As I was faffing about on eBay – not sure how I restored cars before eBay, Harbor Freight and digital photography – I found a NOS AC Delco “flame trap” (from Dunstable, England no less) that was reasonably overpriced.  It’s one of those bits that makes a restoration more original (I’m going for “reasonably original” here), but few people seem to reinstall them.  Whatever, I snapped it up.

The flame trap is a little can, part of the crankcase ventilation system that goes between the carburetor and the oil fill spout on the valve cover.  Its job is to prevent a backfire flame from igniting the oil (and fumes) under the valve cover and crankcase - bad if it happened I suppose.

Most Alpiners either close off the ports on the carb and the filler spout or just run a hose between them without a flame trap.  At least, I rarely see an Alpine engine with a flame trap installed, I know because I searched the web trying to find a pic showing how it’s installed.

How do you install it you ask – apparently there are two ways, and both appear to be “correct.”  The first is for Alpines without heaters, the second for those with them. 

Install #1 Without a Heater

I only know the “with or without heater” bit because I went to great lengths to install it the “without” way, only to discover Alphie demanded the “with” way.

The Parts Manual shows the “without” method where an elbow attaches to the oil filler spout and the flame trap, the trap assembly is held in place by an adelle clamp bolted to a valve cover stud then a second elbow goes from the trap to the carb.

From the Parts Manual - the "without" way

I was troubled to learn that no parts store carries ¾” heater hose elbows in stock – actually they might, but I would have to know which vehicle they should punch into the computer to find it, yeah, I have no idea.  I found two elbows on Amazon, but they use silicone hose, a bit modern (and shiny) for a 60-year-old car, but sometimes you gotta go with what you can get.

One of the few pics I found online with a flame trap.
Note,  no heater.

I found that I had to fab a small extension to attach the adelle clamp to push the flame trap away from the valve cover for a smidge of clearance.  Next, I painstakingly nibbled away at the elbows until they fit the space from the oil filler spout to the trap and then from the trap to the carb.  Painted the extension and adelle clamp and installed everything on Alphie forthwith.

Pile of parts for the "without" way, including my fabbed up clamp extension

I had taken the heater hose off the engine block to make it easier to work, but when I went to reinstall it, I learned the difference between Alpines with and without heaters.  The real estate around the flame trap is a snake pit of heater and ventilation hoses.  There is the vent hose that runs from the valve lifter cover to the intake manifold, the heater hose from the engine block to the heater control valve and the flame trap’s assorted hosiery.  A lot of tubing jammed into a small area, which means the flame trap won’t fit that way.  Without the heater hose, it all fit splendidly but not with it.

And here's the problem!

Install #2 With a Heater

The Service Manual shows the second flame trap installation, the “with” strategy.  Toss my cool little home-made extension, which took about an hour and a half to make! and the adelle clamp.  Faff on!

From the Service Manual - the "with" way
(I realize it doesn't show the heater hose, shut up!)

For the with-a-heater set up, the flame trap mounts directly to the oil filler spout and the two elbows do a zig-zag between the flame trap and the carb.  This method allows the heater hose to shoot directly up from the engine block by scootching the flame trap to the side.  Installed this way, I was able to run all the hoses without any hose rubbing against another hose or the valve cover.  Kinda looks like black intestines, but cha-ching!

The "with" way - AKA the "black instestines" way -  with all hoses rerouted
(I gotta get a longer vacuum advance tube.)

In the great tradition of “faffing about,” this operation took way too much time and effort.  I see why people just toss the flame trap and plunk on a straight hose.

One Huge Cable

Next bit of faffing, running the negative battery cable from the battery box to the starter solenoid on the firewall.  Good luck finding a pic or diagram showing how Sunbeam routed the cable.  If you find/have one, please post it somewhere!

I know how its general route, but I had to make a couple of guesses.  I didn’t want to drill any new holes in the floor board or rear seat area, so I routed it through a hole already there and made it work.  Maybe it’s “correct” maybe not, dunno!

After several trips to 2 big box stores, 2 part stores and buying 10 feet of impossible to bend 2 gauge wire, I ended up on Amazon where I ordered 25 feet of 4 gauge wire, a box of silicone boots, some hole grommets, a battery cut off switch and four eyelet tips for attachment hardware.  Yep, way more than I needed but the smallest amounts they sell.  Faff on!

Amazon haul of battery cable minutia (not all of it though)

With a propane torch for soldering (and scorching the wire insulation, as it turns out), I soldered on the tips, fitted the hole grommets and laid out the cable to cut it to length.

I found after I had cut the wire and soldered on the second tip for the starter solenoid attachment, that it was about a foot too long.  Cut off the foot and solder on one of the extra tips – I guess I only bought one too many tips after all – and Bob’s you uncle, one 9-foot (ish) battery cable!  Slip on the silicone boots, bolt it to the starter solenoid and DONE!

Battery box with shiny new grommets and cables, smashing!

This hole was already there and with the little metal tab and groove,
it seemed to fit.  I took this as Sunbeam's original route.
I fabbed up a tab of metal to reduce the buldge in the carpet

Original route?  I dunno, but it will hide under the carpet eventually.

Lots of faffing!

Page Fifty-Nine - The Nut Holding the Steering Wheel

 

(I’m the nut.)

Compared to the pics I have seen online, Alphie’s steering wheel is in pretty good nick, not to say that it’s in good shape.  Like most Alpine wheels, the Bakelite hub has a shrinkage crack running all the way down one side, a gaping chasm to be honest.

Explanatory Ramble:

Bakelite is a hard synthetic polymer that often uses wood flour as a filler (in the past asbestos was sometimes the filler, so be careful), which is hygroscopic, an impressive word that means it absorbs water from the air.  The wood flour expands and contracts with temperature and humidity changes, but Bakelite doesn’t.  Bakelite is hard, and if you have ever dropped it or tried to pry it lose, you know that it is quite brittle.  The metal hub under the Bakelite also expands and contracts with temperature, in short - expand/contract + hard and brittle = gaping fissures over time.

An unused NOS Alpine steering wheel left on a shelf these past 60+ years, would probably have some cracking.  Virtually all Sunbeamers face this problem.

Before - the parts at the start

Before - the warped and cracked original hub
with Eric's Restoration Hub*

Hub Restoration:

Method A: Head to your favorite home improvement store and get some JB Weld (the two-part putty version works best) and sculpt it like molding clay to fill the cracks and chipped off pieces.  Next, sand, file, refill, sand, file sand until you get it to shape and smooth.

Pros – cheap and readily available.  Cons – doggedly labor intensive and the results depend on your skills as a sculptor and how bad your hub was before you started.  Mine was warped off-center a bit, so the results would have only been “meh” at best.

Method B: Jump on the Sunbeam Alpine Owners Club of America’s (SAOCA) forum and find 65sunbeam (more on him below*); he sells a two-piece replacement hub made of Delrin, a far less problematic plastic used in a kajillion applications.

Pros – dead simple, looks brilliant and original.  Cons – a bit pricey.

I opted for Method B, and I think it’s more than worth the price. 

To close up the gap between the two pieces of the restoration hub,
I had to Dremel some cutouts to clear the steering wheel spokes.

I didn't get them perfectly aligned,
but they are mostly hidden under the horn ring anyway

Plastic Dying:

Bakelite fades to a weird brownish color over time and the steering wheel plastic had oxidized and had small spider webby lines running through it.  The interwebs says that India ink or leather dye work well as plastic dyes.  I do leatherwork, so leather dye it is.

The "test" cowl before dying.  The Bakelite turns a splotchy brown with age.

And leather dye is the bomb!  Check out the pics.

The unbroken cowl after dying and a light coat of clear paint.
It looks better than the pic shows. 
Bad photographer with a so-so camera.

I have a broken steering cowl (the casing where the turn indicator and overdrive switch mount), so I tested the dye on it.  It renews the Bakelite’s original black; the color looks great, but the shine is uneven.

On the unbroken steering cowl, I used leather dye but added a coat of clear paint to even out the shine, and with some shiny stainless screws, it looks spanking!

Steering Wheel:

First, I broke off the old Bakelite hub and sand blasted and painted the rusty steel hub underneath.

The plastic on the steering wheel itself, the part you grab, is more flexible than the hub, meaning it isn’t Bakelite.  I sanded it with 600 followed by 1000 grit sandpaper to remove what appears to oxidation.  It was a weird yellowish color. 

The rusty hub under the Bakelite hub

Alphie’s wheel only has one small crack, which I easily filled with a two-part epoxy.  I deepened the crack a bit with a small file so that the epoxy would have something to grip and be substantial enough to stay put, let it cure and sanded it smooth.

Bead blasted hub with Bakelite debris

The leather dye restored the color nicely, but like the cowl, the finish was uneven.  Curiously, the dye didn’t penetrate the epoxy leaving it clear, or at least, the color difference left the crack visible even though I can’t feel it.  I shot the wheel with some black spray paint.  I scrubbed the paint a smidge with a polishing compound and it evened out the shine.  It’s cracking! Much better than I had hoped – I love happy accidents.

The wheel had one crack, which I filled with a two-part epoxy.
(I painted the steel hub black too.)

Sanded and dyed.  Note that the epoxy didn't absorb the dye
the same as the wheel plastic - that's why I had to
apply a coat of glossy black paint.

The Horn Ring:

The horn rings - one with a good wire and bad everything else.
One with good everything else and a bad wire.

A case of combine and conquer.  The horn ring from the Organ Donor was broken, completely unusable, but it had a good wire.  Alphie’s was in decent nick, but someone cut the wire.  Easy enough fix – drill out the rivets and move the good wire to the good horn ring.

While I was mucking about, I bead-blasted all the parts that make the horn blow and repainted and shined up the horn ring itself, bada bing bada boom!

Before shot of the horn rings.
The yellow arrows show the rivets that must be
drilled out to remove and reattach the horn wire.

Cleaned, shined, and painted.
I used screws (stainless of course) instead of rivets
to reattach the wire and connector ring

*The Gibeaut Hub, A Rining Endorsement:

Eric Gibeaut, known as “65sunbeam” on eBay and the SAOCA forums, sells the restoration hub I used.  Eric put in the work to perfect his hub, which explains the price he asks.  The hub looks like it came with the car, uses metal threaded inserts for the screws, no short cuts, and is dead simple to install.  It’s better than new!  There is no better fix than Eric’s hub!

He offers a discount to SAOCA members, so message him on the forum.  Ebay requires fees, so it’s cheaper to go through SAOCA

An after pic of the wheel, horn ring and cowl.
So much better than I had hoped for!

A closeup of Eric's Restoration Hub in place.
The fit and finish are perfect!

A pic showing how well the steering wheel turned out.
Again, it looks better than the pic. The color is great, and it shines
without being too shiny - absolutely love it.

Page Fifty-Eight - A Severe Case of the Runs

 

Geez, I hope this works!

It’s not just a run here or there, a few sags in the clear coat, it weeps like the audience when Bambi’s mother is killed, when Old Yeller dies, when Farris Bueller destroys the Ferrari… It’s bad!

It's hard to get a good pic of the runs.  Here's an attempt.
Like I said, they're bad.!

Original Plan:

Step 1: Gently sand down each run.

Step 2: Wet sand entire panels with 1000, 2000 and finally 3000 grit paper.

Step 3: Buff it to a deep radiant glowing shine!

Best laid plans, am I right?

Absolutely terrifying to take a razor blade to the paint,
but with some practice, I got better at it. 

After the scraping, I sanded it down with 220.
Now to fix the sand-throughs

New Much More Precarious Plan:

Step 1: Gently, carefully, meticulously, terrifyingly scrape each run down with a razor blade!

Step 2: Sand down the runs with Maguiar’s Unigrit sanding blocks (1000 grit followed by 2000).

Step 3: Sand everything flat with 600 grit.

Step 4: Cover spots where I ground through to the primer with leftover color coat, using a small foam brush.

Here's an example of a fill-in color coat "fix" - unsanded

Step 5: Wet sand the edges and bubbles in the fill-in color coat with 1000 grit because when I used 600 grit, it ground through to primer again!

Here's a couple of sanded fill-in color coat "fixes."
I'm praying they will blend when I spray clear coat over them!

Step 6: Fix all of Alphie’s runs because I’m bound to sand through to primer in other spots, which I already have in several spots, if you must know!

Step 7: (I haven’t done the next steps yet because I haven’t finished sanding through to the primer, er, I mean fixing the runs.) Respray clear coat (hopefully two coats) over each spot where I sanded through to primer AND PRAY IT MAKES MY “FIXES” DISAPPEAR! 

The doors, boot lid and bonnet lid will get complete clear coats while other places will only get spot resprays.

Step 8: Wet sand the entire car to 3000 grit

Step 9: Buff Alphie to a deep radiant glowing shine

One encouraging note – where I didn’t run the clear coat, it has sanded down brilliantly.

My first plan was decimated when it met reality as plans often do.  I’m about 89.9% sure that in the end, you won’t be able to tell where I “fixed” the runs, but I won’t know until Step 9, unfortunately.

If it doesn’t work, I’ll figure it out but until then, cross your fingers!  I’ll update the blog when I respray and sand out the clear coat and begin buffing.

Page Fifty-Seven - Can-O-Worms

 

Little multicolored wriggly worms!

Heard this one?  Always buy two MG’s, one to drive and one to fix.  Yeah, the one that wasn’t running had electrical gremlins from infamously sketchy Lucas wiring harnesses.  They came with factory shorts – apparently, Lucas was invested in the anger management industry.

“Sketchy” doesn’t sufficiently cover the state of Alphie’s original harness, maybe “tattered” to be polite, “f@#*!” to be accurate.  So, he gets a brand-new aftermarket-one-size-fits-several-models clean and pretty harness.

The problem is that the wires aren’t labeled (I don’t blame the wiring folks for that because some wires have many possible uses, depending on model and optional equipment), and the colors are about 93% (a completely made-up statistic) correct.  The connectors are mostly the right ones (another reason to keep old harnesses).

American companies use multi-wire plugs, which fit things like ignition switches, flasher units, relays, etc., and those plugs are configured so that they only fit the component they are meant to power.  You really can’t (although some have) attach a plug to the wrong component.  But our British cousins opt to plug each individual wire to a numbered post based on what appears to be a hand drawn wiring diagram for most, but not all electrical components, which, for we Sunbeamers, have been photocopied several blurry times from an oil-stained original, then scanned for extra blur, and printed quite small, but I digress…

That means I had to figure what wire went where, and you will too, good luck.

You will need:

Wiring Diagrams: As many as you can find!  If you have a Series IV (like Alphie) get the Series V diagram too because late SIVs are very like SVs.  Find specific diagrams for things like the overdrive unit, reversing lights, amp meter etc.  Oh, and the heater isn’t on the main harness diagram because it was “optional” equipment, even though almost every Alpine came with a heater, so find the heater section in the workshop manual.    

Specifc digrams like this one for the overdrive unit are really helpful

Early Series IV’s had a fan switch on the “screen” (directional) heater control while later ones used a switch on the dash.  Eleven times out of ten, the heater control switches are broken so find a dash switch.  Some cars have two speed fans while others have a single speed.

The path to wiring bliss is crooked and confusing.  AND the positive earth thing wreaks havoc on American brains.

Multimeter: There are a lot of brown, white and red wires; you’ll need to know which ones connect to which.

A multimetter is absolutely needed and the label maker is really great

Old Wiring Harnesses: I have two complete (within reason) harnesses – DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY!

This one of my two old harnesses, the other one is off the dash.
I referred to it MANY time!

Soldering Iron, Shrink Wrap, Connectors: Really, the new harnesses are great, but I found several instances where a spade connector needed to be a bullet connector, or a small spade connector needed to be a large one.  You will need to make some adapters and jump wires too.  I had to repair the overdrive and dynamo (generator) harness because it had become brittle, and I’m sure there are other sub-harnesses that will need repair too.

The overdrive wiring sub-harness is particullarly confusing

The dynamo (generator) sub-harness is ready for action

Flashlight and a Magnifying Glass: For eyes that ain’t what they use to be.  The little numbers for the switch posts are very small.

Label Maker: Or at least some tape and a marker.

A Computer: You’re going to the forums, you’re not that good.  There are some very useful color-coded wiring diagrams out there.

Pictures: Before you yank out the old harness, take lots of pictures.  If you think you’ve taken enough, go take ten more!  (I hope you haven’t yanked it without taking pics.)

Take many pictures like this!  You haven't taken enough!
BTW, this one isn't that great.

Patience: It took much longer than I expected!

I have said before that sequencing is a special problem when restoring dead automobiles.  My original plan was to wire up everything on the dash and install the dash and harness in one assembly.  BUT you can see from the pics that everything gets dusty as I work on other things.  I didn’t want to muck up the dash, especially when I install the dash pad and windscreen (windshield for the yanks).

It's now laid in place, and I’ll adjust its placement as I add engine bay components, lights, interior pieces and so on.

I just hope I don’t melt the whole shebang when I first connect it to a battery! (I've done some reading on this - the forum folk suggest using a battery charger on its low amp setting in place of a battery.  That way you don't pump in wire melting loads into a wiring harness you aren't 100% sure you hooked up correctly.  I'm agonna do that.)

Some New Stuff: Alphie is getting new recycled turn indicator and overdrive stalk (steering column) switches from Sunbeam Spares and a new remanufactured (read “reproduction”) cigar lighter from eBay.  Apparently, Sunbeam drivers sucked on stogies whilst touring the country instead of cigarettes, quite posh!

My new "cigar" lighter gets an extreme close up
mainly because I paid WAY too much for it.
These fit Jaguar XKEs so they claim heavy pounds!

New "recycled" indicator and overdrive switch, for which I also paid WAY too much. The arrow points to a stalk mounted horn switch*, so this switch came from some other Rootes product.
It only means there are two extra wires on it, but none of it can be seen 

*forum crowd sourcing informs me that the indicator stalk switch is from a MKII Tiger and is a dimmer switch rather than a horn switch.  It's a bit of a unicorn, so maybe I didn't overpay as much as I thought.

Okay, I spent a lot on three dash components (an embarrassing amount if I'm being honest), but the dash is one of the most visible parts of a car, it was not a place I was willing to spare expenses.  Alphie's dash will be a full-on, optioned-out, walnut version, with which no Alpine ever left the factory.  It's my build so hush.

(I know I said the next post would be about fixing runs in the clear coat, but it’s cold here in Alabama, so I opted for some inside tasks.  I’ll get to the paint runs - hold your horses!)

Page Fifty-Six: Blue Take Two

I tried this almost exactly a year ago and failed – miserably!

So, for Blue Take 2, I researched, talked to as many car folk as I could find, watched some You Tubes, did more research, talked to the guys at the paint store, twice, and finally figured out what I did wrong, I think, I hope.

Blue Take One - Fatal Error: You may recall that when I sprayed the color (base) coat (a year ago), it "pulled” the urethane primer under it (the color coat solvents soaked into the primer and disolved the primer, making it wrinkle). I was forced to fix all the wrinkled areas before shooting the second color coat.  That extended time between color coats was the fatal error.  The second color coat didn't chemically bond with the cured first coat. And since I didn't scuff the first coat, it didn't mechanically bond either.

(Small Explanatory Ramble: Paint sticks to itself in two ways, physically (or mechanically) and chemically.  Coats must be sprayed within a given timeframe for the succeeding coats to chemically bond to the previous coat.  If you spray another coat after the time elapses, you must roughen or "scuff" (usually with a Scotch pad) the surface so that the next coat will physically bond to the previous coat.  I should have scuffed every surface before spraying the next color coat.  I knew that, but didn’t think of it at the time, absolutely gormless!)

And you may recall, the areas with the second color coat, every-single-one, pealed off as easily as a days old sunburn.

The Fix: What did I do differently this time?  I sanded (how I love sanding!) every surface (except for the engine bay, interior and boot interior) back to metal and sprayed a two-part epoxy primer.  That was key!  No pulling the primer, by crikey!

Serendipitous Benefit: “There is a providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America.” – Otto Von Bismarck

Since I had to sand every surface again(!), I took the time to closely examine my body work and found many places that were less-than-awesome.  I re-worked several areas that are now in much better shape than if I had succeeded with Blue Take One.  A costly way to fix the body work, but Alphie is better for it.  But still, it sucks to suck!

Blue Take Two sprayed like it was supposed to – smoothly without any wrinkling and every coat within the time frame!  Alphie now sports three base (color) coats and FIVE clear coats, boo frickin ya!

RUNS: So, what’s next?  Seems I ran the clear coat like Niagara Falls!  Next post will be about fixing (an embarrassing number of) runs in the clear coat.  Did I mention that I love sanding… so much... so fun...

A photo journal of the re-re-spray!

Epoxy Primer 

My wife was taking the pics so I snuck into a shot

I had the paint guys mix it "ready-to-spray"
so just stir a bit and spray

Lots of sitting down and getting up!

The base coat sprayed easily with no runs

An ugly art installation to be sure,
but hanging everything helped me paint all sides

It's very difficult to get a pic that shows how bad the runs are...
Let's just call them "cascading"