he Sunbeam Alpine wasdesigned by Kenneth Howes

and its production began in1959 at Armstrong Siddeley's

Parkside factory. After the series I andseries II cars, production moved toRootes'own factory. The Alpine that Inow own is a l592cc series II whichwas built in 1962.lt's Moonstone (verypale blue) and number 10,883 of the19,956 series III Alpines made.

I first saw my Alpine on August 18, 1987,at 5.30pm following a tip from a friend whosaid: "You know those sports cars you arealways telling me about; well I saw one lastweek."

After extracting the address, I went to havea look, expecting to see a Spitfire or a Midget.There, sitting on a trailer outside the house,was a beautiful sigh; a Moonstone and black

Practical Classics, March 1990

Alpine. It was not in the best of conditionbut, after being Alpine-starved for 16 years, Isuddenly realised what I had been missing.

"There is only one thing to do now," I toldmyself, "you will walk up rhe drive and pleadwith the owner to sell it to you". \$Talking upthe driveway was akin to walking acrossenormous dance halls in my youth, wonder-ing what I would say when I reached the girl.

"Er... good evening, I was just admiringyour car. Is it for sale?""Yesl actually I am selling two for f300"."Two?", I thought, "Two Alpines ?""Yes", I heard myself say, "Yes pleasel".

I put the Moonstone Alpine to bed in mygarage after banishing our Renault 5 to thedrive, which brought me under heavy attackfrom my wife. I then dealt with the otherAlpine, a series III, which had been roughlysprayed red over its original blue and was ina very poor state. Afterlnuch deliberation I

nnr T!{€D€€P€ND

Alec Nishet tells the storyof his DIY restoration,

Photographs hy Philip Cooper

and Alec Nisbet,

55

Practical Classics, March 1990

I used cardboard ternplates made from the origi-nal panels to make up many repair sections orcotnplete panels.

had to scrap it as there was more rust thanmetal.

I cut up the body with a bolster chisel andhacksaw....and nearly a whole box of Elas-toplast! During this time I would wanderindoors holding, say, a windscreen wipermotor lovingly in my hand and say to myother half: "Look at this workmanship, iustfeel the weight of it", whereupon she wouldshriek and mumble something about grease

on her hands or "what aboutmy car standingin the drive exposed to the elements, and ahalf-dismantled Alpine blocking the path?"Only yesterday she had caught her tights on asharp edge and...

Hastily I removed myself from thekitchen.

The garage was soon festooned with seriesIII spares, except for the en8:rne, gearbox,overdrive unit and the front suspensionwhich I manipulated into my workshop/shed

as I have vague ideas ofdoing these up in thefuture. r0flhile moving these heavy items withwooden rollers and bars, I discovered the sec-ret of how the pyramids were built.

Eventually I got to work on the MoonstoneAlpine but not before three weekends hadbeen spent building a car port for the Renaultafter coming under more fire from the wife.Almost at once I had a shock. After removingthe outer sills I was confronted with a cavityfull of rust flakes and an old pullover, pre-sumably used as backing for filling the outersill. Undaunted, I gently removed rottenparts of ttre old chassis and floor sections,cutting cardboard templates where possibleand making sections from the scrap car.

An Enox type cutter can be used to makethe four l3l+in holes in the box section underthe seat, tapping the edges over afterwardsfor that authentic 'pressed out' look. Simi-larly this can be done for the slotted typeholes near the forwardmost rear springhanger. I found the angle grincier indiipens-able when gently removing badly corrodedsections for patterns. I fixed all these repair

Neu sections wne temporail5t secured to ensurea good fit before th4t were weliled in place.

sections in place with ysin self-tapping screwsto enable me to get them exactly right in rela-tion to each other rather than welding as "went along.

I managed to scrape together several itemsthat were missing from the car. A number ofsmaller parts came from various individualsand all the panels that I could not make forthe nearside came from Alpine tVest Mid-lands. After buying a Cebora MIG 110 wel-der that was on special offer rn Pracical Clas-sics, I set about learning how to use it. Thewelding took four months working duringthe evenings and at the weekends - it's amaz-ing where all the sheets of mild steel andwelding wire went to. After smoothing over,the car was re-sprayed in Moonstone - code19 - using an electric Apollo warm air gun.This, too, was purchased through PracticalClasics, another special offer. Several coatsof paint were applied followed by many hoursofrubbing down.

The Alpine StoryThe Sunbeam Alpine was introduced inOctober 1959. A two-seater open tourer, itssporty body style hid the car's origins verywell; it was based on a strengthened versionof the Hillman Husky floorpan. One by-pro-duct of this was the handbrake being on thedriver's right, between seat and door.Elsewhere under the skin much was familiartoo. Most of the mechanical componentswere tried and tested units taken from thecontemporary Rapier and other Rootessaloons.

The 1494cc engine was Rapier-derivedbut with a new cast aluminium alloy head. Aninteresting feature of this was the valveanangement which had numbers lour andfive as inlet valves rather than exhaust, andthe other valves alternated outwards fromthat point. The valves were also slightly off-vertical. The gearboxwas based onthetoughHillman Husky unit; Laycock overdriveoperating on third and fourth from a steeringcolumn switch was a popular option. TheAlpine was the first Rootes product to be fittedwith front disc brakes. Well-appointed inside,the Alpine was well-received although itsstraight-line performance was adaquaterather than exceptional (0-60 in 14 seconds,standing quarter mile 19.8 secs, max speedabout 98mph).

Twelve months and 11,904 units later, theMkll came along. The engine was bored out

to 1592cc which gave an increase in powerwhich was nol reflected in performance.Motor tound that the MKll's top speed and0-60 times were both a little slower than theMkls. The'new'engine was, however, muchsmoother. Small but signilicant changes tothe steering wheel position and seat backangle improved driver comfort considerably.Externally the car was virtually indistinguish-able from the Mkl. 19,956 series ll Alpineswere made and production finished in Feb-ruary 1963. ln 1961, Harrington's ofPortslade, better known perhaps for their'bus and coach body building, introduced ahardtop GT version of the Alpine, with aglassfibre fastback hardtop. Other changesincluded improved interior trim, wood rimsteering wheel and an electronic rev counter.Hanington Alpines are now rare and sought-after.

The Mklll Alpine was introduced in March1963. The finned rear wings remained butnow housed twin fuel tanks, which along withthe vertically-mounted spare wheelincreased boot space. Seating and the faciawere improved and the steering columnbecame adlustable. Mechanical improve-ments included bigger inlet valves and aclose-ralio gearbox but again overall perfor-mance was hardly affected. Alpines from theMklll onwards were available in open sportsand GT forms; the latter came with a (detach-

able) hardtop but no hood! A cast-iron man-ifold, fitted to reduce engine noise, also cutengine output. The Mklll was made lor onlyten months and 5,863 were built.

Although the Alpine was on a par withthe MGA it was outclassed in every respectexcept refinement by the MGB which waslaunched in October 1962. The MklV Alpine,introduced in January 1964, was an attemptto make the Rootes product more competi-tive. The high tail fins were removed andsome engine and suspension changesmade. For the first (and only) time automatictransmission (Borg-Warner) was otfered onthe MklV and from October 1964 the gearboxbecame all-synchromesh. Handling wasimproved but the car was slower than theMklll, top speed being around 93mph. TotalMKIV production was 12,406.

The final Alpine variant, the MkV, wasintroduced in September 1965. The enginewas changed tor a1725cc five-bearing unit,equipped with an alternator. The biggerengine restored performance to its '1959(!)

level, the top speed was quoted by TheAutocar as 98mph (the same as Motor gotoutof the Mkl) althoughthe0-60timewasslightlyimproved at 13.6 seconds. Some minor bodychanges completedthe picture. 19,122 MkVswere made before production finished inJanuary 1968. t

P.A.S.

56

" - " .1r4+,*E..-1%

Practical Classics, March '1990

After re-wiring the electrical system, allthe brake pipes were renewed in copper andnew rubbers were fitted to the Wheel, master,brake and clutch and clutch slave cylinders.All the petrol pipes were replaced and theclutch was Iitted with a new release bearing.

As the car came with two wire wheels andtwo steel wheels, I bought three more wirewheels through a wanted ad in the clubmagazine. I managed to get a number ofspokes'to replace those that were damagedfrom Octagon Cars Ltd, Chart Sutton, Kent.

lllith the Renault 5 expelled, polythene sheets

were used to ailapt the carport in a practicalspray booth.

2.5 litres of Hi-Build pimer were applied

first,followedby afurther similar quantiu of topcoat cellulose.

The unilerneath of the car was painted withFinnigans No.l and Smoothite. On top of this,ten litres of Waxoyl were used to rustproof thebody. This should go a long way to help in pre-seruing a oery pleasing conclusion to the restord-tion.

After removing the tyres and tubes, thewheels were given a good wire brushinginside the rims and the broken spokes weretapped out. I found it necessary to straightenthe spokes slightly in a vice to get a perfect fitin the countersink of the rim and the wheelcentre. The new spokes were tightened untilthey gave a similar'ring'to the other spokeswhen lightly tapped with a small spanner.Too much tension in one spoke will loosenthe others.

The engine was still an unknown quantitybut, after modifying the distributor driveshaft, it started! As I knew that the enginehad been rebuilt some 50,000 miles earlier, Itherefore chose not to touch the lower endapart from replacing the core plugs and giv-ing it a good clean.

It had taken exactly a year from the time Ifirst saw the car. Then suddenly things beganto go wrong. On the way back from the MoT

The gearbox was remooed from the car so thatthe problem with the ooerdioe could be rectified.

<.Although this is a seies III dashboard, I hazte

nozts acquired a c orrect dash which unfortunatelywas damaged in the post dnd will thus need to be

re-furbished before it is fined. I also plan tochange the indicator stalks some time in the near

future as these, too, are from a seies III.

\l(ith the engine hazsing been taken out, I had thechdnce to clean-up and re-spray the bag. Withthe engine back in the tesult was oety pledsing.

1'l:r-!J'

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57

Practical Classics. March 1 990

the cylinder head went. I replaced the gasketbut shortly afterwards was faced with furthercomplications. lWhen I tried to engage theoverdrive it would not work, even though thesolenoid and relay were operating correctly.After much muttering (why does it alwayshappen to me?) I removed the gearbox/over-drive unit and stripped it down. I found thegearbox to overdrive gasket to be defectiveand only a cupful of gearbox oil was remain-ing. This had caused one of the bearings tooverheat and disintegrate; indeed, all theballs fell out when the unit was dismantled.Also the friction brake type lining inside theoverdrive had detached itself from the coneand the main shaft had pretty coiouredtemper marks along it from the heat. Theother unfortunate result of all this was thatthe end gearbox bearing, possibly havingseized slightly, revolved in the gearbox cas-

ing and pushed out with tinger pressure.After an inspection, the two end bearings andseals u,ere replaced on a spare unit which wasthen used to replace the old one. After mak-ing new gaskets up out of sheets of gasketpapcr the unit was fitted, effectiveiy remedy-ing all my problems.

etc. the actual hub had to be pulled from thetapered drive half shafts requiring a pressureof between 12 atd,20 tons. You have twochoices. Either remove the shaft and hubcomplete to a machine shop to be pressedout, or do it iz sirz on the car. For this youreally need a special hub pulling tool as

described in the manual - all very well in1960 when there were a few about. Now,however, one probably has more chance ofspotting a half penny on the moon. Accord-ingly I made one up out of angle iron only tosee it pull apart with the force used. In fact Ineeded to attach a hefty spanner and stand onit before the centre bolt moved. This will giveyou some idea of the required torque. In theend I used a 4ft iength of scaffold tube. This,however, was too much for my beautifulhome-made hub puller and the welds brokeneatly away.

Luckily I had a friend with some large sec-tions of piping. He used these to make theMk 2 version shaped like a top hat. As my carhas wire wheeis this shape was necessary to fitover the hub splines. This worked verv well.

After making up wooden backs for thedoor trims, I re-trimmed the interior using a

bright red leathercloth that I got from a localboatyard trimming shop. A sample of this

people) who made a matching paint that wasthen sprayed on the front seats and backcushions which were incorrectly colouredblue and black respectively. As the originalrubber mats had been lost, replacementswere cut from some heavy duty serrated rub-ber. A secondhand hood was obtained fromthe small ads in the club magazine becausethe original was torn and rotten.

4711 HJ is now laid up for winter while Iwait for my sense of humour to return. ThenI might tackle a new exhaust and perhapssome re-chroming. The Alpine proved to bea very interesting proiect. I tackled every-thing myself on a limited budget and I havelearned several new skills, all of which Itaught myself from Practical C/assics and var-ious books. \With hindsight, if I were to do itagain, I would try for a more complete carwith all the parts for the particular series as

some items are particularly difficult to trackdown. tr

The rear hub oil seals

headache. After removingproved to be a

the brake shoes

colour was gent to Formula 40 (the Vinl'lkoted:,

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