The Big Resto
Terry Gibbons fought this Tiger to realise a dream… to own a classic British Q-car, an Alpine with real teeth!
Stunning Sunbeam Tiger restored to perfection. The ultimate Q-car?
For Terry Gibbons, the decision to try and find a Sunbeam Tiger to restore was a simple one. ‘I’d had an Alpine when I was young and I loved it, but I always lusted after the Tiger. Unfortunately, it was way out of my price range at that time.’ Fast forward a few decades though, and Terry was finally in a position to seek out the Alpine’s big brother, eventually buying this 1966 example in February 2016. ‘I’d been looking for such a project for a while,’ explains Terry, ‘so I sent an email to Graham Vickery of the Sunbeam Tiger Owners Club asking him if he knew of any available. It was quite a while later when he got in touch with me to say that there was an example in Leatherhead, but I’d have to move quickly as there were a lot of people interested. We hitched up the trailer, headed south, bought the car, loaded up and headed home again.’ So, the project was on.
The car had been off the road since 1976, so Terry had his work cut out for him. The first job was to try and free up the seized engine: ‘The plugs had all been removed and left open previously, so it was not looking good. I poured diesel oil into the plug holes and left it for a couple of weeks. I then tried rocking the car in gear to try to free it. It eventually moved, so further rocking would turn it three-quarters of a
‘The V8 motor had clearly suffered a catastrophic failure – full rebuild required’
turn in one direction and then three-quarters of a turn the other way before stopping with a worrying ‘clunk’.’ This was not a good sign, so it became clear then that a full rebuild was required.
The next step after removing the engine and gearbox was to strip the body down to a bare shell, before sending it to be chemically dipped. ‘The process also removed the rust, leaving a lot of missing metal that I hadn’t seen before. But the good thing was that
I could see the extent of the damage and know what I was working with.’
Internal affairs
While the body was away, Terry started work on the engine. ‘After removing the heads, I found that No. 5 piston was missing completely. The con-rod was bent and the gudgeon pin had ripped the liner almost in two. The motor had clearly suffered a catastrophic failure at high revs, causing the piston to disintegrate and sending fragments throughout the engine.’ On disassembly, Terry found that the big ends, mains and even cam bearings, had worn completely through the white metal to the copper.
At that point Terry started looking for another
engine block, but the 260 unit is hard to find and even the 289 is becoming quite rare now – he finally settled on a 302 block, from circa 1980. ‘The block is the same, but with a slightly longer stroke – everything is interchangeable apart from the fact that you need to use a sixbolt bellhousing.’ The block was bored out by .030in and the crank ground to .020in. Terry fitted a set of Federal Mogul pistons, high performance street camshaft and valve gear, plus high compression 289 heads with hardened valve seats and guides that he’d polished and ported before fitting them. An Edelbrock Performer manifold and Holley 600cfm four-barrel carb completed things, along with tube headers specially designed for the Tiger that replace the original cast iron units.
Electronic ignition and an alternator were also fitted, as was a new oil pump, water pump, timing gears and chain. The completed engine was run up on its stand before being fitting to the car for a ‘systems check’. A six-bolt bellhousing was sourced and machined to fit the existing Ford Toploader gearbox. Finally, the transmission was rebuilt using all new bearings, clutch rings, selectors and seals before being joined by an uprated Mcleod clutch kit.
With the engine sorted, fabrication on the recently dipped body shell was a long process, including making and shaping panels to fit out of sheet steel. Terry also spent a lot of time working on the shut lines. ‘Cars built in the Sixties and Seventies were known for having door gaps anywhere from zero to ¼in – it may have been acceptable then, but it certainly isn’t these days. The fabrication of the body and chassis was by far the longest part of the restoration, taking about two years on and off.’ The hours spent getting these correct proved worthwhile in the end though, as the results show.
The next job before the bodyshell went for paint was the trial fitting of everything to the body. ‘This is especially important as you do not want to be drilling panels once the painting has been done,’ says Terry. ‘It is a tedious operation and it seems counterproductive to be building up only to strip down again, but you reap the rewards when it comes to final assembly.’
Grey is the colour
After trial-fitment process was completed, the car went to Barkston Refinishing at Grantham for painting. Says Terry: ‘Due to the red interior there are not many colours you can choose from. After looking at various shades of white, (the original colour), my wife and I noticed a metallic grey that we both fell in love with. So that is what it became.’ Terry is happy with his choice of paint shop, too. ‘Paul Sharman and his boys did a marvellous job on the preparation, as the fact that there had been so much panel work meant it was not going to be an easy task. But the finish they achieved was superb.’
The next part was building everything back into the shell without damaging the paintwork. Not easy, but with blankets and old towels everywhere, Terry got away pretty much unscathed. ‘The first part I bolted on was the newly rebuilt and painted heater motor under the dash. That gave me great satisfaction, knowing I was now assembling instead of disassembling!’ From there the process was slow but rewarding. ‘The first part of assembly was laying all the cables and pipes into the