Tonneau and windscreen

Christmas present to Sunbeam was a Tonneau from Don Hoods.
Winter probably isn't the best time to try to fit the tonneau as it wasn't easy to stretch so it was warmed up in the house every so often.

Nutserts

I used captive nuts (nutserts) and lift the dot fittings with M5 threads.

Tenax fasteners

For the front, once the screen was removed, I added Tenax fasteners to somewhere near the factory location.
This is instead of the air vent screws as is popular when the screen is still in place.

Some original paint exposed for view

The windscreen is badly scratched and is a nightmare driving at night or into the sun.

The rubbers were showing all of the 55 years.  Despite having been resprayed with screen removed the rubbers were still original.

Cutting the rubber made glass removal easy. but the stainless trim wasn't so easy to remove as it was attached with a strong sealant.








Once the screen was removed the expected rust wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Not the prettiest of repairs but the stainless covers will hide it all.

Any colour so long as it's black...

I don't have the matching paint (Dupli-Color 629686 AC 7-0680) 

and she won't stay Racing Green forever so the bits that are seen will be satin black for now.

I've also left the top-rail front the original light green metallic for future reference.



Fitting the screen wasn't so bad
and the top and side trims were easy. The lower trim was fitted after the frame to body seal had been glued down.

The frame to body rubber trim wasn't so easy.
The rubber trim came with advise to glue the trim to the frame at the back where the cylindrical section is. This worked well.




The original seal had been attached by a sealant filling the entire channel section.Which I also tried to do but the sealant I used wasn't very sticky to rubber.
I followed it up with "serious glue" which did the trick and helped when fitting the frame to body.

Adjustment of the angle wasn't easy and needed some packing on one side.

LED lights

The painted orange indicator bulbs didnt look quite right in the clear lenses so I tried the orange LED indicators from classic car LEDS instead.

I needed to change the lamp holders - as the side lights are in the headlamp now and the lamp holders are offset pin dual filament. -

I've since found the supplier does a white side light and an orange flasher in LED - so I'll be changing it back soon!

The indicators are the same brightness and colour. The only obvious difference is the LEDS are instant ON/OFF compared to a more fade ON/OFF with incandescent lamps.

Hazard style

To get the indicators to work one needs to change the flasher. The type needed has to have an output for the single warning lamp. The only mod needed was to attach the required earth lead.


Then the Hazard warning (Lucas SFB300)  lamps were doing strange things so that relay also needed changing.



I got the bug - so I also changed the side light bulbs to Hi bright LED's and the stop tail lights. The side light lamp is very bright white compared to the original dull yellow.

Number plate lamp to follow soon.

Number plate lamp fitted OK - just ensure its the right way around else it wont work.

I have changed the side lights and indicators now so the lower side/indicators are used as original using an offset pin dual side(white)/indicator(amber) LED.
The lamps are peculiar in that when side lights are on and indicators are selected the associated side light turns off until the indicator is cancelled.

Le Mans Classic and MOT time

The run to Le Mans Classic was another good test.

Prior to the run some preparation was carried out
Exhaust rattles were fixed.
The gearbox needed a lot of oil.
As did the diff.
Hand brake adjustment.

One side seems to be smoking on overrun and on the outward bound trip I lost some a fair amount of oil - but on the return no loss..!

Performance was good but 20mpg may be a bit low.

The only snag - speedo stopped working.

After the run it was MOT time. Passed.

MOT is still required  due to the engine change.
But as there is some likely sill welding needed soon its a good thing to check.

And confirm the brakes are ok.

Long test run

The first decent run in lovely sunbeam was successful. 500 miles in a weekend - a trip to the seaside and back.

Jobs to do

1. exhaust rattles
2. radio console
3. steering stability at 75plus (check the joints)
4. vibration at 40mph (might be 1)
5. axle leaks
6. diff leaks
7. engine minor oil leak
8. welding at rear spring hanger
9. welding at front crossmember
10. Speedo calibration

Propshaft

The original propshaft from the BW35 auto was modified by changing the output sleeve yoke to a type 9 version.

It was considered at the same time to lengthen the propshaft by 1" - but the company I used ( autoprop-uk ) had recently had some items lost in a fire and couldn't do the balancing. So we just changed then ends and spiders.

I decided to wait a while to determine if all was well before going to adjust the propshaft length.



It later occurred to me that a spacer on the axle would be a solution. I wasn't sure if it would be "safe" until I noted a few "propshaft spacers" for land rovers and Atlas axles available on eBay.

So here is the drawing for the Sunbeam.

Lofty volunteered to make it.







A week later and here it is - and it fits! (amazed my measurements were accurate but lofty made compensations for my lack of tolerances )
Perfect fit on the propshaft, slight interference fit on the Diff flange as I made the measurements the same for both sides. M8x50 class 8.8 were used as the 5/16" x 1-3/4" UNF grade S were just a little too short to fully fit the nylocs.
A test run proved it hasn't added any balance issues and I'm happier the propshaft fits further onto the gearbox.

Speedometer calibration

In March 2017 A Speedo cable was purchased for type-9 gearbox to Jaeger clock from Speedy cables .

The speedo is naturally out of calibration due to the gearbox change.
Speed in mph is roughly half indicated speed in kph.





Several options are available to adjust this.

1. speedy cables can calibrate the existing speedo. from £80
2. www.speedograph-richfield.com can also calibrate the speedo but they also make mini gearboxes. from £90 
3. make my own gearbox with ratio 3/4. 

I feel keeping the instrument original is a good idea, so..

I started with option 3 and made a cumbersome belt driven gearbox, connecting the input and output to the cables was the tricky part.

Then noticed that the speedo graph also do a type 9 right angle drive changer but also incorporate ratio changes. So this would help fix two issues at once as the speedo cable aims directly at the exhaust pipe.

The original speedo cable will also fit the new gadget.

I've contacted  speedograph for details to ensure the ratio is correct.

Its possible the standard RGB1030-08A 1:1.33 NR ¾ x 26 / 3mm Square  will be just right  but nice to get it spot on.

Speedograph need the tyre size and number of turns per 6 wheel revs.
I measured the speedo cable rotation at the office car park as it has a gentle slope to aid pushing the 6 turns of the driven wheel. I measured 8-1/8 turns.
With tyre size 185/55/R15 this should have a radius of 72.3" and 877 revs per mile.

some Alpine speedos types
S/N 6117/01 - ??? - 1000 revs per mile

S/N 6117/02 - Up to B9105974 - 980 revs per mile

S/N 6117/11 - From B9105975 up to Series 3 - 1000 revs per mile
S/N 5324/18 - Series 3 o/d  - 1408 revs per mile 
S/N 5324/23 - Series 4

Anyway - it seems I need a 1:1.19 ratio mini gearbox




After a short wait I fitted the new box today - its not quite right as They recomended 1:1.19 and I thought I needed 1:1.33 - I think I was closer. Maybe my speedo isnt standard 😒

Oil leak is making a mess!

It turns out my speedo had already been modified for the Automatic box. 
So Speedograph Richfield modified my speedo and it is now reading correctly and doesn't need the gearbox. The speedo is indicating a few mph lower than the GPS which is probably a good thing 😁


The speedo failed on the way to Le Mans 😞 - turns out it was the cable that broke.

Petrol Tank Refurb (POR 15)

The boot would smell a little of petrol when the tanks were more than half full.
Not sure where the leak was coming from but probably time to change all the rubber seals and seal the tanks with POR 15.

To remove the tanks you need to remove the boot springs and disconnect the strut from the boot lid to make space.

The condition of the tanks were not that bad but evidence of previous repair was noted on the LH outside.

Little bit rusty inside RH tank

The POR 15 cleaning takes a while. And preparing the 3 joining pipes also.

S3 filler, joiner, S4 joiner

Note that the series 3 has a different RH tank and the filler cap and joining hose is different to series 4 & 5.

The Tank sealer does need to be mixed well, it can be lumpy.
Sealing the tanks is easy enough but ensuring the excess is well drained takes some care.

Refitting the springs is easy if the strut is removed from the boot lid.

Pulling the strut rear-wards means the spring is close to the shortest extension possible. The left spring was easily fitted by hand. The right spring was a bit stronger and just needed a small hook to pull a few extra mm.





8mm Nylon fuel pipe from ssldiesel was installed as fuel feed and also a new return to tank.

Disc Brake Caliper Refurb

The car would pull to the left on hard braking.
So its time to investigate the calipers.

new piston and seals

I thought I would find old rusty calipers and rusty stuck pistons.

But it turns out the previous owner had fitted stainless steel pistons and pins.

But behind the rubber seals there was still much rust and maybe the pistons were sticky.

The calipers were dismantled and dipped in the rust dissolving solution.

After reassembly and painting in silver brake caliper paint I was advised by the forum that its
possible for the brake pads to stick in the caliper due to being the wrong size.

It was found that two pads were a tight fit in one of the calipers. These pads were 0.2mm wider than the others. They were all filed down so they loosely fit in the caliper. So now there should be no problem in the future.

Installing the rubber seals is a tricky task, but the best method was to fit the seal around the base of the piston, offer it up to the caliper, hook the lip in the groove and push in the piston to finish.

New bleed nipples and then the system was bled until air free.
Actually - not air free.. many times tried but still spongy.

A vacuum pump system was tried and also didn't fix the spongyness. Only using a willing helper to press the pedal and apply force while bleeding fix the spongyness in a few presses.

New Rocker covers

Ordered these rocker covers some time ago from Redmond Metalcasting.

They arrived for Christmas.

Some installers have had issues with the alternator being in the way.
Being pre-warned I didn't have an issue.
Maybe a lucky choice in fanbelt sizes.

Not a big problem  - but the breather hose needs to be extended
To keep the the run fairly neat the original hose was cut to keep the moulded bends but means a few extra unsightly jubilee clips are added.

Will look to improve that later.







Work to-do

• Fuel return hose install
• Fuel tank refurb
• Oil cooler take off port blanking.
• Front caliper rebuild
• Engine Electrical wiring improvements

New Old scimitar axle, New wheels, Rolling Road

In preparation of possible axle problems (it leaks already and makes a noise) I bought a Scimitar Se5a rear axle ready to modify.

Hopefully this post HERE will provide all the knowledge to make it work.







In the meantime a new set of tyres was need so a new set of
wheels was also purchased. Much nicer looking.

The front end is still a bit high so I have ordered some new springs  made to measure to the correct size for a series 3.





A trip to the rolling road at CCK Historic for the carburettors to be set up was a successful journey.

The standard carb settings were running a bit weak.

The test run then showed 120 bhp and 160 ft lbs torque.

Not bad.



New Springs arrived from coil springs (1989) Ltd
The picture shows that the ones originally supplied were the same length as the proper size springs plus the rubber shock absorber

End result is the front is now 1" lower and therefore matches the back with 25" from ground level to wheel arch

Fan problems

Sunbeam is running quite well.

I thought one fan-belt has started to wear through where it was rubbing on a thermostat screw. The belt was getting thinner and rubber dust was accumulating in the area.
The screw was been adjusted and it should be ok now.

The fan was a bit noisy as it is running full blast all the time instead of using the viscous coupling. The fan has 8 blades - I think a few less blades and a better electric fan as a backup may be required.

update - A fan-belt shredded yesterday and the other is quite thin. It may be that the fan is causing too much drag so that the cooling pulley is slipping and wearing out the belts. Two blades were removed.

The SPA section fan-belt was replaced by a muscle belt SPZ1120.
On the next run there was no more apparent wear. And the fan noise was quieter.
On the way back one fan blade mangled itself into the radiator. To get home this and its opposite blade was also cut off.

Water Temperature was still maintained at normal - so 4 blades is enough with the electric fan as manual backup. The plan will be to install a more suitable automatic electric fan and fit a twin blade fan just to keep the air under the bonnet moving.





Next time the radiator is removed I will tidy up  the cut edges.

On the next run the clutch started make "ticking" noises -so the engine was removed and a new clutch fitted

So while the engine was out the fan blade was trimmed neatly and the chassis rail was dented for the left side exhaust pipe.

After another fan blade failure - at low speed over bumpy ground - it was decided to remove the fan entirely and fit a pair of pusher fans.

The engine must be a little too close to the radiator.

I had fitted an electric backup fan but wasn't convinced it would be totally suitable. So two 9" fans were selected.

The assembly just fits in front of the radiator.
I used a two stage switch to control each fan.
one comes on at 88ºC the other at 97ºC.

it seems to work....

MOT and proper road test

 Lovely sunbeam passed her test on monday and is now fully road-legal again.

Insurance was £150 including Europe recovery and garage spares cover.

A run in the countryside proved that even at running in speeds and revs she runs well enough to keep ahead of the traffic.
The handling is much better with new shocks and springs all round. Still looks a bit high at the front.

An occasional momentary loss of power shows up from time to time. Which may be fuel starvation as it picks up quick afterwards.
A rolling road tune-up is planned shortly.

Test Run to MOT station

The radiator was fitted this weekend and all seems well.
Still a little noisy - but Jose says its normal so I'll relax.

I then heard a rather more serious sounding rattle - but this turned out to be the Fan tapping the end of the crankshaft pulley. The radiator and fan were removed again to adjust the fan offset.

I drove to the MOT station and all seemed well.


The tester refused to test the vehicle because en route she had sprung a small oil leak. It seems to be coming from the crankshaft pulley seal 😒 radiator out again..

crank seal was damaged - must have been rather clumsy attaching the crank pulley




The throttle had a strange feel to it - there must be a tight spot at the beginning as at 1/2 throttle it suddenly goes loose and its easy to jump to 3/4 - which is quite exciting.
It transpired to be the rubber vacuum blanking bung getting in the way. The right spot went away when a shorter bung was fitted.