My Tiger MK1A

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Benyeled817

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I am the proud new owner of a 1966 Sunbeam Tiger MK1A. Wow, that felt so good to type out. :D Now on to the story

My wife's great uncle purchased the car from the dealer on October 11th, 1965 and used it as his daily driver until 1989 where it has stayed garaged ever since. He loved the car and couldn't bring himself to sell it. Fast forward 28 years and he has generously offered to let me have it. I am both excited and nervous to get started on this journey, but it means a lot to be able to keep something like this in the family.

The car is in pretty good condition overall since it has remain garaged, but I know there is quite a bit of work to be done. I've worked on my cars and motorcycle before, but nothing to this extent -- I honestly don't really know where to start without an OBD2.

It's got a pretty solid layer of grime on everything, so I'll start with a quick detail of the engine. After that I'll change the oil, replace the gas and check the battery. Hopefully that will be enough to get it to turn over, otherwise I'll be back to the troubleshooting drawing board.

Once I have the car running, I am planning to get all of the metal pieces re-plated, completely redo the interior and then put a fresh coat of paint on. It's all original and I intended to keep it that way as much as possible.

Thanks for letting me share, I'm sure I will be using the wealth of knowledge aggregated on this forum!

Are there any good owner / repair manuals around? I found this one and of course the Tigers United one, although I like to have them printed out.

My wife's great uncle and I with the Tiger
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All ready to go
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Grrrreat

So looks like it's left California for ____?

Be nice to see more pictures . You can post in the thread or put in your album and limit to your contacts.

The red Sunbeam manual is the one of the best it's under 40 bucks from Sunbeam Specialties. They also have a repop owner's manual that's got some good tips at erection.... of the soft top what were you thinking :cool:

Like to see the engine bay and small things like license plate holder. I just got a cool dealership plate holder from Escondido British Motor Cars.

Welcome ..
 
What a great story and great thing that your wife's (sounds like he considers you special as well) great uncle is a terrific guy. Best wishes to you all; I assure you that this site will be able to assist you with all your needs.

Best wishes and good luck,
 
As others have said great story and car. Also looks like it may have a hardtop in the trailer photo?

Survivor tigers are quite rare, try and recomisdion as much as you can as opposed to restore/replace. Also dont throw away anything!

If the paint isnt to bad carefully clean and maybe just clay bar it and gently cut then polish. If its a little worse you can lightly wet sand it. It would be good if you can save the factory paint.

On recommissioning check your hydraulics, a long layup can play havoc. brake servos can also be an issue. If the car is running rough when you get it going check the poerr valve if it has the original 2bbl.

Best of luck on a great car and the cat forum is a great source of information and support
 
Congrats! Thats quite a score. It's always great to be able to keep such a jewel in the family. You will be sure to get all kinds of advice from the peanut gallery but you couldn't have stumbled into a more more helpful and selfless community. Post a bunch of pictures when you get the chance...

My advice is not to get in a rush waking the critter from a nap. Particularly with the engine, you want to make sure the pistons rings get a good soak in some kind of oil/solvent to make sure they are stuck (I like Marvel Mystery Oil). It would be a shame to have it sit this long and then inadvertently cause cylinder damage. I would also recommend getting a carburetor rebuild kit and replacing you carb gaskets after giving it a thorough cleaning. Not only could a clogged carburetor not let the engine run correctly, it might be a fire hazard.

There's a bunch of other things, but that would be my top suggestions as you start down this new road. As many have said, feel free to ask questions. None are stupid.

Again, Welcome!
-Kevin

P.S. The scan tool can find a useful place next to the bonnet latch to keep it from closing between work days! (you'll see what I mean later...) :D
 
Great story - congratulations and welcome to the site. Like Kevin said - take your time. I would go slow and get it running and dependable. Once done enjoy it and then decide what route you want to take. Where did the car end up going? Hopefully you can make it to Tigers United this summer in Sacramento, even just going without the car is still a great time and you can see a lot of examples and met some nice people.
 
Looks like I don't have access to create albums yet, probably because my membership is not tied to my forum account.

The car is making its way to Dallas, TX. I will post more pictures once it's in my garage, I didn't get too many because it was raining so we tried to get it into the trailer as quickly as possible. The original license plate holder is from Alhambra Motors, not sure if you can make it out in the picture, but I plan on restoring that and keeping it on the car as well.

No hard top on it, that's just the closed convertible soft top. Eventually I'll try to hunt down a hard top, but it's pretty low on my priority list and will probably be saved for last. I wil definitely have to rebuild the brake servo and the fuel pump, he said they were not working quite right when he garaged the car back in 89.

I've already found out the hard way not to let the engine latch... heh. :p

Thanks for all the thoughts and welcome!
 
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license frames

IMG_3590 (2).jpg just got back my Larry Reed dealership frames from the chrome shop- redid the red paint- looks good as new or better- I grew up in westchester and knew both dealers in the 60's- sorry just wasn't old enough to by a new Tiger- working for $1.55 at Mcdonlds isn't enough to buy new cars
 
Bryan said:
View attachment 9804 just got back my Larry Reed dealership frames from the chrome shop- redid the red paint- looks good as new or better- I grew up in westchester and knew both dealers in the 60's- sorry just wasn't old enough to by a new Tiger- working for $1.55 at Mcdonlds isn't enough to buy new cars
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Hey Bryan, did you go to Westchester High? I graduated class of '71. Kirk
 
More comments from the peanut gallery. Tigers are great to drive around with a tonneau cover. When I lived in Tucson, a zipped cover kept out the hot sun, and without air conditioning, the open top is cooler than the hard top in summer. In winter, if you're alone, zip up the passenger side and run the heater. Keeps you pretty warm. Of course, that was in the 70's, and now it might not feel comfortable leaving the car parked with only the tonneau zipped. Don't remember using my hard top back then.
 
Larry Reed

Sold Fiats mostly right by the Torrance airport. Did I see him on the list of Rootes dealer's? Most all the Torrance buildings were late 70's or 80's as I grew up in dat hood...

Ben? I'll look at your permission level and usert profile. Please consider a membership it's not mandatory but certainly has it's benefit's.
 
Warren said:
Sold Fiats mostly right by the Torrance airport. Did I see him on the list of Rootes dealer's? Most all the Torrance buildings were late 70's or 80's as I grew up in dat hood...

Ben? I'll look at your permission level and usert profile. Please consider a membership it's not mandatory but certainly has it's benefit's.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I signed up for a CAT membership last Friday. I'll email the membership to see if they can link it to my forum account.
 
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