects of my own since i was 16... 5 years ago... my dad always said he wanted a project of his own once i was out of the garage... after much effort i just couldnmt convince him to get a mini...we had discussed what sort of car he wanted and though he was unsure he did mention he would enjoy a small convertible... at that time we had things like triumph tr6 and mgb's in mind though... he was out of town on business and i was almost finished the resto on my 79' mini so after convincing my mom that it wasn't for me and stating my case she agreed with the idea so i went and picked it up and had it stowed away in the neighbours garage when he got home... i pushed it out on the street and had a ribbon on it in the morning as a surprise for him hahaha....

fast forward to present day and the car has been comopletely stripped to a bare shell, parts have been bagged and tagged, i built some mounts to put it up onto the rotisserie stands that i already built for my minis, we took it to the sandblasters on the 19th of december and got it back on the 24th, panels have been ordered and should be here by the beginning of february... panels ordered are front valence, both front floor pans, both rear floor pans, both quarter panel wheel arches, both lower front fender repair sections, both outer sill panels, and i'm sure i missed mentioning a couple others... there is lots of other rotten panels on this car but i will be fabricating them myself... these include the filch panels both sides, fronts of fenders around the headlamp rings both sides, entire boot floor, inner sills etc....

plans for the car so far are to rebuild the entire body removing all rotten metal (which there is quite alot of...), shaving the rear end of the car of bumper, change the fornt marker lights from the unsightly series 4 rectangular turn signals to the earlier round style ones....(which i might french in... we will decide at a leater date) aside from that the body will look relatively stock... as for engine the factory 1600cc will be staying in the corner of the garage and we will be substantially upgrading it... we initially were thinking of using a mazda b13 rotary engine but my dad is leaning towrds a ford 5.0 (302ci)v8 for more of that "tiger" feel...

we have lots of research and lots of work to do before it will be done and my dad doesnt retire for another 5 years but i will try to keep this relatively updated as we crack on with this project....

Al

*pics to be up soon of the current state of the car and leading up to....*

Edited by Al*, 27 December 2008 - 11:40 PM.

[buddylove]

Sounds like a fun project.

[Bungle]

[Down&Out]

i love alpines

[Al*]

here are pics as promised... 56k be warned though...

on the street in front of my neighbours house as my dad saw it for the first time...

Top down but i think it'll be a while before we'll be able to really enjoy it....



grotty interior in need of a bit of attention...

into the garage for the first time where it will be spending alot of time during and after its restoration...

the last time this 1600 will be in this car.



off to the blasters...

it was about -30Celcius that morning when we took it to the blasters...

Edited by Al*, 28 December 2008 - 06:32 PM.

[Shifty]

Nice looking car, always had a soft spot for Alpines!!

(not just because of james bond either!!)

[Al*]

heres the car back from the blasters... no more secrets all the poor repairs from this cars past life are on display and obviously need attention... rough patches brazed over rust and probally nearly 3/4" of filler in places...

bashed up front valence that was loaded with filler.... new one on order...



























bent rad support that was behind the bent valence that i will have to starighten out...

[Sir Cheat]

Lots of work to be done, Good luck with it.

[Down&Out]

thats lovely

[Bungle]

doesn't look too bad


how come your cars don't rust as quickly as ours ?

[kez_19]

probably the same reason that they dont rust here in northern sweden and probably most countrys that get really cold

we dont use salt on the roads

for the simple reason that if you salt a road at -10 or less as the snow melts when in contact with the salt it immediately freezes and turns roads in to ice rinks so in stead we plough the roads and use skinny winter tyres with studs in them...

michael

[Al*]

-well cars do rust pretty bad out here as well... if you need proof look at the minis that i have rebuilt... this particular car has been off the road since 1986 and had quite alot of undercoating on it so that makes a big difference... though it is alot worse than those pics make it seem... the frame crossmembers are rottten as well... so although it isn't terrible all the rot is from only 22 years on the road.

-kez_19; they use alot of salt on our roads i wish we were as fortunate as you... i would love them to just plow and let me drive with studs... instead they drop salt and gravel all over and plow the highways... leaving your cars chipped to hell and covered in salt...

- i went out to the garage last night and started building the fronts of the fenders to take the headlamps...they are rotted away...

Al

[Al*]

havent got much to update... my brother was over a couple days ago so we took advantage of the extra set of hands and got the car onto the rotisserie...havent got much done on the car itself as my daily drive broke down so i've been out on the street working in -20 working on that.... also i am restoring my friends 91 mini so that will eat up a bunch of my time...

Al

[Teapot]

Congrats and best of luck. In 1967 I and my MGB were were competing for the heart of a lady against a rival in an Alpine.
I won, but only because he was short and fat and lived with his mother. No reflection on his car.
Are these the indicators you plan to use by the way?



Here is a link to the Alpine's background and here's another which also mentions the Tiger

The Tiger has a stirring pedigree. Read about it here if you've got a spare five minutes.

[Al*]

yes teapot those indeed are the indicators we are planning on using... and most likely that grille as well ratehr than the series IV single bar style...

thansk for the websited they had some good reading on them...

Al