Page Fifty-Five - Booty Baubles

 

Or Trunk Tools (‘Merican), or Accoutrement da Coffre de Voiture (French) or Thingos (Australian) – enough of that…

(By the way, I added a write up about the Trunk Kit, um..., Boot Kit in the “More Stuff” column to the right of the blog pages, check it out.)

As I was cleaning, powder coating and/or painting the “tire tools” - the lifting jack, “wheel brace” and starting handle – I wondered if any of the other tools were moldered at the bottom of the several boxes that came with Alphie.  Turns out, some indeed moldered.

I found the “Box Spanner and Tommy Bar," two of the “spanners,”  and, lucky for me, the tool roll in remarkably good nick!  I decided Alphie could not survive without the rest of his kit.

The Bits Clipped to the Boot Wall:  I bead blasted, painted and dipped all the clips in Plasti Dip, just so you’ll know.

This stuff looks just like the clips' original coating

Lifting Jack: (love this term!) Here in the colonies, we “jack up” a car, the “lifting” is implied.  Apparently one “lifts” a motor with a “lifting jack” in England.  Rootes gave us two variations, both made by Shelly in England: Series V Alpines got a 19” version painted grey, while Series I-IV got a 20” black version.  Oddly enough, I have one of each.

I suspect that many-a new Alpine owners stopped at a parts store on the way home from the dealership to grab a jack that was up to the task because these rickety little gems are not!  Both of mine were bent from probably doing what they were intended to do.

It would take a truly trepidatious roadside repair for me to trust a Rootes lifting jack.  On a flat and level concrete car park (parking lot), they are at best, wobbly.  Never get under a Sunbeam precariously teetering on a Roots lifting jack!  Mine is strictly for show; buy yourself a scissor jack at least.

I completely disassembled the black one, bead blasted it, straightened it (more work than it sounds), powder coated it, greased and reassembled it.  It’s better than it ever was, but still, don’t use these things!

Wheel Brace:  A thoroughly British term for tire (tyre) iron (pronounced “arn” in my neck of the holler) that I stumbled across that term while researching this dribble.  Yeah, I had never heard it called a “wheel brace” before.  Oh, it also serves as the lifting jack crank.

Again, the Rootes crew gave us two versions: the first had a smaller diameter.  Later Alpines got a thicker, presumably stronger one.  I have learned that some of the later ones were a bit longer too.  Mine appears to be the later version, but I don’t have an early version for comparison.

Starting Handle:  Across the pond, no (American) car (that I know of anyway) since the 1930’s included a starting handle for hand cranking/starting a car.  The Model T Ford famously would break arms if a hapless sap locked an elbow during cranking operations and it backfired.  The Alpine handle has a one-way engaging mechanism that releases if the crankshaft snaps backwards, but still, be careful.

All clipped in.  I'll update the pic with the hammer when it gets here.

Wire Wheel Hammer:  I have this on order from Classic Sunbeam, but I will never use it (at least to loosen knock-off spinners).  Made by Thor, the hammer either has two copper striking surfaces or one copper and one raw hide.  The variation seems to have been dictated more by supply than specification.  Early Alpines seemed to have the copper/copper hammer while later got the copper/raw hide ones.

I won't use it, but it's a nice banger

I will make a wooden “wrench” for my spinners.  I refuse to bang away on new (or re-chromed) spinners with a hammer!

Along with the kit clipped to the back wall of the boot, Rootes included a handy tool roll with an assortment of trinkets for your roadside emergencies.

The Tool (Kit) Roll:  The tool roll itself deteriorated quickly in many Alpine boots, so original ones in good nick are difficult to find.  Mine, however, was nearly pristine.  (Someone made reproductions in the past, and mine may be one of them, hard to say since there are no markings on it or the originals.)

Back with cotton tie strap

Inside - It folds and rolls like a burrito

A Tool Burrito

It has four sleeves, one of which is bisected by the heat weld for cotton tie strap on the back.  The smaller bits, the distributor key, tyre (tire) valve tool and valve gauge (feeler gauges to the Yanks) live in the smaller pockets.

Per usual, early Alpines got canvas tool rolls while later series got plastic ones, mine’s plastic.

Distributor Key:  Lucas combined a screwdriver and points gap gauge in a clever key shaped tool.  Riveted to the shank of the key is a pivoting gap gauge for gapping the points.  My first thought was that each corner of the key’s triangle top were different thicknesses, one .014” and the other .016” since that is how they are marked, but my micrometer says that both corners are .006” thick.  Maybe the .014” and .016” is so we can remember what the points gap and/or spark plug gap should be, dunno…

It's cute and clever, but not a great tool

Maybe not a trepidations roadside repair, but certainly a desperate one would see me reaching for the distributor key.  It’s cute, but not very effective, maybe as a points gauge, but I replaced the points in Alphie, so now it’s cute and obsolete.

Valve and Spark Plug Gauge:  Since the distributor keys is no good for gapping the spark plugs, Rootes tossed in a gauge for gapping spark plugs and valves.  It has three gauges, presumably, since I don’t have one and can’t check, the third gauge is the same as the points gap gauge.

I tossed in a small extra set of feeler gauges I had to fill in until I can find an original set.  I hear they are hard to find. 

Not original, but it will do for now

Tyre Valve Key: A little brass doohickey for unscrewing the Schrader valve in the tire valve.  Early Alpines were lucky enough to get a brass one, while later ones only merited a plastic one.  I got the brass one because, it’s brass and less likely to break or dry rot, besides, only the best for Alphie.

These are EASILY lost!

Spanner (Adjustable):  The brand is “King Dick,” that’s enough for me, Alphie needs a King Dick!  Mine is 6” long and apparently the Rootes kit had a less impressive 4” one, but like I said, Alphie needs a King Dick!

Six inches of KING DICK!

Pliers:  The TW (brand apparently) pliers has built-in wire cutters because there is a more than passing chance that Alpine drivers will need to do electrical repairs on the side of the road.

With the all-important wire cutters

Spanners:  There is some debate as to whether the kit had four or five spanners, four was apparently more common.  The “Superslim” (brand) spanners came in a bewildering array of sizes: British Standard Whitworth (BSW), British Standard Fine (BSF) (sized for the thread count fer cryin’ out loud), British Association (BA) and “Across Flats” (AF), sized by the distance between the flat areas of the wrench’s mouth, the American Way! 

SUPERSLIM spanners with all manner of size designations

Can you imagine screaming at someone to fetch you a 5/16 BSW 3/8 BSF (which are the same size, by the way) from under a car whilst shakily keeping the starter from smashing your nose?  Sheez!

The ones in the kits were AF: 13/16" x 11/16" - 3/4" x 5/8" - 11/16" x 19/32" - 9/16" x 1/2".  Two of mine are marked with BSW and BSF fractions (which I still have no idea which is the actual size!) so they are not original, but close enough.

Box Spanner & Tommy Bar: The box spanner is for removing and installing sparkplugs.  It’s a serviceable tool, but if not on the side of the road somewhere, use a regular spark plug socket.  The Tommy Bar is the little piece of steel rod used to twist the box spanner.

Gratuitous British Slang Tidbit:  The name “Tommy” came from German soldiers calling out “Tommy” across the trenches when they talked to a British soldier during WWI.  The name could have also adhered to the British from a Private named Tommy Atkins who after being terribly wounded supposedly said, "It's all right, sir. It's all in a day's work" and died shortly after.

Box spanner with a Tommy Bar
(short for British bar, apparently)

Screwdriver:  The kit came with a 10” wooden handled flat head screwdriver, much more effective for diddling with the distributor and points.  There was no brand name, and mine is neither the right size nor handle shape, but it will do until I find one that looks right.

My stand-in wooden handled screwdriver

The Strap:  I bought the stuff for a new strap, the cotton webbing, slide buckle and finishing clip.  I have the stuff for a 1 1/2" strap, but from the pics I've seen on the internet, it looks like 1" webbing.  More later.

The buckle is the wrong shape and the strap may be too wide, but...

Change of Plans

Change of Plans, at least for the strap. After looking at many boot pics in the interweb, I decided the original strap was probably a 1 inch strap.  So, I found some 1 inch end clips, a 1 inch buckle and rethought the strap. The buckle is still wrong, the original is a weird "H" shape deal and i have no idea what color the strap is.  A reproduction strap (no long available) I found online, is blacl, but the pics of (what I think are) original straps, they are dirty, but clearly not black.  The buckles and end clips are usually rusty, so I can't be sure if they were chrome, black or some other color.

A strapping young strap! (sorry:(

Other gadgets that came in some Sunbeam kits:  Differently equipped cars came with different tools.

Nave Plate Extractor:  I pretentious name for a piece of flat steel with a lip to remove the chrome wheel surrounds and hub caps.  Alphie had wire wheels so didn’t get one of these.

Oil Sump (plug) Wrench:  It’s just a ½” Allen wrench.  Some Alpines had recessed oil pan plugs.

Knock-Off Spanner: Some wire wheels had octagonal hub nuts (as opposed to winged hub nuts).

Grease Gun:  Yep, Series I & II’s got a grease gun to spread goo all over whatever was in the boot, in case, you know, you wanted to stop on the road somewhere for a quick regrease of the front suspension.  Makes you wonder why they stopped including these in the kits.

Stuff I Added: To recreate the authentic booty kit of 60 years ago, I threw in an extra set of points (because a bad set of points was often why you found yourself on the side of the road) and a spare spark plug, mainly because I had a 40+-year-old brand new one.

Page Fifty-Four - B&A and Bling

Lest you think I haven’t been working on Alphie…  Truth is, Alphie had to sit for a bit while we replaced the siding, all the windows and three doors on our house.  Aggravating as it is, when you get to the short rows of a mortgage (it’s a southern (US) expression that you may need to Google), you find that you have to practically rebuild the house, which pushes out paying off the mortgage, hmmm (angry face emoji).

I took these before pics to remember where things go

After! Clean with Bling

I was digging through my photos and found some pics I took to remember where things mount, and I thought it would be cool to show you some before and after pics.  I recreated the before pics so butcher’s hook (an obscure bit of British slang I happened upon – hint: it’s a rhyming slang, enjoy your search).

Before...

After - Boo Ya!

Before with extra rust

After, and (supposedly) all the components function!

But I added some shiny bits like stainless steel hose clamps that are close to the originals but won’t rust.  You may also note that I found new wire hose clamps that are very close to the original bits.  I know it’s not OEM, but it looks very much like it would at the Rootes dealership (or Dodge – Plymouth, maybe, Bob’s British Imports, or whatever dealership sold Sunbeams in the U.S.A.) back in 1964. 

Defroster box and heat deflector- powder coated and shiny!
The heat deflector looks crooked, but that's how the screw holes line it up.

New grommets for the accelerator linkage. 
The linkage needs some fiddling

Page Fifty-Three - Bunch of Bits

 

Since it’s hot as Alabama asphalt in July, the humidity is around 120% (probably not possible, but it feels like it!), and I can’t paint anything, I’m doing some bits.

Before pic

Other side - note the loose support and the many bent fins

Step two: I soaked the radiator’s innards in a diluted muriatic acid bath.  Muriatic acid took off most of the 60ish years of crud from the outside too.  Step three: Torch off the old solder and clean the tanks down to the brass.  (I should have taken pics of the disassembled and cleaned parts, but I get into things and forget to grab the camera, sorry.)

Down to the brass and resoldered
The core looked pretty good for 60ish years of work.

Look at all those straight fins!

Step six:  Paint it!Line 1 – “Dullys” best guess (maybe “Oullys” or maybe “Olillys”)  Maybe the repair dude’s last name

All the bits and baubles
(or as they say in Alabama, it's all blowed up!)

Fortunately, I have two valves so after tearing one to bits, I had one to remind me how to put it back together.  Pretty straight forward fix here, and simple valve really, except that no one sells parts for the valve, so don’t break anything!  Tear it down, bead blast it clean, paint it, and throw it back together.
Master Cylinders and Pedals:  I had one brake line to bend and install, the one from the master cylinder to the power brake servo (brake booster for those on this side of the Atlantic).  Of course, I had to rebuild the master cylinders (clutch and brake) first, but I’ve done that many times before, so it was only a matter of getting the kits.
I bead blasted and powder coated the bracket too, smashing!

Radiator:  I don’t need it yet but may as well get at it.  Step one: disassemble.  You can see from the before pics that one of the supports was unattached.  I removed it, the other one, and the mere suggestion of a fan guard just under the radiator cap as well.  I needed to bead blast and paint them, of course.

Step four:  Painstakingly straighten all the cooling fins on both sides, not hard but TEDIOUS!

Step five:  Reassemble - resolder the radiator supports and fan guard.  Of course, I painted the inside of the rad supports before gluing them back on.  What did you think I would do?  I’m allergic to rust, remember.  My grandfather owned a radiator shop, and I’ve seen my grandfather, father and uncles repair myriads of radiators so this was old hat for me.

Shiny black but lumpy tanks

The engine bay side

Something Kinda Way Cool:  I love these little tidbits!  As I was taking the rad tanks back to brass, I found a repair shop’s hand engraved (with an electric engraving pencil, see pic) repair notice on the top tank.  It’s a six-line engraving, reading (as best as old eyes, a magnifying glass and photographic software can decern).  I added a pic so my small but dedicated group of readers can take a stab at translation.

Electric engraving pencil

Take your stab at tranlation!
So-so pic hard to get the right angle

Line 2 – “JWD” (possibly “JWP” or “JW(lower case cursive)s”  Maybe the repair dude’s initials

Line 3 – “F f & Rep” (possibly P f & Rep)  Maybe the shop’s abbreviated name

Line 4 – “9-28-73”  (the coolest part, this radiator was repaired two months shy of 51 years ago as of today (7/5/2024))

Line 5 – “Midwest” (this is quite clear)

Line 6 – “Mazda” (also quite clear)

My interpretation:  One of Alphie’s previous owners had the radiator serviced at the Midwest Mazda dealership by a dude either named Dully and/or with the initials “JWD” on September 28, 1973.  Maybe the dealership’s repair shop name is FF & Repair.  Alphie had an Illinois license plate in the boot when I dragged him home, so maybe the dealership was there.  Of course, I went-a-googling, but it was 51 years ago, and the dealership has surely closed or changed names and the repair shop is long closed.  Googling “Midwest Mazda” gets you all the Mazda dealerships in the Midwest.  But who knows, we may punch in the magic search string into google and find more information.  If I do, I’ll put it in the blog.

What’s your translation of radiator hieroglyphics?

Heater Valve Refurbish:  I’ve decided to repaint Alphie with the little dish where the bonnet latch lives in place.  Which means I need to clean and fit the heater core, which means I need to run the heater hoses, which means I need to refurbish all the bits that go with the hoses, like the Adel clamps (not the singer – those little loop clamps that route hoses and wires), hose clamps and the heater valve.

Crusty and Rusty!

Brilliant Bling!

The last brake line!

With the brake master cylinder mounted the bulkhead (aka firewall for the yanks), I used the old brake line as a pattern for the new.  I had to mash some bubble flares to the ends, but after running all the other brake lines, I’ve learned some tricks about making them fit.  Classic Sunbeam sells a spanking stainless steel clutch downpipe, bent to factory specs, and I could never hand build that!  It looks brilliant!

Clutch master cylinder with Classic Sunbeam's stainless downpipe

Strange angle, but the stainless downpipe
from the slave cylinder's point of view

So, if you mount the master cylinders, then you may as well clean up the pedals.  I had four to choose from so I laid them on the bench and chose the best two.  They are all the same, I was surprised to see.  Bead blast and powder coated them because powder coating holds up scuffs and such better than paint.  The only thing left is to contort myself under the dash to install everything.  Under dash work sucks, even without the dash or doors.  All new stainless bits for the pedals too on account of my rust allergy.  Sorted!

Accelerator linkage, before pic

Cleaned and painted!

Powder coated and shiney!

Pedals in situ (vocab word for the day)
The accelerator will need to be anchored to the floor,
 and I have new pedal covers for the brakd and clutch

Windscreen Washer Bottle:  Again, I have two, so I cleaned up both.  The cleaner is sulfamic acid (NOT sulfuric acid, mind you!) mixed with water.  It dissolves rust and removes the rust stains.  I had hoped it would remove the yellowing and it did reduce it, but the yellow shows its age and these have “Rootes Genuine Parts Special Accessories” embossed on the side, so that’s cool.

Bottles before cleaning
Rust! makes a body break out!

Still a bit yellow, but a big difference!
The bracket got some cleaning too.

Page Fifty-Two - One Small Screw-up, One Big Setback!

 

I’ve had small setbacks before, but this one is a costly one.  Almost all the first paint job, henceforth known as “1.0”, peeled off.  I’m talking in big sheets.  As an astute fellow Alpiner put it, “you have an adhesion problem” – he’s known for such spot-on insights.

One of the BIG Sheets. This is the clear coat side.

Same piece but the base coat side. Notice that it's blue, not primer color.

So, what went wrong?  HellifIknow at this point, but I have several suspects:

Primer:  If you remember, I had trouble with the base coat “pulling” the primer (re-sprayers’ speak for when the solvents in one coat seeps into the substrate coat and dissolve it, wrinkling the substrate).  Maybe it was the wrong primer, but it’s what the paint store guys said was the correct primer; maybe I didn’t wait long enough before spraying the base coat, maybe I waited too long, not sure. But as the pics above show, it let go between the base coats.  (I'm saying that because the back of the peeled piece is blue and the place on the car where it peeled is also blue.)

All of it peeled off so easily!

Base Coat Coats:  I shot two coats of base coat, which the instructions suggest.  As you can see in the pics, 1.0 peeled leaving the first coat of base coat on Alphie and the second base coat on the peeled piece of 1.0.  Again, maybe I didn’t wait long enough or too long.

Note the blue on Alphie and the peels.

2K Primer:  Again, if you remember, I sprayed some 2K primer on the doors and boot lid – good news/bad news here.  Good news, 1.0 stuck well to the 2K primer, but (bad news) the 2k primer didn’t stick to the base coat below it.

Working Theory:  The first coat of base coat seems to be the problem, but I’m not sure why.

Current state of "1.0" - we shall not discuss how many quid are in this bin!

What to do:  1). RESEARCH!  Burn up Google about “adhesion problems.” 2). Talk to as many car painters as I can about what may have gone wrong. 

Tentative Plans: (meaning plans may change if research dictates) I hope to only respray the exterior body, not the boot interior, interior, windscreen frame, engine compartment and all the body color bits like hinges, cowl vents, etc., mainly because the thought re-prepping all that exhausts me.  2K Primer: Clearly, I should have used 2K primer on the entire car. So, back to bare metal where there is no body filler (I don’t want to rework the body again!) and spray everything with 2K.

Guide Coat (again): (I used a guide coat on the first go-round, for the record.)  I’ll check, but I don’t think I must shoot base coat/clear coat over the 2K immediately.  I hope to shoot the entire car with 2K, then check all the body work with a guide coat and fix things as needed.  I fear taking everything down to metal may screw up the body work.

A little troubling here - 1.0 peeled at the primer on this bit of scuttle.

I pulled the 14” wire wheels and tires from the shed and gave them a quick wash so that I can use these boss Harbor Freight wheel dollies, makes moving Alphie about quite a doddle!  (gratuitous Brit slang for this post, look it up.)

14 inchers on boss dollies!

While I have you, what do you think of the 14" wheels?
In my little opinion, they're are too big. They fill the wells,
but they look like a kid wearing his big brother's shoes.

I’ll update this as plans change – and they will!