LROFE in Texas

Today's Rant

“No longer just the “poor man’s Cobra”, the Sunbeam Tiger has actually become a pretty collectible classic in recent years, and though any nice example is still only worth a fraction of a real Shelby, values have still gotten up there for this less beloved Anglo-American hybrid”

I think the seller needs a new copywriter: "actually pretty collectible?" "fraction of a REAL Shelby?" "less beloved?""

It is a F*****G Sunbeam Tiger! T-I-G-E-R. It is Powered By FORD. A V8 Ford.

No equivocations, euphemisms, apologies, or explanations necessary.

Period.

Thank you very much.
 
texas

maybe he had no use for the ash tray and he removed it. I have three sunbeams with them removed.
 
rootes1 said:
And, if you can find another Tiger with a body number beginning "58####" let me know.
Click to expand...
Curious about this comment. Assuming they were more or less sequential this number seems way off-- not just for B9473127 but for any Tiger. My B9471573 is JAL560985, so I would expect a car 1500 later to be in the 562500 range, and the last of the Tigers wouldn't even make it to the 57####s.

If this is the case, what would a JAL 58#### be? Alpines all have SAL #'s, right?
 
The nos.

Are not close to being sequential. You guys will see some more before shots on this beast soon . The frozen tundra looks like it could be anywhere.

Well not So. Cal :D
 
case study on vin tags

This car is an interesting study in vin tags and original rivets. I am not judging the car or making any assumptions but the tag and rivets on the red version of car are original.

It appears to me that the person that put the car back together wanted to keep the car an original rivet car or removed the rivets from below. You TAC guys can notice that something has happened with the VIN tag with the split on the right rivet aluminum tag. I just note that it is nice to have people keeping records of the history of these cars and we can see an evolution as they reappear in other forms.

Lee
 
Trim

It would be very interesting to see a shot of the inside of the fenders or doors to see if there's filled trim mounting holes... I'd bet 5 cents that the body now on the car didn't have any trim holes. I really don't understand why the guys who go to the trouble to re-body a car and present it as being a Tiger, don't put the side trim back on! It's not like it's difficult to obtain or install - and its absence makes for a huge red flag, obvious even to the minimally knowledgeable (like me).
Bob K.
B9471705
 
Interesting to note that the red picture (where did that come from?) doesn't have a JAL tag, so maybe the VIN is legit and the JAL is phony. I looked at my JAL tag compared to that one, and my "L" is inline, plus the "8" and "5" look different.
 
Vin pic

Plus JAL photo plus Norms added picture of car missing rocker panels are from old eBay auction of the same vin numbered car.
There are also several more pics from the same past auction in registry and serial eBay online and Tiger shoppers who click and save for occasions like this. I'm sure more pics will posted, .

Bottom line is if this car is rust free, it has had MAJOR work done, lived in Texas and Ohio, and is a yellow flag item.
 
Back to my point of tracking rare cars and the benefit of doing this. This seller may have bought the car after all the work and was told it was a rust free car when he bought it. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he doesn't know the past history.

I have no idea of the facts in this situation and therefore are just discussing this car as a club that is trying to preserve this marquee. It now appears to be a nice Tiger hopefully fixed well by a professional. Many of our cars have been wrecked rusted and repaired and that happens when a car is raced and driven. I joked at the historic races in Monterey that most of the cars probably only have a vin# and few original parts after years of racing and wrecking. We will probably see the factory boss 302 race car that head on hit the wall back on the track in a year or so.

But this Tiger is a perfect example to discuss because we have some picture history of the car. If the car has been done well someone will get a nice Tiger and maybe the new owner will buy one of our air cleaners to make it more correct. When it ultimately gets TAC'd by the next owner or next owner or next owner the experts will look a little closer knowing the history too. Lee
 
So what is the general consensus of this car? It was for sale locally for 23k us per the other forum post. If the body repair was done correctly that seems to be a good price. Just no way to tell with out having someone go look at it.
 
Bare shell

Norm, Graham and others have copied the one eBay listing.
The pictures show a bare shell and a hugely flat frozen single family residence , kind of in the middle of nowhere .

An SAL tag looks the same as a JAL tag, it becomes a blank tag if you flip it over .

This could be a nicely put together car.

eBay is IMHO, a new higher stakes game of Liar's Poker ,
Bid on car go and see it , don't like it feel like it was misrepresented , walk or runaway.

I would gladly forward on the pictures that I have .
Please select email option instead of pm .
Yes I would really like to be able to forward them on to ebay seller
but naturally you can't do that without a lot of trouble . Sometimes just for fun I will send a note to an eBay seller telling them that their car is a topic of discussion here.
 
Surely what appears to be #86 paint adjacent to the battery box lid is enough of a clue to suggest that at least that part of the car didn't leave England wearing #39.....?

The red overspray on the spec plate is a nice touch however...:rolleyes:
 
moonstone SIV said:
Surely what appears to be #86 paint adjacent to the battery box lid is enough of a clue to suggest that at least that part of the car didn't leave England wearing #39.....?

The red overspray on the spec plate is a nice touch however...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I Posted in the other thread, this car is only a few miles from me and was for sale locally for quite a while at $26K Canadian, they have since cleaned it up.
If you look at the second to last picture where they are looking under the carpet, it sure looks like Hunter Green to me (86)?
I also question the placement and alignment of the characters on the JAL tag? Although I am relatively new to Tigers, I am not to vintage cars, tags are a little niche that I enjoy.
On every other JAL tag that I have seen on cars or in photos, the characters are evenly spaced and perfectly aligned and all punched dead square, done either with a gang punch at the same time, or more likely by machine.
On this car they are all over the place, and the strike intensity varies by character, obviously done by hand one character at a time, and I haven't even compared the font styles...

Cheers,

Paul
 
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Before and After

Be your own judge. I remember this I think was the discussion before our affiliated friends sent these pics on. Pictures tell a 1000 words but also seem to ask a 1000 questions.
 
sold on ebay

May the new owner never see our discussion of his/her car and enjoy it for what it is, a real Sunbeam Tiger brought back from the dead, replica JAL tag and all. Lee
 
Not exactly

With all the attention to the original rivet debate it's just interesting the work around and methods employed here.

You figure that if you were to use a SAL Tag flip it over and re stamp a number you might guess a number that does not start with 58.

No more monkeying around after the car get's it TAC by next owner, or if it comes to Calif. maybe DMV will hammer a non moveable tag on it. If Rootes had attached a secondary immovable VIN Tiger life would have been easier.

I hope the new owner saw it here, or splattered across Facebook Tiger UK and bought it with the best info available. Don't forget mention it's up to 3 TAC guys to decide it's TAC status.
 
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