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Thread: My other expensive hobby - 1963 Sunbeam Alpine - Adventures in Cars

  1. #41
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by OlongJohnson View Post
    I always thought the ZF in the M3s shifted smoother than the Getrag 250 in my E36 325is. The only E30s I can remember driving were M3s, so no comparison between Getrag 250 and 260.

    The Miata tranny shifts nicer than either, but won't hold power unless you find a six speed. Which would take awhile.
    They probably all shift nicer than the stock Sunbeam box...and as long as this one doesn't pop out of second and fourth gear...it'll be a major improvement.

    I've read, but have no experience, that most of the BMW shifters have a lot of plastic bushings and a lot of slop. A number of after market shifters out there are all steel or aluminum to eliminate slop/flex. I'm honestly not sure I could get a Miata 6-speed in the car without extensive surgery. I certainly can't get the ZF 6-speed in there.

    ---

    I shoved this thing up in there today and looked it all over (lots of pics tomorrow). But the long and short of it is...the 260 fits in the trans tunnel, almost, perfectly. But one of the bosses on the driver's side of the gearbox hits. Five minutes with an angle grinder and it won't hit anymore and it should fit perfectly. I'll need a custom length mount to hold the shift lever in place and a custom length shifter linkage, but with that...my shifter will come out in exactly the stock location. I actually plan fab my stock shifter handle to fit. I may even be able to modify the original Sunbeam trans X-Member to fit the Getrag and bolt it all into place; not sure yet, but my eyeball-o-meter says, "It's possible".

    And the Getrag's shorter length means I gained some very critical exhaust clearance. I can now run a straight back long-tube header, and use a cross over flex-pipe and slot everything into place. It's going to work out beautifully. At this point, my three biggest hurdles are ground clearance with a K24 installed, properly building and routing a fuel system, and building a rear end for the car.

    If I had an extra 5k lying around, I could probably have this thing running and driving before Jan 1. Unfortunately, I don't...but that's okay, I'm not in a huge hurry.

  2. #42
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    So - admittedly I did this yesterday. But you gotta spread your IG posts out to make it look like daily progress.

    Here you can see this fitted in. First too far back and the bellhousing too low. Pulled back out and adjusted to the correct angle there is a boss on the side of the box that needs to be ground off (last pic). Before I grind anything, I'll connect this to my engine and check alignment and angle. Right now with it sitting in the tunnel, I have 23" clear to the radiator support. A K24A2 is 21" long. I'm going to probably run a tucked radiator on the bumper side of the core support, to free up space.

    Importantly, this clears the steering rod that goes along the firewall. That's HUGE, because it means a steering conversion is likely to be unnecessary.

    http://instagram.com/p/CIOIG8PpwTV/

  3. #43
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    May 2014
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    I'm not about to go pro in welding - but ~3 weeks ago I had never held a TIG torch...So I'm pretty happy with my progress thus far. I've learned a few things. And today, I really learned copper welding spoons are awesome for allowing you to more easily strike a scratch-start TIG and pull it off and let the bead cool, while still hitting it with gas, leaving less cratering and oxidation at the end of the weld. The crater I got in this piece today came from balling up the tip and yanking it back too fast. Got to work on my torch speed. And I'm going to swap out this 3/32" tip for a 1/16" and see if I can put a little less heat in (I'm getting warping from overheating).

    http://instagram.com/p/CIT5rPaJ7Yh/

  4. #44
    Member TGS's Avatar
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    Apr 2011
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    Back in northern Virginia
    Anything new with this, @RevolverRob?
    "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer

  5. #45
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TGS View Post
    Anything new with this, @RevolverRob?
    Aside from moving it across the country from Chicago to Seattle? Not much.

    I stripped out the interior to get better access to the rusty bits. I'm planning to mount it to a rotisserie here in the next month or so and then have it media blasted, so I can get to work on metal replacement.

    I did buy an English Wheel and small metal brake, but need some more tools to make the floor pan replacements and valance. I realized I have to make a front valance, because the front end damage hidden by bondo is fairly extensive, but at least localized to the valance. Like my floor pans, I can order them from the UK, wait 8-months for them to arrive and pay $2000. Or I can buy the tools, make the pans and valance myself and source sheet metal from the sheet metal shop that is 1/2 mile from my house.

    I've got a bit more to go to get the garage setup here in Seattle and then will have to get after it. Hoping by end of August to have it mounted and media blasted.

  6. #46
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    Finally, really starting to get the garage setup. Last of the extra furniture that was in the garage was moved to this house this morning. So, I spent time starting to get things put together.

    First the Reference Library. This book shelf is a glass front piece and was actually in my dad's garage, holding many of these same books. In Chicago we used it to display antique toys, but I felt like now that there was room, back in the garage it should go.
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    These are a couple of 1" thick 12" wide shelves that are both 6' long. I screwed them to a couple of spare bits of 2x6 and will come up with some legs. This should make a decent'ish work table for disassembly and I can mount my sheet metal tools to it, for now, while I shop around for something better.

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    Setup the shelves I had in Chi here, the garage already had a lot of 'storage' but most of it is pretty abysmal stuff and kind of hard to get to when you're working on a car. In the end, I'll use what is there for storing larger parts, but small stuff still gets sorted into a bin. As you can see, I used a ratchet strap and a nice boat deck cleat that was hanging around in the garage to hang the fiberglass hardtop up out of the way.

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    Now we're just panning around to see more of the space. Desperately needs more light for working and to finish organizing stuff. Not seen, but off to the left here there is a room that the landlord has, filled with paint and bits and pieces of things to work on the house. We stored some extra furniture in there and basically that's it, so there is a 6x6 chunk of my garage I don't really get to use much. Which leaves me kind of an awkward space as a work bench area. The 'workbench' that can kind of be seen was made out of a hollow core interior door, it's effectively just a shelf. Not suitable for any real work. It'll take some time to kind of figure everything out as I work in the space. I may end up taking the existing 'workbench' out, so I can regain the floor space.

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  7. #47
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    Extra space means doing stuff like hanging pictures and decorations accumulated over the years.

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    The valve cover has some hand writing on it. It's my dad's writing, one of the last mechanical things he did, before he got too weak, was to do a compression check on the motor. He wrote the psi numbers on the valve cover. When I saw it last fall, I decided to keep the valve cover. So I just kind of wiped the oil/grease off, touched up the pencil a hit and sprayed it with a light coat of poly and stuck it to the wall.

    As I stood looking around, I found this printed on the clapboards that make up the walls:

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  8. #48
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    Best thing about flathead screwdrivers is their life cycle:

    Screwdriver -> Chisel -> Prybar -> Locating Pin -> Shiv -> Janky Shiv -> Awl -> Shorter Awl

    This one has recently reached 'Janky Shiv' stage:

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    --

    What? You guys don't hang lists in your garage by stabbing them into the wall with a janky shiv?

  9. #49
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    I think I've mentioned before, I love tools. I love making stuff, but I love tools. And I especially love sheet metal and mechanical tools. Today I managed to score some useful tools and supplies.

    Bead Roller:



    Engine Stand and 2.5 sheets of 18-gauge sheet metal:



    Fixturing jig from Boeing Surplus. This has four counter-sunk holes for bolting it to a workbench and the rest of the holes are threaded 7/16-20 all the way through. Weighs about 50 pounds and will be a nice base for universal mounting different tools:



    ___

    Man I wish Boeing Surplus was still open, seems like that was super cool. They closed is in '17/18 I think I read, it's an 'online auction' now and the few times I've cruised it, it hasn't been particularly good. Still, I use 'Boeing' as a search in CL and FB Marketplace. In this case, it was the beadroller on CL that I caught, but I ended up getting all of this stuff from the same guy about a half hour away in Seabeck.

  10. #50
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    Also, my project got picked up for a slightly wider audience - when my Grassroots Motorsports Forum build thread was spotlighted: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ne...your-projects/

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